Your operating agreement is the legal blueprint for your Wisconsin LLC. This legally binding document establishes how your LLC will handle important situations, including voting, transferring members’ interest, distributing profits and losses, and dissolution. You can use one of our attorney-drafted templates to fill out, save, and download your operating agreement for free.
An operating agreement is an internal document, so you don’t need to file it with the Wisconsin Secretary of State. But having an operating agreement on file that fits your LLC’s needs is essential. That’s why at Northwest, we offer attorney-drafted operating agreement templates for a range of situations.
Your operating agreement determines how your Wisconsin LLC will handle the “big-picture” scenarios that are likely to occur. You could include anything not prohibited by Wisconsin law in your operating agreement, but you should be sure to cover the following subjects:
Want to focus on your business and leave the legal hullabaloo to us? Our lawyers drafted a comprehensive operating agreement you can use for free. You can even fill it out on this page, save it in a free account for later, and download a completed draft to sign.
In order to fill out our free operating agreement template, you’ll need your:
This must be your business’ legal entity name, or the name you put on your LLC Articles of Organization.
Did an LLC member contribute $500? $5k? A storefront? Put that here.
You’ll just write in 16 here since our version has a set amount of pages.
Remember, this is an internal document, so you won’t have to submit these names to the state just because they’re on here. However, you might need to add these people to your BOI Report.
Include any initial contributions, even if it’s only a small percentage.
While we recommend having a business bank account, some banks like to actually see the operating agreement before you open the account. If that’s the case, you can leave this blank for now.
This is the place your business operates from.
You can add this in later if you aren’t sure when your meeting will be held.
There’s a few different spots where you’ll need to add at least one members’ signature. These are on pages 13, 14, 15, and 16 on our template.
A Wisconsin LLC should have an operating agreement because a company cannot act for itself. In order to operate, LLCs require real humans (and other entities) to carry out company operations.
Operating agreements are not legally required for Wisconsin LLCs. But we at Northwest strongly recommend creating a written operating agreement. For one thing, according to Wis. Stat. § 183.0405, any operating agreements or amendments you have (including operating agreements no longer in effect) must be kept on record at your LLC’s primary location.
In Wisconsin, you have the option of keeping your members’ names off the Articles of Organization in order to better maintain your privacy. The only problem is that to open a business bank account—or in other cases where you need to prove you actually own your LLC—you’ll need a legal document with all members’ names listed. That’s why it helps to have an operating agreement that lists your members’ names and addresses. And since your operating agreement isn’t on the public record, you can still protect your privacy.
An LLC can only benefit from limited liability status if it can prove that it is a separate legal entity from its owners. The most obvious way LLCs do this is by having a business bank account to keep business finances separate from members’ personal finances. Another way to do this is by following the rules and procedures outlined in the operating agreement, which shows that your LLC is a distinct entity with clear policies. If you ever face a lawsuit, a strong operating agreement can help you prove your case.
No matter whether you go into business with ten strangers or your best friend, you probably won’t agree on everything. That’s why it’s best to have your initial agreements in writing, so that you can refer back to them when your members can’t see eye-to-eye.
Without an operating agreement, your LLC will be subject to Wisconsin’s default laws. You might prefer to have more control over the structure and day-to-day operations of your LLC. A written operating agreement can override these default laws with your own rules tailored to suit your LLC.
We asked our lawyers for an example of how an operating agreement can make or break your LLC. Here’s what they said.*
“Consider the case of Doral Dental USA, LLC, where the members failed to flesh out the inspection right of the other members in the LLC’s operating agreement, which required judicial intervention. Assuming good faith on all parties, because the members disagreed with each other about the meaning of ‘reasonable request,’ the Doral Dental case serves as an excellent example of why it is important for the members to think ahead and discuss the various roles and procedures which impact the LLC and its operations. Additionally, the members should have ensured that the operating agreement provisions matched the intent and understanding of the members.
“For these reasons (and more), a reasonably prudent business owner would (and should) adopt and maintain an operating agreement.”
Northwest offers free Wisconsin operating agreement templates that work for a range of management and ownership structures and are drafted by an attorney. Pick the one that works best for your Wisconsin LLC.