How to Draft a Certificate of Incorporation in Connecticut

A Connecticut certificate of incorporation registers your business with the state and provides you protection from having personal liability if someone sues the corporation or the business goes bankrupt. Before drafting your certificate, choose a unique business name and select the directors, as this information is necessary to complete your certificate. While an attorney or other professional business adviser can help you draft your certificate, using the forms available on the website of the Connecticut Secretary of State's Office, you can draft them yourself.

Instructions

1. Download the Certificate of Incorporation form from the Connecticut Secretary of State's Office website. Select the form you need based on the type of your business. Connecticut provides blank certificates for domestic stock corporations, domestic nonstock corporations and existing religious societies.

2. Complete the top of the form for your corporation with name and address of the person filing the certificate. Write in the name of the corporation.

3. Include information regarding the meeting and voting results if your organization is drafting a certificate for an existing religious society. Write the information about the corporation’s members and the number and classes of shares -- if applicable -- if you are incorporating a business.

4. List the name of your company's registered agent and include his address. This is someone, registered with the state, who receives notices on the corporation's behalf.

5. Include a brief paragraph informing the state about your business and its purpose if you are incorporating a nonstock business. List the names and addresses of the incorporators of the business and obtain the signatures of the incorporators and the registered agent.

Tips & Warnings

• Per the Connecticut Business Corporation Act, you incorporated name must include either "company," "incorporated," "corporation," "limited," "Societa per Azioni" or an acceptable abbreviation.

• Search the corporate names database at the Connecticut Commercial Recording Division's website for your corporate name. If you try to file using an existing name, Connecticut will reject your filing.

References

• Connecticut General Assembly: Section 33-655 - Corporate Name

Resources

• Connecticut Secretary of State's Office: Certificate of Incorporation, Nonstock
• Connecticut Secretary of State's Office: Certificate of Incorporation, Stock
• Connecticut Secretary of State's Office: Certificate of Incorporation, Existing Religious Society
• Connecticut Commercial Recording Division: Search Database/Business