Are you looking to form a corporation, but you’d rather hire a professional service instead of using the DIY option? Nationwide Incorporators is one of the top formation services in the industry.
In this review, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about Nationwide Incorporators in order to make an informed decision for your business.
Overview
When choosing an online incorporation service (or even LLC service), there are 5 main factors you need to consider:
- Is it a good deal?
- Is it a reliable company?
- Is there good customer support?
- Is the incorporation website easy to use?
- How quickly do they incorporate your business?
Considering these criteria, we determined that Nationwide Incorporators earned a solid score. On one hand, their “Attorney-Powered” services ensure that each document they submit to the state is either drafted or reviewed by an experienced business attorney. This is a significant advantage that none of their competitors can match.
On the other hand, their prices are higher than most competitors like ZenBusiness or Northwest. In addition, most of their additional services are not available online, and many of them operate on variable pricing models. In other words, they’re not quite at the same level as the competition when it comes to ease of use.
Nationwide Incorporators Pricing and Features
With Nationwide Incorporators, you have three options for incorporation service packages: Basic, Priority Deluxe, and Priority Premium. In this section, we’ll briefly discuss how these plans differ, and what kind of entrepreneur each one of them should appeal to.
Overall, we feel like each of these three plans should interest a different segment of entrepreneurs, so make sure to take a look at our “Best For” section, where we’ll discuss who we think each package is the right fit for.
$200 for Basic Package
Best For: Entrepreneurs looking for some peace of mind while forming their new business.
The Nationwide Incorporators Basic plan costs $200 and includes the preparation and filing of your articles of incorporation, along with a business name availability check. This package also includes a customized action of incorporator form, and sample minutes and bylaws forms.
$425 for Priority Deluxe Package
Best For: Entrepreneurs looking for a selection of custom documents to get their business off to a good start.
This package includes all features of the Basic plan, then adds custom bylaws, a minute book embossed with your company’s name, custom organizational minutes, personalized initial stock certificates, and a custom stock ledger.
$475 for Priority Premium Package
Best For: Entrepreneurs who want turnkey service to provide a compliance-ready business.
In addition to all features from the Priority Deluxe package, this plan adds the acquisition of your federal tax ID number (EIN), as well as two years of their MinutesMinder service, which prepares custom corporate minutes to keep track of all your important business affairs.
In-Depth Nationwide Incorporators Review
Nationwide Incorporators Overall Pricing and Value
As we compared all of the most popular business formation services available today, we decided that Nationwide Incorporators ranked somewhere around the middle of the pack.
We really appreciate their attorney review process for all documents, and the way they serve as a sort of middle ground between simple document filing companies and the fully fledged services of a law firm.
However, there’s no denying that their price point for incorporation service is rather high compared to many competitors. For example, ZenBusiness can form your business for just $49, while also including a full year of annual report service. Nationwide Incorporators charges $200 for incorporation and does not offer annual report service at all.
Track Record
Nationwide Incorporators was founded in 1997 by Mike Ross, a business attorney with more than 40 years of experience. Since then, the company has provided reliable business services to thousands of customers. Current company president Robert E. Stenson has 25+ years of experience as a corporate attorney as well.
There aren’t too many reviews for Nationwide Incorporators available online, but the few they do have are all positive. Their clients seem to really appreciate the way they’re able to get the expertise of a lawyer while paying a fraction of the cost of an attorney’s fees.
Customer Support
Nationwide Incorporators offers a variety of options for customer support. You can reach them by phone or fax, or you can fill out the convenient contact form on their website. When you contact Nationwide Incorporators, you will often get to speak with company president Robert E. Stenson directly. It’s a great bonus to be able to directly benefit from his expertise, and to know that the advice you’re getting is truly reliable.
The only minor negative with their customer support is that they’re only available from 9am until 6pm ET on weekdays, which are shorter operating hours than many competitors offer.
Ease of Placing an Order
Most people who use services like this to form their corporations don’t have much experience forming business entities. Maybe the formation process seems a bit confusing, or you just don’t want to deal with the hassle. Whatever the reason, using services like Nationwide Incorporators should be simple.
The entire reason for using a formation service is to save time and energy by hiring out this crucial part of the process. However, with some competing service providers, there’s still so much work required that you might as well just tackle the DIY route. Thankfully, this is not the case with Nationwide Incorporators.
Ordering incorporation service from Nationwide Incorporators is quite simple. All you need to do is fill out a couple of forms on their website to provide them with the information necessary to form your business, and then pay your service fee.
The issue with Nationwide Incorporators is that the process for ordering some of their other services is quite convoluted. Many of their services operate on variable pricing models, and they’re also not available to purchase online, so you’ll need to contact them directly to inquire about ordering additional services.
Overall Turnaround Time
Turnaround times vary by state with Nationwide Incorporators. Unfortunately, there is no convenient place on their website to list estimated processing speeds, so you’ll have to call them to get this information. It’s another way in which Nationwide Incorporators has a convenience disadvantage compared to other companies in this industry.
Final Thoughts on Nationwide Incorporators
Overall, Nationwide Incorporators isn’t one of the most widely recommendable incorporation services available online, simply because their prices are quite high compared to many alternate services.
However, if you would take a good deal of peace of mind from their attorney-reviewed service, Nationwide Incorporators is a uniquely positioned company in this manner.
They’re not our favorite overall favorite for incorporation service, but for those of you looking for a midpoint between hiring a lawyer to form your business or using a basic document filing service, they have plenty of inviting attributes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Does Nationwide Incorporators Compare to LegalZoom?
We get lots of questions from our readers about LegalZoom, which isn’t terribly surprising. After all, they have the most brand power and name recognition in the industry, thanks in large part to their impressive advertising budget. In our opinion, your decision between LegalZoom and Nationwide Incorporators comes down to the unique needs of your business.
If the advanced legal review of Nationwide Incorporators doesn’t appeal to you, you might as well save some money with LegalZoom. However, if you don’t mind spending the extra money to get highly personalized service, we do think it’s worth the extra expense to go with Nationwide Incorporators.
What Are Nationwide Incorporators’ Biggest Advantage and Disadvantage?
The biggest advantage for Nationwide Incorporators is their promise to have an experienced attorney either draft or review your documents before they’re submitted to the state. We don’t actually know of any competing companies that offer this service.
As for the disadvantages, we think the most significant one is the lack of easy availability for their other services. When you can’t even order registered agent service without first contacting them to get a pricing quote, it’s clear that their ease of use and technical savvy lag behind their competitors.
If I Use Nationwide Incorporators, Which Features Should I Buy?
In our opinion, it’s usually advisable to acquire the combination of formation service and registered agent service.
Regarding the incorporation service, we would advise choosing either their Basic or Priority Premium packages. The Basic plan includes everything you need to get your business up and running, but if you like the additional features of the Priority Premium plan, it is an impressively comprehensive business startup package.
Do They Offer Publication Service?
In some states, you need to publish your company’s formation in a regional newspaper. For example, Arizona and Nebraska require publication for LLCs and corporations, New York requires it for LLCs only, and Pennsylvania and Georgia have this requirement for corporations only.
If you’re starting a business in one of these states, you’ll be glad to know that Nationwide Incorporators is one of the few companies that does offer this service. Even better is the fact that they have a highly reasonable $75 price point for publication, not including your state and newspaper filing fees.
Does Nationwide Incorporators Help With Ongoing Compliance Requirements?
They do offer some help with ongoing compliance, although they do not offer annual report service. They do, however, provide registered agent service, as well as their MinutesMinder custom corporate minutes service. If you’re interested in either of these options, contact Nationwide Incorporators for further details.
What Is Their Refund Policy?
Nationwide Incorporators offers a satisfaction guarantee, but detailed information about their refund policy is difficult to track down. Here’s what they say on their website about their guarantee: “Every aspect of your matter is personally completed or reviewed by an experienced attorney before leaving our office. We will gladly correct any errors we have made at no cost to you by providing you with revised documents or forms or re-filing any documents.”