Benefit Corporation structure legally embeds the social and environmental mission of a company into the core business objective
New York, NY, December 3, 2014 – Wolters Kluwer’s CT Corporation, a leading provider of business formation and legal compliance services, is the first public registered agent to formerly offer Benefit Corporation entity type services in its suite of offerings. A Benefit Corporation is a new class of entity structure that voluntarily meets higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency.
Benefit Corporation offers for-profit companies the opportunity to advance their Corporate Social Responsibility mission by fully integrating their intended positive impact on society and the environment. Over 1,100 companies have registered to be a benefit corporation since the structure’s inception in 2010. Currently, 27 states have passed legislation recognizing this corporate form and 19 states are working on passing similar laws.
“We are proud to be the first public registered agent to formally offer an entity structure that meets the demand of our customers while simultaneously advancing social good,” said Eric Lo, vice president of product management and marketing for the enterprise segment of CT Corporation. “CT Corporation’s deep domain expertise in every U.S. jurisdiction allows us to partner with customers to ensure they are meeting their legal compliance and regulatory requirements, for all available entity structure types.”
CT Corporation is recognized by B Lab, the nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems, as a service partner to organizations selecting the Benefit Corporation entity type. B Lab authored the procedures that most participating states have leveraged to draft Benefit Corporation legislation.
The widely accepted definition of a Benefit Corporation structure requires that an organization:
- Have a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment;
- Consider the impact corporate decisions have on both the shareholders as well as company workers, the community served, and the environment;
- And make available to the public, an annual benefit report that assesses their overall social and environmental performance against a third party standard.
“CT Corporation is a trusted partner to companies at all points of the business life cycle,” said Jennifer Friedman, chief marketing officer for the small business segment of CT Corporation. “The Benefit Corporation entity type lends itself well to newly forming companies or to the established business that wants to formalize a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility,”
To learn more about Benefit Corporation, read “Understanding Benefit Corporation” available on the CT Corporation resource center.
About Wolters Kluwer’s CT Corporation
CT, a Wolters Kluwer company, works with businesses of all sizes to offer customized expertise and comprehensive solutions regarding everything from business formations to filing business licenses and ongoing compliance. Drawing on more than a century of experience helping businesses, CT is focused on helping businesses succeed, delivering incorporation, legal and compliance solutions. As a trusted partner of the National Law Journal’s top 250 law firms, CT works with more than 70 percent of the National Law Journal’s top 250 law firms, 750 of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 300,000 small businesses every year. For more information, visit ct.wolterskluwer.com.
CT is a business of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company. Wolters Kluwer had 2013 annual revenues of €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion), employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, and maintains operations in over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.
