What Is a Corporate Kit and Do I Need One?

What is included in a corporate kit?

A corporate kit is a three-ring binder that holds the following documents:

• Articles of incorporation
• Certificate of incorporation
• Amendments to articles of incorporation
• Corporate seal (if you have one)
• Bylaws
• Tax ID assignment letter from the IRS
• Operating agreement form
• Share certificates
• Minutes
• Resolutions
• Sales contracts
• Lease agreements

The corporate kit contains all these important documents that control the formation, organization, and management of your corporation—organized together in one place.

A corporate seal is a round graphic that includes the corporation name, year of incorporation, and state of incorporation. Note that it's not something that is required, but some corporations like to have them. If you have one, it can be included in the corporate kit.

Do you need a corporate kit?

You don't necessarily have to have a formal corporate kit—no state requires this to form a corporation—but make sure you keep and organize all of the documents pertaining to your corporation so that you can easily find them and provide them to investors and other interested parties if requested.

You can purchase a corporate kit online. It will come as an attractive, professional presentation in a beautiful binder with your corporation's name on it and tabs separating and identifying the documents. This impressive-looking binder can help you feel official just by having it on your desk and will give you confidence should you need to make a presentation to investors.

However, it is not necessary that you buy a professionally created corporate kit. If you prefer, you can simply gather all of these documents yourself into a binder or an accordion folder and store them that way. There is no requirement that you keep all of these documents together, so if you want to keep them in file folders or envelopes—or even in a stack on your desk—you're perfectly within your rights.

Should an LLC have a corporate kit?

A limited liability company (LLC) is not required to have a corporate kit, but your LLC could certainly purchase or create one as a way to organize all the documents associated with your LLC.

While your LLC is not required to keep minutes, you will have other documents such as annual reports, and you may have resolutions. A corporate kit is a way to keep all of these materials organized in a professional manner.