LegalZoom Review

Monday, January 18th

2021 LLC Formation Service Reviews

LegalZoom

• Cost: Packages range from $49 to $349

Since 1999, LegalZoom has helped over 4 million customers to affordably access legal documents through their self-guided services. You can find documents across a wide variety of topics, ranging from business needs like LLC formation and incorporation to personal issues such as wills and trusts.

Satisfaction guarantee

A strong positive of using LegalZoom to create your LLC is their Satisfaction Guarantee. Within the first 60 days after your purchase, you can request a 100% refund of all fees paid directly to LegalZoom if you're unhappy with any part of your experience. Of course, that refund policy doesn't apply to any fees you paid for government filing or to a third-party service.

3 levels of service

However, as you select a service to form your LLC, you're likely going to find that you'll spend more by choosing LegalZoom. Here's what you can expect with their three levels of service:

• Economy: In this package, you'll get an Operating Agreement, comprehensive state/federal business name availability search, the preparing and filing of your Articles of Association and other required paperwork, an LLC Next Steps Guide and LegalZoom's $50,000 Peace of Mind Guarantee.
• Standard: In addition to the Economy package features, you'll also get a business newsletter, a deluxe organizer, and official printed certificates/seal. You may not think those features are worth the extra money - possibly as much as $280 more for the Standard vs. the Economy tier.
• Express Gold: You'll get all of the features of the first two levels, along with help in getting all required federal/state/local permits and licenses, VIP processing/priority filing/express shipping, lifetime customer support, and a financial account authorization letter

Optional services

For all three packages, you can choose among a number of optional services. One of the most common - and important - is the Registered Agent Service. Many of the company incorporation services we reviewed include it for free during the first year, while others may charge $99 per year. LegalZoom's fees are $159 per year, and they are not included even with the highest package level.

Free trials

As you set up your LLC, you'll also be offered free trials of other services, such as a 30-day trial of Affordable Tax, Legal Protect, and Total Compliance. These services are billed at $320/year thereafter.

Frustrating pricing

We found the process of selecting an LLC formation package through LegalZoom to be very frustrating, mostly when it came to pricing. On one screen, we were given package prices ranging from $99 to $159. But, as we went through the actual process of creating our LLC, the package prices changed to $49-$349.

Included or not?

Also, on one screen it said that an EIN would be included with the two higher levels of service. But, again, once we went through the steps to form the LLC, we were quoted an additional $199 to get the Operating Agreement, EIN, and Licenses.

Fast turnaround

In the past, we've seen good things from LegalZoom, with customers saying that their turnaround times were much faster than expected and that their LLC's were formed very quickly. But, with so many issues with pricing, it left us wondering what we were actually paying for and frequently asking "Is this included or isn't it?"

Room to improve

You can expect quality deliverables with LegalZoom. However, we hope LegalZoom will make their pricing clearer and more consistent in the future.