The professional entity, state by state.
Licensed work is not always allowed to run through an ordinary LLC. Most states keep a separate lane for it: the professional LLC, the professional corporation, or both. Who has to use that lane, what licensure the state checks, and how the formation process differs are all set state by state. Pick yours to see which list your practice falls under.
Four things that change with your state.
A professional entity is an ordinary company with a licensing condition attached to it. The condition is set by state law, and so is the list of professions it applies to.
Who has to form one
Every state names the professions that cannot trade through a standard LLC and have to use a professional entity instead. The lists overlap heavily and match nowhere exactly, so the first question on a state page is whether your license is on it.
What licensure the state checks
The entity is tied to a license, so the state looks at the license before it looks at the company. Which credentials count, who has to hold one, and what the filing asks for as evidence are all questions each state answers in its own way.
How formation differs
The formation process is the familiar one with extra conditions layered onto it. Same register, same office, additional requirements before the state will accept the filing. Where those requirements sit in the order is the part that varies, which is why the process is written out per state.
What changes versus a standard LLC
Less than people expect on the mechanics and more than people expect on eligibility. Most of it is the same company you would form anyway. The differences cluster around the license, and each state page sets out exactly which ones apply where you are.
Same practice, fifty-one lists. Check yours before you file.
Pick your state.
Each state page answers the same four questions for that state: who must form a professional entity there, what licensure the state requires, how the formation process runs, and what differs from a standard LLC once the entity exists and starts filing.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
The route is the standard formation route with a licensing condition attached. We work out which lane your profession is in before anything is prepared or filed.
Confirm the requirement
Whether your profession has to use a professional entity in your state, and whether that state offers the professional LLC, the professional corporation, or both of them.
Line up licensure
The entity is tied to a license, so we confirm what your state expects on the licensing side before the filing is prepared rather than after it comes back unaccepted.
We file the formation
Prepared on your state's current professional entity forms and submitted to the office that takes them, with the extra conditions your state attaches already satisfied.
Hold the standing
A professional entity sits on the register like any other company, with the annual filings that come with that, and with a license underneath it that has its own calendar.
The company is the easy half. The license is what the state is really checking.
The rest of Secretary of State directory.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State annual report
The annual report, state by state
All 51 states → HubArticles of Amendment
Articles of amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubBusiness license
Business license requirements, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State business search
Secretary of State business search, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State Certificate of Good Standing
Certificate of Good Standing, state by state
All 51 states → HubEntity conversion
Entity conversion, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State DBA
Secretary of State DBA, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Secretary of State directory.
The questions people ask before they file.
What is a professional entity?
It is the entity type a state reserves for licensed work. The professional LLC and the professional corporation both exist for it, and both behave like their ordinary equivalents with licensing conditions attached. The company is still formed with the state, still sits on the register, and still files whatever that state asks for each year. What changes is who is allowed to be behind it and what the state checks before it says yes.
Do I have to form one?
That depends on your profession and your state. Every state publishes its own list of professions that must use a professional entity rather than a standard LLC, and the lists do not match each other. Some professions appear on nearly every list and others on only a few. Because the answer is a list rather than a principle, the useful version of it is the one written for your state, which is what these pages are.
PLLC or PC, which one?
Both exist as professional forms and the choice is not automatic. They are different entity types operating under the same licensing conditions, and states do not treat them identically. The state page sets out what each one means where you are, so the decision gets made against your own rules rather than against a general article written for somebody in another jurisdiction.
What does the state actually check?
Licensure. The whole point of a professional entity is that the state ties the company to a credential, so it looks at the credential before it looks at the company. What that check involves at formation, and what it involves afterwards while the entity is running, is set state by state and written out on the state page rather than guessed at here.
How is it different from a standard LLC?
The mechanics are largely the same. There is a filing with the state, a name on the register, and annual obligations after that. The differences cluster around the license, which decides who may form the entity and what the state requires before it will accept the filing. Your state page lists those differences plainly, along with the parts that are identical to any other company.
Does the entity replace my license?
No. A professional entity is a company, not a credential. Your license stays a license and is administered where it always was. The entity is the thing that exists on the state register, contracts in its own name, and files whatever the state asks of it each year. Forming one does not change what your license permits, and the two are maintained separately from each other.
Keep going, in order.
Secretary of State directory
Every hub in secretary of state directory, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
A person who files these every day, not a call centre.
Get in touch →