Glossary
Operating agreement
The private contract among an LLC’s owners that sets out who owns what and how the company is run.
Also called: LLC agreement, Company agreement.
The articles of organization create the LLC. The operating agreement governs it: ownership shares, who can sign for the company, how profits are divided, and what happens when someone leaves or the company closes.
It is normally not filed with the state, so it won’t appear in any business search. That privacy is one reason ownership is often impossible to read from public records.
Even a single-owner LLC benefits from one. Banks often ask to see it, and it helps show the company is separate from its owner.
Where you'll see it in a business search
Nowhere in a state search. It is kept with the company’s own records.