LLC Organizer: What Is It and Who Can It Be?

Starting and maintaining an LLC is a multistep process, and in order to optimize it, you need to delegate the responsibilities within your team. One of the important steps to make during this process is the appointment of an LLC organizer.

Shortly speaking, an LLC organizer has only one duty, which is filling the Articles of Organization with the state during the business’ initial formation.

If you’re still a bit confused, read on to learn who can be an LLC organizer, what their primary responsibilities are and what’s the difference between this position and a regular LLC member.

Who Can Be the Organizer of an LLC?

Federal laws allow anyone at least 18 years old to be an organizer of an LLC. So, if you’re an LLC owner, you can easily be an LLC organizer and fill the Articles of Organization with the state by yourself. Or, you can appoint anyone from your team.

Another way to fill in the paperwork is to delegate it to a registered agent, an attorney, or an LLC formation service for a small fee. This option is suitable for those who don’t like to wait, as most document filing services can speed up your turnaround time. 

Note that if you’re your own LLC organizer, you may need to fill in a Statement of LLC Organizer document. The Statement relinquishes the Organizer’s duties to the owners and provides them the list of LLC members.

This is an internal document, so if you want to form an anonymous LLC, don’t worry — it won’t be open to the public.

What is an Organizer of an LLC Doing?

The central role of the LLC organizer is to fill in the business formation documents. These include:

• The Articles of Organization. This document contains your business name, address, and duration, as well as the management structure. Also, the Articles of Organization must include the address and contacts of your registered agent that will be receiving all the legal documents on your behalf.
• EIN (Employee Identification Number). The law requires all businesses to have an EIN to open a bank account and use it in all business-related documentation and accounting.
• Operating Agreement. This document constitutes the members’ percentages of ownership, voting rights, what happens if one of the members wants to exit the company or if the owner of an LLC dies, the company dissolution process, and many more. An Operating Agreement isn’t essential to an LLC but will help you maintain compliance within the company.

Generally, when an LLC organizer fills in these documents, they relinquish their duties to the owners. However, some states allow companies to expand the responsibilities of an Organizer by appointing it as a company’s registered agent. Then, an organizer will provide the state with an annual or biennial tax report and fill in the compliance documents.

What’s the Difference Between an LLC Organizer and an LLC Member?

If you get confused between an LLC organizer vs member, here’s a simple distinction:

‘LLC members’ is just another term for ‘LLC owners.’ These are the people that operate the company and work together to achieve the common goal. Every LLC member can take on the temporary role of the Organizer and then relinquish it once the essential formation documents are ready. 

On the contrary, an LLC Organizer isn’t always its member. It could be an attorney, an accountant, or even a separate legal entity that doesn’t own any share of the company’s profits or any other assets.

The state sets the LLC formation laws for businesses and doesn’t depend on knowing the LLC owners individually. However, if you want a better ‘paper trail,’ you can fill in a Statement of the LLC Organizer and list its owners for the internal documentation.