LegalZoom LLC Services Review

What Is LegalZoom?

LegalZoom is an online-based legal company. It was founded in 2001 and is based in Glendale, California. Since the company’s founding, it’s grown exponentially and has over 1,000 employees around the United States. Its large size and nationwide reach help separate LegalZoom from competitors.

LegalZoom was founded by four men who wanted to change the way that legal services are provided. Brian P. Y. Liu, Brian S. Lee, Robert Shapiro, and Edward R. Hartman came together to create a company that made legal services available to the average person. Their mission was to cut the cost of legal fees for personal matters and for small businesses that couldn’t afford what larger corporations have access to. While LegalZoom has expanded, these four gentlemen ensure the company remains true to its roots. The current CEO is Dan Wernikoff, and Jeffery Stibel is the chairman.

LegalZoom is a unique company because it pioneered the LLC services industry. It was one of the first companies to start helping people with legal documents and matters, so it also paved the way for potential problems to be fixed sooner rather than later. For example, LegalZoom has been recognized by many organizations for being a top-tier company. Business Insider ranked LegalZoom 27th on the list of the world’s most important startups. Moreover, Fast Company placed LegalZoom at 26th overall on its list of the most innovative companies.

LegalZoom has also worked hard to expand its services across the United States and the world. As one of the largest LLC services companies (pulling in over 200 million dollars of revenue in 2020), LegalZoom can help people in almost every state. Plus, LegalZoom acquired Beaumont Legal (an English legal company) to help clients in England. LegalZoom has expanded its services with rapid growth and keeps its packages affordable for everyone.

What Does LegalZoom Do?

LegalZoom does many things, so what the company does changes based on the client. That said, LegalZoom is an adaptable company that tailors documents and services for specific clients. When someone needs legal services, the documents are specific. When someone needs LLC documents, those documents are specific to the company they assist. Therefore, LegalZoom handles legal matters for people, LLCs, and families.

LegalZoom helps people and LLCs with legal documents, technology, and even personal information. LegalZoom can also help its clients with situations that require legal assistance. This means that the organization can help clients create legal documents like trusts and wills. While LegalZoom began as a legal company to help people with personal matters, it’s become more comprehensive over the last few years.

Today, LegalZoom is a full-service legal company and LLC services provider. While LegalZoom still helps with individual matters when necessary, clients can also get the paperwork needed to start an LLC, file for trademarks, copyright registrations, and more. When it comes to anything business, LegalZoom can help you take care of it and does a better job than most companies.

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LegalZoom Services

LegalZoom has many services, and the services provided depend on the needs of the client. Therefore, it’s important to examine all of LegalZoom’s services to help you get a better idea of the company’s purpose.

Starting a Business

With LegalZoom, there are several ways to start a business. While many companies only help with LLC services, LegalZoom goes above and beyond with the types of companies it can help you establish. First and foremost, LegalZoom can help with an LLC. Simply provide LegalZoom with the name (if it’s not taken), and they will file all of the paperwork for you. The cost for creating an LLC starts at $79, which includes the filing fees (prices vary based on the state).

LegalZoom can also help you create other companies. Another option is a corporation, which is suitable for companies that will issue shares and expand beyond their reach. Getting started with a corporation is tricky, which is why LegalZoom handles the paperwork and helps with shares. The starting cost for creating a corporation is $149, which is the filing fee—this price changes depending on the state. That said, LegalZoom can help you attract investors, raise funds, and present yourself more officially.

The second to last option to look at is starting a nonprofit. Nonprofits are companies that don’t profit the owner. That said, a nonprofit company can still benefit society and the people it works for. Nonprofits also provide unique tax benefits, grants, and assets protection that are not available for LLCs, small businesses, or corporations. Starting nonprofit costs $99 to get started, but clients need to cover state and federal fees.

The last option is starting a DBA. DBA stands for “Doing Business As,” which is appropriate for people who want to start a brand without establishing an LLC or other business. Some examples of DBAs include music artists, freelancers, and other professionals. With LegalZoom, DBA services cost $99, but state and federal fees will need to be covered by the client.

With these various options, LegalZoom offers comprehensive business services to anyone that needs them.

Registered Agent Services

LegalZoom also offers registered agent services, which have become popular over the last few years. This is because registered agents are required by law in most states and serve as a point of communication between an LLC and the state. For this reason, every LLC needs a registered agent. This is also true for corporations, some nonprofits, and other companies.

LegalZoom offers superior registered agent services when compared to similar companies. This is because LegalZoom provides clients with cloud-based document storage, a user-friendly software solution for document access, annual report filing, and more. Registered agent services only cost $299 per year with LegalZoom, which is more affordable than most companies for what comes in the package.

Registered agent services at LegalZoom also go above and beyond the scope of traditional registered agent offerings. For example, the company provides clients with theft protection. This covers up to $1 million in damages due to identity theft and other theft-related problems. Moreover, registered agent services handle annual reports, emails, and other communication with the state.

With LegalZoom, registered agent services are made easy.

Tax Services

When it comes to services that make LegalZoom unique, the company’s tax services stand out the most through their LZ Tax program. LegalZoom offers many tax solutions for different companies, individuals, and even nonprofits. LegalZoom uses several packages to help clients in various ways with taxes, filing taxes, accounting, and more.

Examples include the Full-Service Bookkeeping Plan and the QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium Plan. The Full-Service Bookkeeping Plan provides clients with a team of professionals who comb through bank statements, receipts, invoices, etc. The Online Payroll Premium Plan is similar but tracks everything online and can manage payroll for clients. These are only two examples of tax-focused services that LegalZoom provides.

Another great feature of LegalZoom’s LZ Tax program is the company’s use of professionals. The company keeps a team of tax professionals in-house to consult with clients about tax problems, needs, and advice. LegalZoom can even file taxes for clients and serve as a general accountant for an LLC, corporation, nonprofit, or DBA. To provide perspective, LegalZoom has helped over 2 million companies with their tax needs and continues to help more each day.

We could take you through them all but we’d be here all day.

Personal Services

While our LegalZoom review focuses on how the company helps LLCs and other companies, it’s important to make a note of LegalZoom’s personal plans. Personal plans are how the company began and built its reputation, which is why its personal services are second-to-none. Instead of taking you through the cost of creating each document, we’ll provide you with a list of services that LegalZoom provides.

Some examples include:

• Estate Plan Bundle
• Living Trusts
• Power of Attorney
• Living Will
• General Will
• Divorce
• Name Change
• Residential Lease
• Deed Transfer

These are a handful of the individual services that LegalZoom provides. You’ll notice that the areas the company covers include personal, family, and even real estate. When it comes to general law, you can’t go wrong with LegalZoom.

Attorneys

LegalZoom can also provide clients with law-focused help and guidance. The company has a roster of lawyers who want to help individuals and businesses with issues pertaining to the law. Law is challenging for people to understand, especially when not practiced or studied full-time. Therefore, LegalZoom can provide clients with lawyers when needed. This includes all 50 states and even some territories. LegalZoom can help with most cases but there are some exceptions. Prices do vary based on the legal issue and state.

Keeping all of this in mind, LegalZoom is the most impressive online legal company around when it comes to services.

What We Like About LegalZoom

LegalZoom has dozens of great services, attorneys, and tax professionals to help individuals and companies around the United States. In fact, LegalZoom’s reach is even global. Now that we’ve taken you through LegalZoom’s services, we’re going to show you what we like about LegalZoom. To do so, we’ve picked a handful of our favorite services.

The Number of Services Provided

First and foremost, we have to begin with how many services are provided by LegalZoom. In this category, LegalZoom blows the competition out of the water. LegalZoom offers services for individuals and businesses on real estate, taxes, LLC services, legal assistance, and more. No online legal company offers as many solutions for its client’s needs as LegalZoom. LegalZoom also provides its services in each of the 50 states.

Registered Agent Services

One of LegalZoom’s most comprehensive services it offers businesses is its registered agent services. LegalZoom’s registered agent package is like no other. Instead of having multiple tiers with various fees, LegalZoom has one affordable registered agent package–$299 annually. That said, the registered agent service from LegalZoom is high-quality. It features cloud-based storage, report filing, and even identity theft protection up to $1 million. It’s tough to beat LegalZoom’s registered agent solutions.

Great Value

When it comes to establishing an LLC, many fees depend on the state you create one in. That said, LegalZoom has flat rates for filing fees to help companies get started. While clients need to cover the cost of state fees, we love that LegalZoom keeps its pricing consistent and transparent with potential clients. For this reason, there is no need to worry about hidden fees with LegalZoom.

Stellar Reviews

LegalZoom is also one of our favorite choices based on what others are saying. According to most rating platforms, LegalZoom maintains a 4-star rating with ease. The company has also been rated by companies like Business Insider and Forbes, which are big names in the industry. With great ratings and recognition, it’s easy to trust LegalZoom.

Nationwide/Global Reach

Finally, the last thing we love about LegalZoom is how the company provides its services in all 50 states. That said, what’s more impressive is how LegalZoom is expanding to England. This is huge because if you want to take your company overseas, LegalZoom will be there to have your back.

These are only a handful of our favorite aspects of LegalZoom.

What We Dislike About LegalZoom

LegalZoom is one of our favorite LLC services companies around. In many areas, LegalZoom is challenging to beat. That said, no company is perfect and LegalZoom is not without its flaws. We’ll take you through a few things we dislike about LegalZoom’s services.

Cost

One of our biggest issues with LegalZoom is the cost. While we understand that the services are exceptional, not having a basic registered agent package makes it less accessible for people on tight budgets. All of the tax plans are also expensive, which makes them hard to use for newer companies. For this reason, alternatives like ZenBusiness are a better option for people who are on a budget and might want to upgrade as the company grows.

Competition

Another reason we dislike LegalZoom is because of its reaction to competitors. While new players in the industry continue to innovate with packages, plans, and other services, LegalZoom hasn’t adapted to the market or changed its services that much. While this hasn’t harmed the company yet, a failure to adapt could lead to a smaller market share. Unfortunately, when companies lose profits, they tend to raise costs to offset the loss. This isn’t a huge issue yet but something we’re keeping an eye on.

Customer Support

Finally, LegalZoom is not always the best with customer support. While their customer support team is responsive and helpful, sometimes calls are outsourced to call centers. This is something that needs to be changed because people are becoming more frustrated with poor customer support over the phone. While emailing the company is also effective, there is no chatbot on the website to help potential clients navigate the various services immediately.

While LegalZoom doesn’t come up short in the areas we mentioned above, we’d like to see them improve.

Our Verdict

LegalZoom is a great company. It’s been around for over 20 years and continues to grow and expand. While LegalZoom is not perfect, it has a better reputation than most competitors. Compared to other LLC service companies, LegalZoom provides more packages and more general services, especially for legal documents. While the services can be expensive, it’s more than worth it for the quality provided.

If you’re looking for an LLC services company to help you start a business, LegalZoom is a great choice. You can’t go wrong with a company that’s survived the test of time and continues to expand. Plus, it’s hard to find a company that offers as many services like LegalZoom. While many LLC service companies can do what LegalZoom can do, they can’t all help with the legal side in the ways that LegalZoom can. This is what sets LegalZoom apart from companies like ZenBusiness.

Overall, LegalZoom is one of our favorite choices for anything legal, which includes LLC services. If that’s something you need help with, we always recommend LegalZoom.

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