What Indiana offers instead
What creates it in Indiana
Indiana Code article 23-1.5, PROFESSIONAL CORPORATIONS, read with IC 23-0.5, the Uniform Business Organizations Administrative Provisions Act (2018), which supplies the filing, name and registered-agent rules. IC 23-1.5-2-1: IC 23-1 (the Indiana Business Corporation Law) applies to professional corporations formed under the article, with article 1.5 prevailing on conflict.
What the name must contain
IC 23-0.5-3-2(a): "The name of a business corporation that is a professional corporation must contain the words 'Professional Service Corporation' or 'Professional Corporation' or abbreviations of these words. In addition, only a professional corporation in which all shareholders are physicians licensed under IC 25-22.5 may use the term 'medical' in its corporate name. A licensing authority may by rule adopt further requirements than those specified in this subsection as to the names of professional corporations organized under this article." The article's own name section, IC 23-1.5-2-8, was repealed by P.L.118-2017 and the rule now lives in the general name statute.
Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?
No longer required before filing. IC 23-1.5-2-9, which barred the Secretary of State from issuing a certificate of incorporation until a certificate of registration had been obtained from the licensing authority and presented with the articles, and IC 23-1.5-2-10, which required biennial renewal of that registration, were repealed by P.L.78-2017. The operative provision is now IC 23-1.5-2-9.1 (added by P.L.52-2018): the Secretary of State may issue a certificate of incorporation if the articles meet IC 23-1-21-2, IC 23-0.5-3 with respect to names, and article 1.5, and "include any other information required by the secretary of state to determine proper licensure or qualification of the proposed corporation or shareholders of the proposed corporation to incorporate under state law." The determination sits with the filing office, not with a board.
Which occupations Indiana treats as professional
An enumerated closed list of categories. IC 23-1.5-1-11: "'Professional service' means any type of service that may be legally performed only by: (1) an accounting professional; (2) an architectural or engineering professional; (3) an attorney; (4) a health care professional; (5) a veterinarian; or (6) a real estate professional." IC 23-1.5-2-3(a) mirrors the six, one category per corporation, subject to IC 25-2.1-5 for accountancy. IC 23-1.5-2-3(c) adds that a domestic or admitted foreign professional corporation must have at least one shareholder licensed in Indiana, and may have a shareholder licensed in another state to render similar services.
Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary Indiana LLC’s?
No. Indiana sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary Indiana LLC files under.
Why Indiana answers this way
Indiana has no professional limited liability company. Three provisions of the state's own entity taxonomy say so. IC 23-0.5-1-2 lists the statutes an entity may be formed under or subject to (IC 23-1, 23-1.3, 23-1.5, 23-4-1, 23-16, 23-17, 23-18, 23-18.1) and no professional LLC article appears. IC 23-0.5-1.5-20 defines a limited liability company as one formed under or subject to IC 23-18 or, for a series, IC 23-18.1, with no professional variant. IC 23-0.5-3-2(d) gives every Indiana LLC a single name rule, "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "L.L.C." or "LLC", and adds nothing for a professional one, while subsection (a) of the same section does add a professional designator for corporations. The Secretary of State's business-forms page matches: it has a Professional Corporations group, which uses Articles of Incorporation form 4159, the same form ordinary for-profit corporations use, plus Articles of Acceptance form 13451, and it has no professional LLC group at all. A licensed Indiana professional who wants an LLC forms an ordinary IC 23-18 LLC. Caution for anyone rechecking this: the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency still publishes a Board of Accountancy handout at in.gov/pla/files/ProfCorpCodeReferences.pdf describing a pre-filing approval letter under IC 23-1.5-2-9. That section was repealed in 2017 and the handout does not reflect current law.
Verified against the Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division (www.in.gov/sos/business/division-forms/business-forms/) · Statute text: iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/23#23-0.5-3-2 · Last updated September 2026. Indiana only — the rules in this cluster differ by jurisdiction, and this page speaks for no other.