All companies in the US need to file Articles of Incorporation with a state government before they can legally operate in that state. These are bits of essential data about the company contained in a document (or set of documents), including the company’s name, corporate structure, agents/directors, stock information, and so on.
This document (or set of documents) is an essential requirement for a company to operate legally inside the US. So it’s a key piece of information other businesses should be looking for in evaluating whether to start or maintain a B2B relationship with that company. After all, they don’t want the risk or liability of partnering with a company that’s operating illegally.
This article discusses the most common methods for how to find Articles of Incorporation for another company, if you’re a business evaluating the legality and risk of a B2B relationship.
Let’s first talk a bit more about what Articles of Incorporation are, and what functions they fulfill.
Articles of Incorporation are a set of legal documents (or sometimes just a single document), filed with an appropriate government agency, that constitute the creation of a corporation. They contain information such as the corporation’s name, business structure, names of agents and directors, and more.
A corporation must have Articles of Incorporation filed with a relevant government agency in a country to be legally recognized and allowed to operate there. This includes issuing stocks for trade or soliciting other investments. Incorporating also allows a business to sometimes receive more favorable tax treatment, and its owners to shield themselves from personal liability for litigation against the corporation.
Articles of Incorporation are one of many factors in determining the authenticity of a business and approving them for onboarding. Middesk’s Business Verification solution makes it easy for you to acquire the information you need and make quick decisions on your B2B relationships.
Finding Articles of Incorporation for another company is an important step when a business is looking to onboard or maintain that other company as a client or partner. It’s a way to check the corporation’s essential information, and generally to make sure the corporation is legally registered and permitted to operate where it does.
Articles of incorporation typically come in two different forms:
Generally, uncertified copies of Articles of Incorporation are sufficient if a business wants to verify a corporation’s information, authenticity, and potential risk factors for the sake of KYB. That’s because uncertified Articles of Incorporation are still coming from the authority that issued this information, and this information can be treated as a source of truth.
Certified copies are usually only needed for legal applications, not because the information can’t be relied on.
So how does a business actually look up Articles of Incorporation for another company? There are really only a couple common methods:
Top-notch business verification solutions can search and draw data from all online Secretary of State portals in the US at once, providing results in minutes. This makes it easier to find a company’s Articles of Incorporation, even if you don’t know where the company is actually incorporated.
It also provides plenty of other information that can help you verify a company’s legitimacy and assess its risk profile. This includes tax identification, beneficial ownership, watchlist statuses, adverse media coverage, litigations, and more.
Rather than having to search each Secretary of State office portal individually, Middesk customers can search a business once and get information from all relevant Secretary of State offices. Without having to search each SoS database individually, organizations can save significant time and effort verifying businesses.
We understand that your decision-making relies on accurate, current data from a KYB vendor you can depend on. That’s why we get data directly from official sources like Secretary of State offices and other government bodies.
