Why form a Missouri LLC?
When forming a Missouri limited liability company for your business, you are joining a group of smart business owners who want to protect themselves and their company. First and foremost as the name implies, Limited Liability Companies can help to protect your personal assets. When you form a LLC, you are in fact creating an entity that is separate from the owner and any other investors. Therefore, should your company be sued, the personal assets of the individuals associated with the company are not liable and protected from a claim.
Managed by member or manager
All Missouri LLC must elect how the LLC is to be managed and state which type of management in their articles of organization. They must elect either the member manager or the manager managed election. This election determines who will manage the day to day affairs of the company and have authority over the company. The manager does not necessarily have to be a member of the LLC. For a member managed election, each member will have equal authority over the operations and binding over the company. Most companies will elect to be member managed.
Requirements for maintaining your LLC
In most states an LLC requires only a minimum of one person to take the role of all the officers of the LLC. Each and every LLC should maintain operating agreements. Operating agreements are not submitted to the Secretary of State but may be required when dealing with other companies and authorities. The operating agreement maintains the structure of the LLC. It is also important to maintain a clear separation of business assets from that of your personal assets. Not maintaining this separation could have consequences on your personal assets. Do not use personal assets to pay for business expenses etc. Lastly, a LLC does not need to file an annual report.
Guidelines for naming your LLC
A limited liability company must have as its ending Limited Liability Company or Limited Company or an abbreviation of these words. It may not contain words that refer to other types of business entities. The name of the LLC must be distinguishable upon the records of the Secretary of State from that of any other type of business entity. This means that the name can be rejected for using words that are conjunctions, prepositions and articles. These types of words and the use of spaces, special characters for plural forms will also be rejected. For more information on naming your LLC, refer to the Missouri Statutes section 417.
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