Is a Corporate Kit Really Necessary?

What Is a Corporate Kit?

A Corporate Kit is a deluxe binder that houses the paperwork and company details you will need for a new corporation or LLC. In the future, your company’s bank, accountant, potential buyer and/or prospective investors may request access to your Corporate Kit.

A Corporate Kit will be state-specific, meaning that if you incorporate in Delaware, your Corporate Kit will contain information pursuant only to Delaware companies.

What Is In a Corporate Kit?

• Gold embossed binder: This serves as a secure place to organize all your company’s important documents.

• Company guidebook: The state-specific guidebook in your Corporate Kit contains information on a variety of topics related to your new corporation or LLC that you may find helpful.
   
• Corporate Bylaws/LLC Operating Agreement: Your corporation’s Board of Directors will create bylaws, which will define everything from the structure of the company, its officers, its ownership, its daily procedures and the time and location of its yearly shareholder meeting. The LLC Operating Agreement template helps owners customize their LLC’s membership, ownership, management and daily activities of the company. In Delaware, neither the LLC Operating Agreement nor the bylaws have to be submitted or disclosed to the Delaware Division of Corporations. LLC Operating Agreements are binding contracts among an LLC’s members, and as such, changes require unanimous consent.
   
• Meeting Minute Book: this is where all the minutes from your company’s official meetings are kept, usually by the corporate Secretary.
   
• Corporate Resolutions: This is the template for your LLC’s or corporation’s Corporate Resolutions (such as Bank Resolutions). Corporate Resolutions must be kept on file, as they denote all the collective decisions the management of your company has made. A banking resolution is often required before you can open a business bank account.

• 10 Membership/Stock Certificates: These certificates can be issued to the members of your LLC or the shareholders of your corporation in order to illustrate membership (for an LLC) or ownership (for a corporation).
   
• Membership/Stock Transfer Ledger: This ledger reflects any membership/ownership changes your company may make in the future.
   
• Corporate Seal: This tool is used to emboss all of your LLC’s or corporation’s significant documents, including your stock certificates, so it is clear those documents have been agreed upon by the management of the LLC or Board of Directors of the corporation.

Do You Need a Corporate Kit?

In a word, yes. Not only is a Corporate Kit a safe, orderly location in which to house all your company’s documents, but many of those documents can be utilized in court, if the need ever arises. Maintaining your company’s Corporate Kit makes sense, on all levels.

Corporate Kits are especially helpful for corporations, which have more recordkeeping requirements than LLCs, such as corporate minutes.