The Pennsylvania professional LLC
What creates it in Pennsylvania
15 Pa.C.S. §§ 8995-8998 and 19 Pa. Code Chapter 71, as the Department of State spells it. The certificate of organization itself is filed under 15 Pa.C.S. § 8821, and the annual registration obligation sits at 15 Pa.C.S. § 8998.
What the name must contain
There is no PLLC designator in Pennsylvania. The Department's form instructions give the name rule for every domestic LLC, restricted professional companies included: the name "must contain: (1) the term 'company,' 'limited' or 'limited liability company' or an abbreviation of one of those terms, or (2) words or abbreviations of like import used in a jurisdiction other than this Commonwealth," and "may not contain any words implying that it is a business corporation, such as 'corporation' or 'incorporated' or an abbreviation of these terms." Minimum name requirements are at 15 Pa.C.S. §§ 201, 202 and 204. What marks the entity as professional is not the name but a statement in the certificate: 19 Pa. Code § 71.2 requires the certificate of organization or foreign registration statement to contain a statement to that effect "including a brief description of the restricted professional service or services to be rendered by the company," and item 5 of form DSCB:15-8821 is the tick box and profession list that carries it.
Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?
No blanket pre-approval. The Department of State's instructions for form DSCB:15-8821 require that "any necessary governmental approvals" accompany the filing, and warn that association names "may not contain words, phrases or abbreviations prohibited or restricted by statute or regulation, unless in compliance with the restriction, generally with the consent or approval of a government agency, board or commission. These may include certain professional and occupational boards or commissions of the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, the Department of Education, the Department of Banking and Securities, the Insurance Department or the Public Utility Commission." So the approval is triggered by the name and by the profession's own statute rather than by professional status as such.
Which occupations Pennsylvania says must use it
Pennsylvania decides this differently for the two forms, which is the fact most commentary gets wrong. For LLCs it is a closed enumerated list of ten: 19 Pa. Code § 71.1 and the Department's own page define restricted professional services as chiropractic, dentistry, law, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathic medicine and surgery, podiatric medicine, public accounting, psychology or veterinary medicine, and "limited liability companies rendering certain professional services must form as a restricted professional company." An occupation off that list, architecture and engineering among them, organises as an ordinary LLC. For corporations the test is general: the Department describes Chapter 29 as the chapter that "authorizes licensed persons to render professional services by means of a professional corporation in all cases."
Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania
Chapter 29 of the Business Corporation Law, 15 Pa.C.S. § 2903 (formation of professional corporations) and § 2921(a) (corporate name), with the Department of State's own regulations at 19 Pa. Code Chapter 33
What the name must contain
19 Pa. Code § 33.3(a): the ordinary business corporation name requirements do not apply to a professional corporation name "if the name contains and is restricted to the name or the last name of one or more of the present, prospective or former shareholders or of individuals who were associated with a predecessor or whose individual name appeared in the name of the predecessor." Such a name may also contain the word "and" or a symbol or substitute for it, the word "Associates," and the term "P.C." So "P.C." is permitted, not compelled. Under 15 Pa.C.S. § 2921(a) a professional corporation "may not adopt a name which is prohibited by law or the ethics of the profession in which the corporation is engaged or by rule or regulation of the court, department, board, commission or other government unit regulating the profession," and 19 Pa. Code § 33.3(c) adds that the Department is not responsible for enforcing that provision and that its acceptance of a filing will not protect the incorporators from disciplinary action. Separately, 15 Pa.C.S. § 2903 as set out at 19 Pa. Code § 33.4 requires that "the articles of a professional corporation shall contain a heading stating that it is a professional corporation."
Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary Pennsylvania LLC’s?
No. Pennsylvania sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary Pennsylvania LLC files under.
Not different from an ordinary LLC's, but Pennsylvania's baseline is itself unusual and applies here unchanged: the certificate of organization asks for a registered office address in the Commonwealth or the name of a commercial registered office provider and county of venue, not a registered agent. A post office box alone is not acceptable, because under 15 Pa.C.S. § 135(c) the Department is required to refuse any document that sets forth only a post office box address.
What else Pennsylvania requires
Pennsylvania recognises the entity but not the label. The form is called a restricted professional company, and "PLLC" appears nowhere in the Department's certificate of organization, its instructions, or 19 Pa. Code Chapter 71. A reader who searches Pennsylvania's own materials for "PLLC" finds nothing and may wrongly conclude the Commonwealth has no professional LLC. 19 Pa. Code § 71.1 also pins each of the ten restricted professional services to the practice act that defines it, for example chiropractic to 63 P.S. § 625.102, public accounting to 63 P.S. § 9.2, and veterinary medicine to 63 P.S. § 485.3. A restricted professional company carries a recurring obligation an ordinary Pennsylvania LLC does not: any domestic or foreign restricted professional company in existence on December 31 of a year must file a Certificate of Annual Registration, form DSCB:15-8221/8998, on or before April 15 of the following year, and the Department states that failing to file brings additional fees, penalties and interest and a Uniform Commercial Code lien against the business until they are satisfied. Chapter 71 was added in February 2017 specifically to clarify the meaning of restricted professional company and restricted professional services after Act 170 of 2016 replaced Pennsylvania's LLC law.
Verified against the Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations (www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/types-of-filings-and-registrations/pennsylvania-limited-liability-company) · Statute text: www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/secure/pacode/data/019/chapter71/chap71toc.html · Last updated September 2026. Pennsylvania only — the rules in this cluster differ by jurisdiction, and this page speaks for no other.