How do you form a South Dakota PLLC?
- Form
- Articles of Organization — Domestic Limited Liability Company
- Filed with
- South Dakota Secretary of State, Business Services
- State fee
- Set by the state, and confirmed with you before anything is filed.
Find your profession's chapter and board step
South Dakota authorizes professional LLCs chapter by chapter in Title 47. Health care entities under chapter 47-11F need a certificate of registration from each licensing board before providing services, dental entities need one from the State Board of Dentistry, and accounting and law firms file certified articles with the Board of Accountancy or the Supreme Court clerk.
Source: SDCL 47-11F-4 · SDCL 47-12-7 · SDCL 47-13B-13 · SDCL 47-13A-3
Use the designator your chapter requires
Under the nursing, therapy, law and accounting chapters the name must contain "professional limited liability company" or "Prof. L.L.C.", "Prof. LLC", "P.L.L.C." or "PLLC". A health care LLC under chapter 47-11F may instead end with "Limited Liability Company", "L.L.C." or "LLC". Some chapters add the board's ethical naming standards.
Source: SDCL 47-11E-4 · SDCL 47-11G-4 · SDCL 47-13A-2 · SDCL 47-13B-4 · SDCL 47-11F-11
File ordinary Articles of Organization
The Secretary of State has no separate professional form: file the Articles of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company and pay the filing fee set by the state. For a chapter 47-11F health care LLC, the articles must also state its purpose and that members, governors and managers may only be licensed professionals fitting that purpose.
Have LLCity prepare and file it ›
Source: SD Secretary of State, Articles of Organization · SD Secretary of State, LLC forms · SDCL 47-11F-10
Appoint a South Dakota registered agent
The articles must give the registered agent information required by SDCL 59-11-6: either a commercial registered agent or a noncommercial registered agent with a street address in South Dakota.
What South Dakota requires of your agent, and how we serve as it ›
Source: SDCL 59-11-6 · SD Secretary of State, Articles of Organization
Adopt an operating agreement
Members may enter into an operating agreement, which need not be in writing, to govern the company's affairs. For a chapter 47-11F health care LLC, the statute's references to by-laws are read as the operating agreement.
Source: SDCL 47-34A-103 · SDCL 47-11F-2
File an annual report and renew board registration
File an annual report with the Secretary of State each year. From 1 January 2027 the entity files in its formation anniversary month or by January 31, as chosen on its formation document. Health care entities renew the board certificate of registration annually.
Source: SDCL 47-34A-211 · SDCL 59-11-25 · SDCL 47-11F-5
Steps checked against the sources linked under each one on 12 November 2026.
The South Dakota professional LLC
What creates it in South Dakota
No single PLLC act. Professional LLCs are authorized profession by profession in Title 47: SDCL 47-11-1 (medical), 47-11E-1 and 47-11E-4 (nursing), 47-11F-2 and 47-11F-11 (health care corporations, limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships), 47-11G-1 and 47-11G-4 (physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology), 47-12-1 (dental), 47-13-1 (veterinary), 47-13A-1 and 47-13A-2 (law) and 47-13B-1 and 47-13B-4 (public accounting). The LLC itself is organized under the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, chapter 47-34A; SDCL 47-11F-2: "the term, professional corporation, includes a limited liability company organized under chapter 47-34A or a limited liability partnership organized under chapter 48-7."
What the name must contain
SDCL 47-11E-4, 47-11G-4, 47-13A-2(1) and 47-13B-4 require the name of a limited liability company formed under the chapter to contain "professional limited liability company" or "Prof. L.L.C.", "Prof. LLC", "P.L.L.C." or "PLLC". SDCL 47-11F-11 is broader: the name of a limited liability company "shall end with the words, Professional Limited Liability Company, or the abbreviation, Prof. L.L.C., Prof. LLC, P.L.L.C., or PLLC, or the words, Limited Liability Company, or the abbreviation, L.L.C. or LLC." Some chapters add an ethics standard: 47-11E-4 (South Dakota Board of Nursing), 47-13A-2(1) (Rules of Professional Conduct of the Supreme Court of South Dakota) and 47-13B-4 (Board of Accountancy and the AICPA code).
Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?
Yes in several chapters, after the Secretary of State filing rather than as part of it. SDCL 47-11F-4: no professional corporation (a term that includes an LLC, § 47-11F-2) "may provide any professional service or ancillary service without a certificate of registration from the licensing board of each category of licensee who is a shareholder"; under § 47-11F-5 each board investigates and issues an annually renewable certificate. SDCL 47-12-7: no dental entity may operate without a certificate of registration from the State Board of Dentistry. SDCL 47-13B-13: certified articles go to the secretary of the South Dakota Board of Accountancy with lists of shareholders and of non-shareholder employees authorized to practise accounting, updated within thirty days of any change. SDCL 47-13A-3: certified articles and amendments of a law corporation go to the clerk of the Supreme Court of South Dakota.
Which occupations does South Dakota say must use a PLLC?
South Dakota legislates a chapter per profession; the twelve chapters are listed under pc.statute. SDCL 47-11F adds a multi-discipline health care option: § 47-11F-1(1) defines an "authorized licensee" as a natural person licensed as a health care professional under Title 36 and entitled to form a professional corporation under chapters 47-11, 47-11A, 47-11B, 47-11C, 47-11D and 47-11E, and § 47-11F-3 lets one or more of them form an entity rendering two or more kinds of professional service. Ownership is restricted to licensees, for example § 47-13-3 (veterinary) and § 47-12-3 (dental); § 47-11F-10 requires the organizing document to state that members, governors and managers may only be licensed professionals fitting the entity's purpose.
South Dakota 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 South Dakota
Profession by profession, with no general professional corporation act: SDCL chapters 47-11 (medical corporations), 47-11A (chiropractic), 47-11B (optometric), 47-11C (podiatric), 47-11D (physician's assistants), 47-11E (nursing), 47-11F (health care corporations, limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships), 47-11G (physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology), 47-12 (dental), 47-13 (veterinary), 47-13A (practice of law) and 47-13B (public accounting).
What the name must contain
SDCL 47-11E-4, 47-11G-4 and 47-13A-2(1): the name must contain "professional company" or "professional corporation" or abbreviations such as "Prof. Co.", "Prof. Corp.", "P.C." or "PC". SDCL 47-11F-11: the name must end with "Professional Corporation", "P.C." or "PC", or "Limited" or "Ltd." SDCL 47-13B-4 (public accounting) also permits "Incorporated", "Corporation", "Corp.", "Association", "Ltd.", "Chartered" or "Inc."
Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary South Dakota LLC’s?
No. South Dakota sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary South Dakota LLC files under.
Not different. Professional LLCs file the ordinary Articles of Organization, whose registered agent article follows SDCL 59-11-6 (commercial registered agent, or a noncommercial registered agent with a South Dakota street address). None of the profession-specific chapters read varies the agent rule.
What else South Dakota requires
The Secretary of State has no professional entity type and no professional form: the LLC forms page offers the ordinary Articles of Organization for a Domestic Limited Liability Company (SDCL 47-34A-203, 212), whose only name note is the general rule of SDCL 47-34A-105 ("Limited Liability Company, Limited Company or the abbreviation L.L.C., LLC, L.C. or LC"). The professional designator required by the profession's chapter is therefore not mentioned on the form. SDCL 47-11F-2 provides that, for an LLC, references to articles of incorporation, by-laws, directors, officers, shareholders and shares are read as articles of organization, operating agreement, governors, managers, members and membership interest; 47-11G-1 does the same for its chapter.
Verified against the South Dakota Secretary of State, Business Services (sdsos.gov/Business-Services/corporations/corporate-forms/limited-liability-companies.aspx) · Statute text: sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/47-11F-11.html · Last updated November 2026. South Dakota only — the rules in this cluster differ by jurisdiction, and this page speaks for no other.