Articles of Incorporation Defined
Articles of Incorporation constitutes the basic charter of a corporation. It includes the following:
- The name of the corporation;
- The basic purpose of the corporation;
- The original incorporators;
- The amount and types of stock which may be issued; and
- Any special characteristics such as being non-profit.
The Articles of Incorporation are filed with the Minnesota Secretary of States Office. The name will be checked to make sure that there is not an existing corporate name which would cause confusion. Although such confusion between names is subject, NLF can do a name check prior to filing of the Articles of Incorporation to make sure that there is no obvious conflict byefore the Articles are filed.
Articles must be signed by the incorporating person or persons or by the first board of directors.
While having Articles of Incorporation are essential to forming a valid corporation, they are just the first of a number of documents that must be created for the corporation.