The Standing Order
Entity Maintenance, Handled
The Standing Order
Keep your business in good standing without keeping track of anything.
An annual entity maintenance service from your attorney, not a software reminder tool. I figure out every deadline your business has, calendar all of them, give you advance notice, and file when you say go. You run the business. I make sure the state never has a reason to shut it down.
“Wait, was I supposed to be filing something?”
If that question produced a small jolt, keep reading.
Your entity came with deadlines nobody told you about. Most states want an annual or biennial report. Your city or county probably wants a business license renewed. If you operate in more than one state, each one keeps its own list. And the reminders, when they come at all, are easy to miss.
Miss enough of them and the state administratively dissolves your entity. Your LLC stops existing on paper while you keep running the business inside it, and everything you formed it to protect is suddenly in question.
I see this constantly. When you catch it in time, getting your entity back takes penalty fees, back reports, and legal work. When you don’t, there may be nothing to get back.
One of my clients had no idea her entity required annual reports. By the time she figured it out, the state had dissolved it, and the window to reinstate had closed for good. She had spent years running her business through an entity that no longer existed, with the door wide open to personal liability, and the only path forward was starting over: new entity, new EIN, new bank accounts, new credit cards, new contracts with every single client.
The annual report that would have prevented all of it came with an $18 filing fee.
If any of this is news to you, you’re in good company. Nobody hands you a compliance calendar when you form an entity. The state approves your paperwork, processes your payment, and waits. Most owners learn about a missed deadline the same way my clients did: after it mattered.
What if you never had to think about this again?
You deal with this once, at setup. After that, renewal season looks like an email from me saying what’s due, what the state charges, and what I need from you (usually nothing but a yes). You approve, I file, and your entity stays where it belongs: in good standing, without you tracking a single date.
The Standing Order is designed to be the most boring thing you pay for. That’s the point of it.
How The Standing Order Works
First, the setup. $349, one time.
- Full intake and review of your entity records
- A status check with the state, including whether you're currently in good standing
- Analysis of your annual report and renewal requirements
- Review of your local business license requirements and renewals
- A foreign registration review: whether how and where you operate means you should be registered anywhere else
- Your Entity Status Memo, in plain English: what you have, what it needs, when it needs it, and what each filing costs
- Every deadline calendared in my system. Not yours. Mine.
Then, the maintenance. $249 a year.
- Ongoing deadline monitoring for your state and your local business license
- Notice from me 60, 30, and 10 days before anything is due
- I prepare and file each renewal once you approve it and cover the state's filing fee
- One 30-minute Annual Compliance Review call, where we check whether anything in your business has changed: a new state, a new name, a new location, a first hire. Small changes create new filing obligations, and this call is how we catch them early.
- A short pre-call questionnaire, so the call stays quick and useful
That’s the service. Year one runs $598 total. Every year after is $249, which is less than most attorneys bill for a single hour, to never think about any of this again.
Collective members: your setup fee is waived (I already know your business), and your annual fee is $199 instead of $249.
Operating in more than one state? Each additional jurisdiction (a foreign registration, an extra license) adds $75 to setup and $50 a year to maintenance.
Want a second check-in? A Mid-Year Check-In call is available for $150.
Filing fees: billed at the state’s actual cost, no markup, and nothing gets filed until you approve it.
Why not just use a reminder service?
A reminder tool can only remind you about the deadlines you told it about. It will happily nudge you to file an annual report in your home state while you’ve been running events in a second state for a year, unregistered, with a business name that doesn’t match anything on file. As your attorney, I determine what your requirements are in the first place. Then I handle them.
As of the day your memo lands, compliance deadlines are my job.
What The Standing Order Doesn't Cover
Clarity cuts both ways, so this is what’s not included:
- Filing Fees, as they vary by jurisdiction. We bill for these when they're due. No markup ever.
- Registered agent service. Keep the one you have.
- Taxes, including franchise tax payments.
- Amendments, DBAs, new registrations, and reinstatements. These are separate flat-fee projects, often identified on your review call, and always priced before you say yes.
- Legal strategy beyond entity compliance. Bigger conversations about your business belong in the Collective, and I'll tell you when a question is one of those.
Is This For You?
This is for you if you have an LLC, corporation, or other entity, you’d rather run your business than babysit its paperwork, and you’d rather pay a flat, known amount than find out what a lapsed entity costs. It’s especially for you if you read “annual report” a minute ago and thought, “when was mine?”
It’s probably not for you if you genuinely enjoy tracking state filing deadlines in a spreadsheet. (You know who you are, and I salute you.)
Questions You Might Have
You’ll get an intake questionnaire and a request for your entity documents. I do the full review, send your Entity Status Memo, and calendar everything. From then on, you hear from me when something is coming due, and once a year for your review call.
Then the setup found the problem, and that’s the best possible time to find it. Your memo will tell you exactly where you stand and what fixing it involves. Reinstatement itself is a separate flat-fee project, quoted before anything moves.
A registered agent receives official mail for you. They don’t analyze what your business is required to file, track your local licenses, review whether you should be registered in other states, or prepare your renewals. Different job entirely. But they might send you reminders to file an annual report and charge you for it, so it’s best to make sure you’re not paying twice!
Whatever the state or city charges, billed at cost when the renewal comes due. No markup, ever.
Your requirements are a snapshot of your business, and businesses move. A new state, a new trade name, a second location, a first employee: each of those can create a filing obligation. The call is how we keep your setup matched to the business you’re running now.
Yes. Each added jurisdiction is $50 to set up and $75 a year after that.
Not included, but discounted. Your setup fee is waived entirely, and your annual fee is $199 instead of $249. The Standing Order is its own service: the Collective covers your questions and strategy, and this covers the filings that keep your entity alive.
