Certified formation of a company into a legal entity requires the creation of Articles of Incorporation, also known as Articles of Organization. This piece of document contains all information concerning the business’s structure and details. This could be the company’s name, contact information, date at which you officially commenced your business along with other similar information that you have handed over to the state as the Article of Organization.

Before handing in the Articles of Organization, the information recorded on it is carefully thought over as this information will be representing the company for a long time, but it’s not set in stone.

What the Article of Amendment is all about

Companies may change their mode of operations and other details that they might have added on to the Articles of Organization originally, which means they’d have to change and update the information submitted on paper. Articles of Amendment make this possible. This document is usually filed when the company wants to change its legal name regardless of the company structure (Limited Liability Company, S Corporation, C Corporation or Nonprofit Corporation).

Let’s take a look at some of the legal information on paper that you can change through filing an Amendment.

• Name: Companies are legally obliged to operate under a legal name registered with state. At any given point, the company might feel the need to change their name and an amendment is just what it needs then. It is also important to know that if the company wishes to expand into other states as a foreign entity, it can’t really use the new name until it files an amendment in each of those states. The new company name must be available to use in the state. Alternative names are submitted if the first one is not available.
• Owner: Companies can switch hands depending on its structure. They can change corporate officers and even owners. Part of the process of changing ownership or management requires you to file an amendment with the new names, addresses and contact information of the new owners/corporate officers.
• Address: A business might simply just shift and the new location needs to be on paper for legal purposes of course. You can update the current location for your business through the appropriate Article of Amendment.
• Company structure: Your Limited Liability Company might change its mode of operation. Companies often switch from bring member managed to manager managed or vice versa. Also, the company may also change the number of shares. These major changes can be updated through Article of Amendment as well.

Most of the things listed on the original Article of Organization for your business incorporation can in fact, be changed legally, by filing in the respective Article of Amendment. However, you can’t change the filing date, organizer and the registered agent through the Article of Amendment.

It is important to update changing information from the original Article of Organization through Amendments. This is because this information is a matter of public record, so companies need to make sure they display correct information about themselves at all times. In case a dispute concerning the ownership of the company arises, the Article of Organization will be referred to for legal guidance. Therefore, Amendment can safeguard your legal rights as a company.

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