Corporate Practice Perspectives: Mastering Entity Formation in 2026

Annie: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, "Corporate Practice Perspectives: Mastering Entity Formation in 2026." My name is Annie Triboletti. I will be your moderator kicking things off today.

Today's session is part of our Corporate Practice Perspectives webinar series. In today's fast-changing corporate environment, staying ahead of legal and administrative challenges is more important than ever. This series brings together experts to share practical insights that help professionals navigate complex processes and avoid common pitfalls and stay compliant in an evolving regulatory landscape. We invite you to explore the full series of webinars and register for any or all sessions that are of your interest.

Joining us are Helena Ledic and Miranda Groom. So Helena is the associate general counsel for CSC in the Chicago office. She's an attorney with experience in negotiating commercial contracts, corporate governance, compliance, security, and privacy. Helena speaks on best practices regarding corporate and financial filings. And Miranda is a team leader of Client Service at the Salem, Oregon office for CSC. Miranda leads a team of vendor management specialists, who maintain the integrity of our business license knowledge. And Miranda also helps the oversight of international registered agent management.

So with that, I would like to welcome in Miranda and Helena.

Helena: Thank you so much, Annie. This was Helena speaking. Miranda.

Miranda: Hi. Yes, thank you so much. Welcome, everybody. Thank you.

Helena: Great. So I am going to share our agenda with us today, and then we're going to start launching into things. And we are going to hear from all the expertise that Miranda has out there. So we've kind of covered our introductions already or a little bit more of we'll do. And then what we want to do is get into things such as name availability and reservations and registrations. We're going to talk about retrieving documents, how CSC can help you with that. Different types of entities that are out there. We'll talk about best practices and turnaround times with Delaware, New York, and a few other states out there. And then we'll finish up with a Q&A session.

So with that, let me tell you a little bit about CSC is that we are the world's leading provider of business administration and compliance solutions. So we work with more than 10,000 different law firms and 90% of the Fortune 500. And we're located on 5 continents in 140 jurisdictions.

And what we do is we provide service and technology solutions for every phase of the business and investment life cycle. So we help to form entities. We will help you with your secured transaction work, M&A, real estate. We also work with digital brand services, all kinds of different entity management and global management services. So you can certainly learn a whole lot more about us on our website. But what I always like to say is that we are the business behind business.

So with that, let's get started. And the first thing that we wanted to do was we wanted to turn it over to have the audience work a little bit. And what we want to hear from you is what are the states, and you can do singular or plural if you would like, that you find to be the most challenging for entity formations. So feel free to go in there, type that text in there, and even give us a reason why. And I'll give everyone a moment to do that.

But in the meantime, Miranda is going to talk a little bit about this with her perspectives. So, Miranda, what do you think?

Miranda: Yeah. Well, you know what, Helena, it's really not about what state so much these days. It's actually about the process itself. So for the last couple years and for the foreseeable future, states have been turning to more online, so whether that is enhancing their current platform, maybe designing an all brand new one. With that, comes new requirements, such as D.C., which we'll talk about a little bit later. And what is required today might not be the case tomorrow. So keeping up with those changes really is the challenge.

Helena: And you told me, like when we were preparing this, the old paper forms may not match up with online, right?

Miranda: Yeah, absolutely. They are not keeping up with that. So what you are given today as a form to complete, you might think that that's everything that's required. When you go to file online, because that state is an online requirement, now you're missing some information.

Helena: So everything now has become a little bit more challenging from that perspective it sounds like.

Miranda: Absolutely.

Helena: Okay. Well, with that, let's jump into things. Let's cover first our name availability, reservations, and then registrations.

Miranda: All right. So one of the first things that you should do, prior to forming a company, is to check to see if your name is available. Once you know if it's available, you can either reserve it, or you can file a name registration. This is going to protect it so that no one else can take it. So let's talk about a little bit of the differences between the two.

So a name reservation is you can reserve the name anywhere from 30 days to 4 months to 6 months, even up to a year. Every state offers a name reservation. A name registration is not offered in every state. However, it will protect your name for one year.

Let's get into a little bit more about name availability. So when thinking about name availability, there are some things to consider, such as the use of restricted words. Common words that are restricted are bank, finance, trust, cooperative, credit union, insurance, savings. You'll see that here on the list. If restricted, there are additional steps that will be required to have that name approved, and that looks different from state to state. Some states require a form. Some states require you to pick up the phone and make a phone call to that agency. So that does vary.

Additionally, the name must not be similar to another name that's on file. And so when you think about that, you want to consider noise words. Noise words are "the," "and," "of," and sometimes even geographical locations. Those are considered noise words. Helena, I know you have some other examples out there. Would you want to address that?

Helena: Sure. From a couple that I think that are a little bit unique is if you're in Arkansas, the university team over there, at the University of Arkansas is the Razorbacks. You can't use the word Razorbacks in Arkansas unless you're affiliated somehow with the university athletics. Not quite sure, but you have to be exactly in that space.

And then my favorite one to give the example of is if you are in Florida, you can't use the word Disney in any way, shape, or form unless you're associated with what we think of as the Walt Disney Company. So I wouldn't be able to open Helena's Disney T-shirts in Florida. An LLC like that, a corporation, or anything like that, that's going to be restricted.

So it's really important to pay attention to every state. It might be okay in one state, but it may not be in another state. And you can always check with your customer service professionals that you work with, like Miranda, if you have questions. But just because it's okay in one state, it isn't in another.

So with that, why don't you talk a little bit more about if the name's not available, because this can be so tricky? So tell us a little bit about that, Miranda.

Miranda: Great. Yeah, right. So when CSC calls a state or we check online to see if it's available, we will do things, like you see here, to help determine who owns the conflict and most importantly is consent allowed in that state. So if it's not allowed, you're going to have to choose another name. Sometimes adding "of Oregon," those geographical locations I spoke about earlier, is enough, and sometimes it's not enough. And sometimes you have to rework the whole name altogether. So it's important to consider those things.

Let's move into the consent to use the name process. So there are some states that do allow this. Some of the states will provide an actual form that you can use. I will tell you right now that most states do not. So what you'll need to do is you'll need to get a letter on company letterhead, from the conflicting entity, that gives you permission to use the name. It must be signed by an officer of that entity. We've got some titles here listed that are appropriate based on your entity type. Texas and Nevada are two states that do allow for name consent. However, New York is one of those states that does not allow it. You will have to choose another name.

Let's get back to talking about the District of Columbia for a moment. So I talked a little bit earlier about their new online platform. They actually have required a beneficial owner since 2020, but it was not strictly enforced. Their online platform at the time didn't ask for it. Their forms, they did ask for it, but it was not a reason for rejection. They just used to let that fly until now.

So they have reworked their platform and launched a new platform January of this year. They have baked into every workflow the beneficial ownership information. So some of the key takeaways here are for every filing in D.C. is to confirm whether this entity is formed or registered in D.C. Identify all of the individuals with more than 10% ownership. Also identify individuals that have significant or financial control over the entity, even if they don't have that 10% ownership. And keep that ownership information current with every filing that you do in D.C. They are going to want the residential addresses of these owners, their personal phone numbers, and their emails.

Helena: And, Miranda, didn't you also tell me that if in their system the address is flagged as a business address, it won't go through?

Miranda: Yes, that's exactly right. Well, they look for things to see, does this residential address match the PPOB? Red flag, right? They're going to catch that. But they also have an address verification system, where if it looks like it's a commercial address, they know that a business is located at that address versus a residential address, they will catch it. So they're really coming down hard on it.

Helena: Very good. Well, what we're going to do now is we're going to transition into retrieving documents. So that is something that so many of our customers come to us. They ask us to help them out with retrieving documents. So let's talk a little bit about that over here.

And so the first thing that Miranda and I wanted to make sure was that everybody understood is what CSC and the other service companies can help with, and those are documents that are publicly filed with the state. So when we're talking the entity formations, we can help you out with things like good standing certificates and certified copies. But what we can't help you with are things such as bylaws, operating agreements, affidavits, if perchance that you need something like that. Those are not publicly filed except in very, very few exceptions, and those aren't able to be retrieved by us. And I can tell you, folks, being in the Chicago office, I sit not too far away from our service team, and I can hear a phone call about that probably every single week, where I can overhear one of our professionals speaking to a customer and saying, "I'm sorry, we aren't able to help you out with that." So keep that in mind. That's what we can help you with.

So why do you want to retrieve things such as good standings? And the most common reasons are that if you are expanding outside of your home domestic state, your formation state, and you wanted to go elsewhere. So maybe you were a Delaware LLC, but you wanted to open an office, as Miranda is, in Salem, and you wanted to open something in Oregon. You need to have your good standing certificate for there. Or if you're coming to Illinois, where I am, you actually need a certified copy for that. So that's a common reason why you might need a good standing.

The other thing is you're going into some kind of a transactional event, and you need this kind of good standing certificate to show proof that that entity at that moment, that snapshot and that moment in time, that entity was in compliance with the state. And people always think of this as M&A, but it can be other things. It might have something to do with opening financial accounts. Or it might involve leasing space or leasing equipment or something like that. All kinds of different reasons that you might have that out there.

So why don't you talk to us a little bit about the differences of the good standings and then short forms and the time frames, short and long and all of that, Miranda?

Miranda: All right. Well, they have several names. So they're also known as a certificate of existence, status certificate, certificate of authorization. No matter what the state calls it, the important thing is that it actually says that the entity is in good standing. Some of the states will actually issue a certificate that says that the entity is active, but they will go on to say but they haven't filed their annual report, which then goes back to the fact that they're not in good standing. So New York is one of those states actually. The best advice I can give you here is to check the status of your entity before purchasing the certificate.

A couple other certificate types, well, not a couple other, but additionally is that long form. So we've got short form and long form, which we're going to get into next on the next slide.

Short form is going to state the entity is in good standing. Once again, we talked about that, that it can transact business. Long form has that same information, but it's going to have a little bit more. So sometimes it can list all the documents on file that the entity has filed since it incorporated. Sometimes you can ask for it to state the annual report information. And in some states you can actually even ask for it to state the officer and director information. So there will always be a price difference between the two. Example, Delaware is $50 for a short form, while the long form is going to be $175. The turnaround time can vary from immediate to days. Like in Maryland, you can get one of those officer/director long forms. The average turnaround time for that is going to be about 20 days.

Helena: So something else that customers come to us about are tax status certificates. And that's something to know about, that that's a very different process than a typical good standing. So Miranda would probably correct me on this, but essentially for a good standing, I think anybody can request those. Tax status certificates are different though.

Number one is you don't get them from the Secretary of State. You typically have to go to the Department of Taxation or the Department of Revenue to be able to get those. And then also, to be able to get those, the request has to come from the appropriate officer of that entity. So, for example, an officer may be a member, a manager, or someone like that. So you will typically need these as part of a due diligence or a closing process.

But definitely know that they have to be requested by the appropriate person, and they can also take a long time to get. Delaware is pretty darn quick. But from what I understand, what I've been told by the folks on our teams, Miranda, am I correct, I think New York is somewhere in the neighborhood of about five months or so.

Miranda: I was going to say six. So, yeah, you're pretty close.

Helena: I was close.

Miranda: You were very close.

Helena: Yeah. Pennsylvania can take I believe I've been told 10 months. Apparently they used to take almost two years, somewhere close to that. So keep it in mind that if you need these, they have to be requested in the right spot. They have to be requested by the right person, and it can be a long time to be able to get those over there.

So the other thing that we can help you with is a bring down. And a bring down is not a government-issued document. So I want to be really clear about that. That is something that we help our customers with, and they're typically going into a closing. It'll be on the day of a deal. And maybe two or three months ago you did good standing certificates for maybe 25 different entities, and maybe there might be 5 main key entities that are involved. And everybody just wants to have that official confirmation on the day of the deal, the actual day that everything is still in good compliance with those five entities.

So what you can do is you can come to us, to Miranda, other people in the CSC team, and say that you need these bring downs. And we'll do a search that morning, and we'll put it onto our letterhead. We'll send it to you by email. We'll let you know that, at that snapshot in time, these entities were, in fact, in compliance. And we frequently help those out for like these bigger types of deals or something that is very involved. Wouldn't you say, Miranda, with that?

Miranda: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like they have a financial transaction ready to go. It's going to happen at 8:00 a.m. So at 7:30 in the morning, they need these bring downs really quick to further confirm like, "Hey, yeah, I gave you these good standings previously, last week, but as of 7:30 this morning, these are all still in good standing. Let's go." So that's what it's used for.

Helena: Yeah. Because something could have happened in the intervening week, right.

Miranda: Absolutely.

Helena: All right. Okay. So, Miranda, tell us about certified copies.

Miranda: So these are documents that are obtained from the Secretary of State. They can be anything from your original formation document to your amendments, annual reports, anything on file. You can request all of them. You can request some of them. So they come with either a rubber stamp. Some states are still doing that. And most states have converted to an online image, where they'll give you a certificate page with a number at the bottom that they can verify.

The thing, when I think of certified copies, is also that it goes back to tax status certificates, right, that these things can take a while to obtain, depending on the state that you're requesting them from. Not all states have imaged their documents. They're making an effort to do that with this online push that everyone's doing. Indiana just completed a digitization project, which was a big win for them. But a state like New York has not. So if your entity is formed prior to 2002, your documents may be in archive. So you go to request those documents, and you're going to be waiting weeks to obtain them.

There are also states that just don't offer an expedite option for these, and one of those states is Arkansas, and you can wait about 7 to 10 weeks, even though the documents are not in archive. They just don't have an expedite option.

So I would just recommend that, when you're ordering these, to ask your registered agent about the current turnaround times because they can vary. Like I said, Indiana just went through this project. Oregon is working through a project. So it may have taken weeks last year, but now you could probably get them in a couple of days.

So let's talk about some of the reasons of why you would order them. And they're really similar to the things that Helena spoke about earlier. Proof that a filing took place to support a future transaction. Gathering information for historical reasons. Sometimes people just want these on file where they keep their bylaws and so forth.

Helena: If something is missing, right?

Miranda: Yeah.

Helena: Yeah.

Miranda: Right, right. Exactly. Just know that some states charge different rates. It could be per entity type. Some states charge a flat rate. Some states charge per page, so that can get really expensive. And for that reason, we would always ask you, or we would look first to see if there are any restated articles on file. If there were, we would always ask you if you want restated forward. So this is cheaper, and restated will always trump anything that's filed prior.

Helena: So something else that we might be able to help you with are legalizations, authentications, and apostilles. And so a couple of times Miranda and I have spoken about foreign. And when we mentioned that, we talked about foreign jurisdictions within the U.S. So your domestic formation and doing foreign qualifications is what we were talking about doing foreign qualifications.

But let's say we wanted to go outside of the United States, and you needed to be able to take a document, a good standing certificate, and you want to be able to take that document, for example, to France for some type of a transaction in Paris. You just can't take that good standing certificate and take it over to France. And so what you have to do is you have to get what is called an apostille. And that is now a separate document that gets issued by the Secretary of State, that says that the other document, the original one, the good standing is good for use outside of the country. And if you can do that with apostilles, that's terrific. Most of the time the turnaround is pretty quick, one or two days to be able to get these. A few states do take a little bit longer, but generally pretty quick.

But the catch with this is the only time that you can do apostilles, and they're the much easier process, is if both countries are members to the 1961 Hague Convention, abolishing the requirement of the legalization of foreign public documents. And the way that I think of it always is both of them have to be able to shake hands on this, so both the issuing country and the receiving country. And there are about 125 or 130 some countries that are as signatories with that.

But if they're both not, then you have to go through authentications and legalizations. And so I checked with our legalization team on this, and the countries that they see that are most commonly involved, where they have to go through authentications and legalizations, are Vietnam, Qatar, and then the UAE. And if that's the case, for those countries and then those other countries that are not part of the Hague, you have to then take this original document and take it to the Department of State, U.S. Department of State. And then they do a notarization on that, the authentication of it. And then that same document is then taken to either the consulate or the embassy of the country where it is intended to go to. And the rules around that are depending on where you are. It can get really complicated.

We have an entire team that works on just legalizations. They're the experts on this. It's legalizations@cscglobal.com if you have any questions. But it can get really, really complicated, and this is not for the faint of heart to work on because the processes can take weeks and weeks and weeks. It is not unheard of for something to take absolutely no concerns for a five-week process if you have to go through authentications and legalizations. So keep us in mind if you ever need that.

So then let's talk a little bit now about switching gears and going into different entity types. And you can see that everyone seems to think of always the for-profit corporations or partnerships or LLCs, but you can see that we have other things that are listed over here, for example, not-for-profit corporations. You can also have professional limited liability companies, professional corporations, maybe medical, dental practices, engineering, architectural firms, things like that. Different types that you can see.

Miranda: Well, now you're getting into restricted words.

Helena: There you go. You had to zing me on this, right?

Miranda: Yeah.

Helena: Seriously, folks, you have no idea the knowledge that Miranda has. Seriously, she puts me to shame whenever we get to work together.

So we also have over here a little Business Entity Comparison Chart. If you're newer to this space, you can download, and everyone can download this, but you can particularly download and print off this one page. And it might be handy if you're newer in your career especially. What are some of those differences there, say between an LLC or then the corporations? And some of that has to do with tax status in there for the corporations. But it gives you a little bit of that indication in there.

And then let's talk a little bit about the steps for formation. Miranda, why don't you take this over?

Miranda: Yeah. Great. Yeah. So on this slide, you will see the different steps to an entity formation. A lot of these things here are by request. The biggest piece of advice that I can offer is to check that name availability. Ensure that you have those proper forms, that it's completed correctly, and that you're doing your research and asking all the questions of your customer service rep for information about the jurisdiction where you want to do business because it varies from state to state. We've talked a little bit about that throughout this presentation, and we'll talk a little bit more here in just a moment.

But for example, New York, if you're forming an LLC, that's not the end of it. So you have to submit a publication to the paper, and then you have to submit proof of that publication, within 180 days, back to the Secretary of State, proving that you published. So remember, that forming the entity is one thing, but understanding how to keep it in compliance and in good standing is a whole nother.

Helena: So let's now switch gears and let's talk about some of our best practices in the time that we have left. So I think what we want to do is I think we're going to get started a little bit talking about Delaware.

So frequently, you are, "What choice of state, or which state do I want to choose?" And so many times the entity that's selected is Delaware. And part of it is that the Delaware statutes are very, very flexible, advanced. They've been cited or I should say that they're the models throughout the country and many places in the world. The Court of Chancery has written most of the modern case law, which is cited from state level across the country, all the way up through the United States Supreme Court.

And then the Division of Corporations really gives some very prompt customer service, lots of different options. And Miranda is going to get into that. So Miranda, why don't you talk about here the filings and things like that, time frames and windows where Delaware is so helpful with?

Miranda: Yeah. So Delaware, for the most part, is pretty good with sticking to these turnaround times. However, it's important to keep in mind end of month, end of quarter, definitely end of year, all of those things tend to play a part in these turnaround times, and they can fall behind. So when you're speaking with your customer service rep, make sure that you understand what time of year you're working with, and they can give you that most current turnaround time.

One thing that's really helpful, in Delaware specifically, is that if you get your document pre-cleared. If you get your document pre-cleared, it helps these processing times move along a lot faster. They do have two pre-clearance options. One of them is 2 hour, and the other is 24.

Helena: And if I could just interject for one second, before you move on.

Miranda: Yeah.

Helena: With the routine, for those of you who are at larger law firms who might be listening in, or maybe you're at corporations that are listening in, just keep in mind that routine, while it is the most cost-effective option, when, as Miranda mentioned, those time delays can get long at the end of a quarter, especially at the end of the year. If you need your evidence back quickly, that routine will certainly not meet that criteria, that window in there, and you're probably going to want to have a quicker option than that. So keep that in mind, even though that might be the most cost-effective. So take it away, Miranda.

Miranda: Yeah, a great point. Yeah, routine is actually the one that gets hit the most. That one gets bumped to the bottom of the line when we're in those high-volume filing times. So that was a great call out there.

But we do have some other best practices regarding Delaware, and they're listed here. But these errors are just really going to just delay you from getting anything filed in a timely fashion, no matter what level of service that you choose. So making sure that your document is executed properly, and what we mean about the execution is the date. So the date can't be in the future. Some people like to do that because they want to get it filed prematurely, but they're really not doing business until next week. Delaware doesn't allow that. So the date has to be current or past.

They do accept both wet signature as well as a conformed signature. So that's really nice. When you're signing on behalf of an LLC, you need to use the appropriate titles, member, organizer. For corp, it's incorporator. LP has GP signing titles and the appropriate title there for any sort of tiered executions.

The filing date can't be secured if the document is not signed. So it's funny, when you think about that, you're like signing has to be the easiest part of the whole process, but we tend to see that be a real issue in Delaware. And ideally, type the document out. Handwriting must be legible. And lastly, get that agent name and address exactly how it shows on record.

We're going to move through a few other states here. And on to New York we go. Here are some of their processing methods that they offer. One processing method you do not see here is routine. CSC does not offer routine. And the reason is because here it can take up to like six months. Someone can take your name in that process. So you submit something routine, someone else comes along and submits a similar name or a same name, and they file it on 24 hour, because your filing is out there sitting in a pile somewhere, it's not securing your name. So the cost for 24 hour is only $25. So it actually just really makes sense that we choose 24-hour expedite as our default.

Some best practices in New York, very similar to Delaware, making sure that signature is correct and in the right format. The agent information needs to be listed correctly. And the number one reason in New York is that backer page. It is missing, or it's completely not filled out at all. And that backer page is the contact information. A lot of states offer a contact page in their packets. They are not required in any other state, that really I'm aware of, other than New York. And so it gets overlooked a lot of the times. They're like, "Ah, we don't need that. We didn't need that in Maine. We don't need it in New York." But you absolutely do need it in New York. It is a reason for rejection. So get that backer completed.

Nevada, well, you read that right. That first bullet says filing online is immediate. So you as soon as you hit Submit, you're done. You're filed. However, the form itself and the whole process can be a little bit confusing. They have a lot of questions that they ask. They also require you to file your first initial filing at the time of filing. So that's like your annual report, or in California, it's called statement of information. Nevada wants it at the time of filing. So a lot of people miss that. Make sure you get that completed. Agents have to consent. So when we talk about agents in this regard, it's the agent has to consent. They have to sign a document that has to be uploaded to go with the filing. And Nevada is one of those states with a new platform. It's launching at the end of the summer. So let's all stay tuned for that and hope that those challenges we can navigate smoothly.

Texas. Texas, what I want to point out here is that they do require you to state if it's manager-managed or member-managed. It's a question on the form. It's a checkbox. It's very easy to overlook. It is a reason for rejection. And another thing about Texas, you guessed it, new platform launching end of September. So let's keep an eye out for that one as well.

Wyoming best practices, we've got a couple here, right? And they can hang you up, right? Let's talk a little bit about the name. If you're filing online, you'll file immediately. And they do not have a name availability check, like a lot of states do, they won't let you proceed with the filing. Wyoming does, right? You get through it, you filed it. You're like, "Yay, I've got my documents. I even ordered myself a certified copy, maybe a good standing." And you're off and running." Well, a couple months later, you get a letter in the mail from Wyoming. They said, "Uh-oh, we found a name conflict. There's a name on file that conflicts." And they're going to provide you an amendment form, and they're going to say, "Change your name, or we will administratively dissolve you." So that can be a real problem. So that's where name availability in Wyoming is a really big deal. It's crucial.

California. So California launched a new platform in 2022. They've been slowly moving to online being required. In 2025, formations became required. So unless you have a self-drafted document, they won't let you file it over the counter. And self-drafted have to be a wet signature in order to be submitted over the counter. If you're naming CSC, whether you're doing it online or whether you're doing it by paper, you must use our full name. We did have to force our name in this state. This is one where our own name was not available. So we are known as "Corporation Service Company which will do business in California as CSC-Lawyers Incorporating Service."

All right, let's move on. We've got some more states. We've got a whole list of them here.

Florida. These are the top three things that we see issues with in Florida. So professional associations needing that purpose. Nonprofits having a couple different things here, but one of them that gets people hung up is the manner, and the manner for nonprofit must state something like this. "The manner in which directors are elected or appointed as stated in the bylaws." So you don't have to get elaborate on your document stating all of the ways that they were elected. You can simply just refer them to the bylaws, which are not filed as part of the document, as Helena spoke about earlier. The reason they're not public is because they're not filed with the documents. The states won't even accept them.

And I think the last state we want to talk about here is Illinois. This is Helena's state. And they're tricky. They do require a lot. We only have like four bullets here. But they can get pretty complicated here. Especially when you're doing corporations, they want you to list all your authorized issued shares, any considerations, liabilities, assets. Even if zero at the time of filing, you must say zero. You need to have something on the document. You can't just leave it blank.

And PLLCs and LPs, they are not online. They do have an online platform. They do have some entity types that do allow you to file, but LPs and PLLCs are not. They must be paper. They do offer expedite options in Illinois. So you can move those right along fairly quickly. And the last thing I'll say about Illinois is that the LLC member manager must be listed, and it must include their address.

And off to you, Helena, for registered agent representation.

Helena: Well, every entity that gets formed, newly formed or for that matter a foreign qualification, has to have that registered agent listed on that form. So generally the registered agent always has to be in that state because they're the ones that accept service of process. There are a couple of like small exceptions around that, but they're the ones who accept that service of process. That's, in fact, how CSC got its start back in 1899, was that we were a registered agent in Delaware. And if you today came to our headquarters in Wilmington, there is an entirely separate entrance with an entirely separate circular driveway where service of process can be dropped off over there. But again, everybody has got to have that. And as we've talked about, make sure if it's CSC or any other company that you are using as a registered agent, that you have, in fact, that correct proper name and address on there because if it's wrong, your documents will be rejected. And, of course, we're always happy to help you with that.