How to Form a Professional Corporation in California Step 1: File the Articles of Incorporation with the California Secretary of State (required) ... Step 2: Register with the Appropriate Government Agency (required) ... Step 3: Prepare Corporate Bylaws. Step 4: Appoint the Professional Corporation's Directors (required)
Unlike sole proprietorships, a corporation can be owned by multiple people.
LLCs are not required to have bylaws. However, they are governed by an operating agreement which is like a corporation's bylaws.
1. DIRECTORS: Not less than three, unless there are only one or two shareholders of record, in which case the number of directors may be less than three but not less than the number of shareholders. 2. OFFICERS: The three required positions are President, Secretary and Treasurer.
Corporate bylaws are a company's foundational governing document. They lay out how things should run day-to-day and the processes for making important decisions. They serve as a legal contract between the corporation and its shareholders, directors, and officers and set the protocol for how the organization operates.
To form a corporation in California, Articles of Incorporation must be filed with the California Secretary of State's office. Forms for the most common types of Articles of Incorporation are available on our Forms, Samples and Fees webpage. You may use the form or prepare your own statutorily compliant document.
There's also the fact that if you don't list the number of directors in your Articles of Incorporation, you're legally required to list that information in your bylaws (see California Corp Code § 212). The bottom line: corporate bylaws are not legally required, but they're pretty much essential for your corporation.
Minimum number. Corporations are required to have not less than three directors unless (1) shares have not been issued, then the number can be one or two, (2) the corporation has one shareholder, then the number can be one or two, or (3) the corporation has two shareholders, then the number can be two.
Does California Require Corporate Bylaws? No. The California Corporations Code does not explicitly state that corporations must have corporate bylaws.
Advantages: There is no limit on the number of owners a corporation may have, thus allowing the corporation to raise substantial amounts of capital, the life of the business can continue beyond the death of any of the owners, the liability of the owners is limited to the amount of their investment in the firm.