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I strongly disagree with "almost worthless"; assuming you've made the decision to form a CA LLC, this post is very useful. You're making some quite strident de

I strongly disagree with "almost worthless"; assuming you've made the decision to form a CA LLC, this post is very useful. You're making some quite strident demands of some random person on the internet here ;) Having said that, I too would be interested in the extra topics that you listed, particularly the operating agreement piece. I looked into this recently and NoLo offers a $100-300 service [1] which comes with options, vs. free Operating Agreements like this random one on UpCounsel[2]. I have no idea what the parameters are on this, and in the past I've just leant on a lawyer friend to do this for me; I'd like to understand the details. [1]: https://store.nolo.com/products/online-california-llc-ptlca-2.html https://store.nolo.com/products/online-california-llc-ptlca-... [2]: https://www.upcounsel.com/single-member-llc-operating-agreement https://www.upcounsel.com/single-member-llc-operating-agreem...

jiveturkey 9y ago
I paid $1000 to a lawyer for an operating agreement. It was fine. For my 2nd LLC I just copied a free template (different than my expensive lawyer'd one) since I now had a really good understanding of what needs to be there. At first yes it's scary to think you might be getting it wrong, but you learn that it's not rocket science. It's basically the agreement between the members of the corporate structure. I haven't read the NOLO one but I bet it's good value for money. You will generally have to present the operating agreement to the bank to open a business account, to get business financing, maybe for insurance, stuff like that. My experience (IANAL) is that for friendly partners, the nolo template is going to be fine. If you're selling shares to folks that you don't have a history with, you may want to have the assurance of expert, personal legal advice from someone you can also go back to with future concerns. And for that kind of bigger LLC anyway, the $1000 or so is a reasonable expense.
- mikeryan 9y ago
  I’m not sure a template is the way to go with multi member. If you are going multi member you should really both get a lawyer to explain the details and review the docs. I’ve had to unwind a multi member LLC into a single member one and gaps in our operating agreement were suddenly all too relevant.

jiveturkey 9y ago

I paid $1000 to a lawyer for an operating agreement. It was fine. For my 2nd LLC I just copied a free template (different than my expensive lawyer'd one) since I now had a really good understanding of what needs to be there. At first yes it's scary to think you might be getting it wrong, but you learn that it's not rocket science. It's basically the agreement between the members of the corporate structure. I haven't read the NOLO one but I bet it's good value for money. You will generally have to present the operating agreement to the bank to open a business account, to get business financing, maybe for insurance, stuff like that. My experience (IANAL) is that for friendly partners, the nolo template is going to be fine. If you're selling shares to folks that you don't have a history with, you may want to have the assurance of expert, personal legal advice from someone you can also go back to with future concerns. And for that kind of bigger LLC anyway, the $1000 or so is a reasonable expense.

mikeryan 9y ago
I’m not sure a template is the way to go with multi member. If you are going multi member you should really both get a lawyer to explain the details and review the docs. I’ve had to unwind a multi member LLC into a single member one and gaps in our operating agreement were suddenly all too relevant.