BizFilings Logo
star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: June 27th, 2019

BizFilings, which until 2006 was called Business Filings Incorporated, was founded in 1996 by serial entrepreneur, Brian Wiegand, and business partner Rick Oster. They are currently headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, but have satellite offices around the country. BizFilings has filed over 150,000 corporation, LLC, and nonprofit formation documents. In 2002, BizFilings became part of CT, which is the industry's top legal services brand. CT helps businesses and law firms around the globe to manage their most difficult legal compliance responsibilities. They have over 120 years of experience with governance, compliance and regulation and are backed by having strong relationships with federal and state legislatures. This alone should help confirm your confidence in BizFilings as you can rest assured that you will be benefiting from their expertise and knowledge.

 

Top Ranked Companies

thumb_up

The Good

  • Wide variety of products and services
  • Package options
  • Online incorporation
  • Customer support
  • Timely and accurate
BizFilings helps businesses of all sizes to start-up, legally maintain and grow their companies. And they offer a wide variety of products, services, tools and support functions that businesses need to succeed throughout the term of their business venture. BizFilings offers a wide variety of services, such as: C Corporation, S Corporation, Limited Liability Company (LLC), Limited Partnership (LP), Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), Professional Corporation or PLLC, Nonprofit Corporation, Doing Business As (DBA), Sole Proprietorship and Benefit Corporation. Additionally, they offer other complementary services as well. BizFilings offers three tiered pricing packages, Complete, Standard and Basic, and they all include business name verifications, preparation and filing of all documents and the BizComply 24-7 Business Monitoring Tool and Document Library. The prices all vary depending on the package you have chosen and the state where you live. However, all the packages begin at $99 and go up from there. Additionally, you will also have to pay the state fees as well. There are other services that might be included, depending on the package you have chosen, as these are all tiered pricing packages. When choosing BizFilings, you will be able to easily incorporate your business online and will also receive their 6-months free registered agent service, which will save you some money and allow you to test them out before committing to them on a continued basis as your registered agent. Another thing we like about BizFilings is that fact that they provide state-specific information to their customers, which is extremely helpful because each state has very different procedures and rules that must be followed. BizFilings offers customer support via an 800-number, live chat, a contact us page on the website or via email.  And their customer service hours are 8:00 am through 7:00 pm central standard time Monday through Friday. BizFilings prides themselves in providing filing services that are both accurate and timely.  They also offer a pretty impressive guarantee that states their services are guaranteed for the life of your company, which includes a warranty against filing defects caused by BizFilings; however, there is some fine print you will need to read that includes clauses such as they are not responsible for errors in client-provided information, which makes sense. BizFilings provides a free service they call their Incorporation Wizard.  This is a questionnaire that will help you in determining which entity type is best for your situation.  BizFilings also provides a learning center with a start-up checklist and a multitude of other invaluable information and state guides, which can be extremely helpful when it comes to learning and growing the different facets of your business while remaining compliant.
thumb_down

The Bad

  • Add-ons
  • Direct access to an attorney
  • Limited legal documentation
We found it way too easy to get carried away with some of BizFilings' add-on options, unless you have opted for the premium package.  And even at that price point, there are still some add-ons to be had.  This might be a bit daunting for some who don't know exactly what they need and therefore find themselves buying add-ons they probably could have done without.  However, a quick call to the customer service department or a little independent research on the internet could possibly help you avoid some of the confusion and to make sure you are only paying for what you actually need. BizFilings doesn't seem to provide direct access to an attorney should you have questions that need answers from a licensed professional, at least that we could find.  Additionally, they don't state whether or not your final documents are reviewed by an attorney for accuracy and legal compliance prior to being submitted, which does leave room for error. Unfortunately, BizFilings' only focus is on business formations and other business related services.  Therefore, should you have the need for other types of legal documentation assistance such as a Will, etc. you will need to enlist the services of yet another company.
gavel

The Bottom Line

We scoured the internet and aside from one lonely complaint we found a multitude of glowing comments about BizFilings' services, which says quite a bit about a company who has been in business since 1996.  And this is more than we can say about some of the other online legal documents service companies in this industry. BizFilings offers some pretty clear cut packages at industry standard prices; however, some of their add-on options can get a bit confusing for people who don't know exactly what they need.  All in all, they have an incredible guarantee, you really can't go wrong when choosing BizFilings to help you with your legal business formation needs. For these reasons, we have no problem recommending BizFilings.  However, if you have a more complicated situation, or if you feel you need more than just basic assistance, you might want to consider another company who offers access to in-house attorneys or is at least associated with legal firms who can help, should the need arise.
Was this content helpful?
thumb_up Yes thumb_down No

Star Rating

info
star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border

0 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

0%

4 grade

0%

3 grade

0%

2 grade

0%

1 grade

0%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border

Quality

star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border

Service

star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border

Trustworthiness

star_border star_border star_border star_border star_border
Be the first to leave a review .