The Kansas professional LLC
What creates it in Kansas
K.S.A. 17-7668(c), within the Kansas revised limited liability company act: "A limited liability company organized and existing under the Kansas revised limited liability company act or otherwise qualified to do business in Kansas may have and exercise all powers that may be exercised by a Kansas professional association or professional corporation under the professional corporation law of Kansas, including employment of professionals to practice a profession, which shall be limited to the practice of one profession, except as provided in K.S.A. 17-2710." The Secretary of State publishes a distinct form for it, Articles of Organization for a domestic (Kansas) Professional Limited Liability Company, filed under K.S.A. 17-7673, with the board certificate required by K.S.A. 17-2709 attached. K.S.A. 17-7668(d) limits membership to a "qualified person", defined at subsection (e).
What the name must contain
K.S.A. 17-7920, and the Secretary of State states the consequence in terms on its own form: "All domestic professional LLCs must contain a word of formation. Pursuant to K.S.A. 17-7920, that word must be one of the following in English or in any other language if they are written in Roman characters: L.L.C., L.C., LLC, LC, LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, or LIMITED COMPANY. PLLC is not allowed." The form adds that the LLC's name "must match identically to the name approved by the Kansas regulatory board on the certificate."
Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?
Yes, and in Kansas it gates the filing itself rather than only the practice. K.S.A. 17-2709(a): "A certificate by the regulating board of the profession involved that each of the incorporators is duly licensed to practice that profession, and that the proposed corporate name has been approved, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state prior to issuance of the certificate of incorporation." Where two or more professions are to be rendered, a certificate from each regulatory board is required, and a fresh certificate from each board involved is required whenever an amendment changes the name or purposes. The Secretary of State applies the same requirement to the professional LLC: its form instructs that "pursuant to K.S.A. 17-2709, an original certificate that is issued by a Kansas regulatory board must be provided for each professional service to be practiced by a member/manager of the professional LLC with the articles of organization", that the certificate names the licensed members or managers and states that the board approved the business name, and that "A copy of a license can't be used in lieu of the original certificate." The relevant body is whichever board, court or state agency licenses that profession, per K.S.A. 17-2707(c).
Which occupations Kansas says must use it
An enumerated closed list, with the permitted combinations also enumerated. K.S.A. 17-2707(b) defines professional service by reference to twenty-eight listed professions, "each paragraph constituting one type": certified public accountant, architect, attorney-at-law, chiropractor, dentist, engineer, optometrist, osteopathic physician or surgeon, physician, surgeon or doctor of medicine, veterinarian, podiatrist, pharmacist, land surveyor, licensed psychologist, specialist in clinical social work, licensed physical therapist, landscape architect, registered professional nurse, real estate broker or salesperson, clinical professional counselor, geologist, clinical psychotherapist, clinical marriage and family therapist, licensed physician assistant, licensed occupational therapist, licensed audiologist, licensed speech-pathologist, and licensed naturopathic doctor. K.S.A. 17-2710 allows one type only, except for four specified groupings of those numbered items. K.S.A. 17-7668(c) carries the same one-profession limit, and the same K.S.A. 17-2710 exception, across to the professional LLC.
Kansas also offers a corporation under a professional statute
A practice choosing between the two forms is choosing between these rules and the ones above.
What creates it in Kansas
K.S.A. 17-2706 and following, cited by K.S.A. 17-2706 itself as "the professional corporation law of Kansas". K.S.A. 17-2708 applies the Kansas general corporation code, K.S.A. 17-6001 et seq., except where the professional corporation law takes precedence, and expressly lets a person who could form a professional corporation instead incorporate under the general corporation code, organise under the Kansas limited liability company act, or organise as a limited liability partnership.
What the name must contain
K.S.A. 17-2711: "The corporate name of a corporation organized and operating hereunder may be any name not contrary to law or the ethics of the profession involved. Such name may include any name set forth in K.S.A. 17-6002, and amendments thereto, but in all cases the corporate name shall end with the word 'chartered' or 'professional association' or the abbreviation 'P.A.' or 'PA'. The abbreviations 'P.A.' and 'PA' shall be considered to be identical." The Secretary of State's form repeats the four permitted endings and adds that the name must match identically the name approved by the Kansas regulatory board on the certificate.
Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary Kansas LLC’s?
No. Kansas sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary Kansas LLC files under.
What else Kansas requires
Two Kansas-specific points a reader would be misled without. First, Kansas recognises a professional limited liability company and publishes its own form for one, but it does not recognise the letters PLLC: the professional LLC's name must carry an ordinary LLC designator, and the Secretary of State's instructions say plainly that PLLC is not allowed. A Kansas professional LLC is therefore a professional entity in its powers, its membership restrictions and its board certificate, while looking like an ordinary LLC in its name. Second, Kansas's corporate professional entity is filed as a Professional Association. The governing statute is the professional corporation law of Kansas, but the Secretary of State titles the filing Articles of Incorporation for a domestic (Kansas) Professional Association, and the name must end with Chartered, Professional Association, P.A. or PA, never P.C. On terminology, Kansas calls the agent a resident agent, not a registered agent, and the resident-agent and registered-office instructions on both professional forms are the ordinary ones: an individual, a business registered in Kansas, or the business itself, at a Kansas street, rural route or highway address where the agent may be regularly present, and a PO box is unacceptable. The board certificate is an extra attachment to the filing, not a difference in the agent requirement. The professional LLC form is at https://sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/PDL.pdf and the professional association form at https://www.sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/dpa.pdf.
Verified against the Kansas Secretary of State, Business Services Division (sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/PDL.pdf) · Statute text: www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_027_0009.html · Last updated September 2026. Kansas only — the rules in this cluster differ by jurisdiction, and this page speaks for no other.