How to form a Arizona PLLC

How do you form a Arizona PLLC?

1. 1

   Ask your licensing board about the PLLC form

   The Commission tells filers to check with the agency or board that licenses the profession whether it requires or prohibits a professional LLC, and real estate licensees to check with the Department of Real Estate. A professional LLC may render services only through members, managers, officers, agents and employees who are licensed in Arizona for that category of service.

   Source: ACC Instructions L010i · A.R.S. § 29-4105

2. 2

   Use a professional LLC designator in the name

   A.R.S. § 29-4106: the name must satisfy § 29-3112, "except that the name shall contain the words 'professional limited liability company' or the abbreviation 'P.L.L.C.', 'P.L.C.', 'PLLC' or 'PLC' in uppercase or lowercase letters." Reserving the name is optional.

   Source: A.R.S. § 29-4106 · ACC Instructions L010i

3. 3

   File Articles of Organization (form L010)

   File form L010 with the Corporations Division, online through the Commission's ABC filing system or by mail with a cover sheet. Check the professional LLC box at item 1 and describe the professional services at item 3, as § 29-4102 requires, and attach the member or manager structure attachment. Pay the filing fee set by the state.

   Have LLCity prepare and file it ›

   Source: ACC form L010 · ACC Instructions L010i · A.R.S. § 29-4102 · ACC Business Services FAQs

4. 4

   Appoint a statutory agent who signs acceptance

   Every Arizona LLC must designate and maintain a statutory agent in Arizona with a place of business or residence in the state. The appointment takes effect only when the agent signs an acceptance; on paper filings, the Statutory Agent Acceptance (form M002) must accompany the Articles or they are rejected.

   What Arizona requires of your agent, and how we serve as it ›

   Source: A.R.S. § 29-3115 · ACC form L010 · ACC Instructions L010i

5. 5

   Keep an operating agreement, but do not file it

   Arizona defines the operating agreement as the members' agreement, whether oral, implied, in a record or a combination. The Commission says an operating agreement is not required by statute and must not be filed with it.

   Source: A.R.S. § 29-3102 · ACC Instructions L010i

6. 6

   Publish the formation notice if required

   Within sixty days after filing, a notice must be published three consecutive times in a newspaper in the county of the statutory agent's street address, unless that county has more than eight hundred thousand people, in which case the Commission posts it. The Commission says this covers Maricopa and Pima counties. Arizona LLCs file no annual report.

   Source: A.R.S. § 29-3201 · ACC Instructions L010i · ACC Business Services FAQs

Steps checked against the sources linked under each one on 12 November 2026.

The Arizona professional LLC

Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?

The Arizona Corporation Commission does not collect a board certificate with the filing, and says so in its own voice. Instructions L010i: "You should check with the agency or board that licenses your profession to see if it requires you to form a professional LLC or if it prohibits you from forming a professional LLC. See A.R.S. § 29-4102 through 29-4108. The Arizona Corporation Commission cannot tell you whether you can or should form a professional LLC, because this issue may involve legal or tax advice, and Commission staff cannot give legal or tax advice to the public." The licensing authority's power runs after formation instead: A.R.S. § 29-4105(B) and (C) let it prohibit the company from issuing a transferable interest, admitting a member or permitting a transfer, and § 29-4105(A) requires services to be rendered "only through its members, managers, officers, agents and employees who are themselves licensed persons qualified in this state to perform that category of professional services." A.R.S. § 10-2213(A) states the same rule for corporations: "A domestic or foreign professional corporation may render professional services in this state only through individuals licensed in this state to render the services."

Which occupations does Arizona say must use a PLLC?

A general licensed-profession test. A.R.S. § 29-4101 defines "professional service" as "a service that may be lawfully rendered only by a licensed person or person otherwise authorized by a licensing authority to render the service," and "licensing authority" as "the officer, board, agency, court or other authority empowered by law to license or otherwise authorize the rendition of a professional service." No occupation list appears in the statute. The Commission's instructions carry one profession-specific warning: "if you are a licensed real estate agent or broker, check with the Department of Real Estate for requirements before creating your PLLC."

Arizona also offers a corporation under a professional statute

A practice choosing between the two forms is choosing between these rules and the ones above.

Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary Arizona LLC’s?

No. Arizona sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary Arizona LLC files under.

No difference. A professional LLC files the same form L010 Articles of Organization as any Arizona LLC, and the statutory agent requirement at item 4 is unchanged (A.R.S. § 29-3115). What differs is two items on that same form: item 1, a checkbox for whether the entity is a professional limited liability company or a limited liability company, and item 3, which applies only if the professional box is checked and asks the filer to describe the professional services the company will provide. Arizona's term remains statutory agent, not registered agent.

What else Arizona requires

Two Arizona details a reader would be misled without. First, Arizona's permitted PLLC abbreviations include "P.L.C." and "PLC"; in Arizona a PLC is a professional limited liability company. Second, Arizona's professional corporation may call itself a "professional association", "service corporation", "limited" or "chartered" (or P.A., S.C., Ltd., Chtd.) under § 10-2215(A) without being a different kind of entity. A.R.S. § 10-2211 limits a professional corporation to a single profession unless a combination is not expressly prohibited, and § 10-2214(A) bars it from other business except what is incidental or inconsequential.