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Are you interested in forming an LLC (Limited Liability Company), or registering the same? Perhaps you need legal help regarding your business or assets? But, you can’t afford to get a lawyer right now.
Nothing to worry about. Nowadays, some companies help you big time with stuff like these. And, as luck would have it, you found us at the perfect moment. Today, we are reviewing LegalZoom – an affordable online legal-tech company.
This LegalZoom review will shed some light on the company itself, ways they can help you and your business, and answer some questions you might have. So, before we get into the subject, let’s have a look at everything this review will cover:
LegalZoom is an online legal service, founded twenty years ago, in 2001, by Robert Shapiro, Brian S. Lee, Brian P. Y. Liu, and Edward R Hartman. The company is headquartered in Glendale, California, the US, and is led by the CEO, Dan Wernikoff.
With Dan’s leadership and vision, and the teams’ dedication, LegalZoom has helped millions of businesses and individuals worldwide.
The main reason why LegalZoom was created in the first place, was because they wanted to let people know there’s someone who cares and speaks their language. Their main idea was to spread the word that legal help is available across the US, even to those thinking they can’t afford it. Therefore, this online legal company is most suitable for people with low to moderate incomes.
First of all, they care enough to make themselves affordable, and easily accessible to those in need of any kind of legal assistance.
Secondly, LegalZoom has a team of professionals in their expertise and they can cover different segments of the legal practice.
And, they like putting things into a neat and simple language. The kind of language that everyone can understand with much ease.
Last, but not least, their network and the number of customers they have acquired is hard proof of their reputation and professionalism.
LegalZoom most certainly has a wide spectrum of services at your disposal. Whether you need them for registering a trademark, or when forming an LLC, or maybe about something related to taxes, permits, real estate, or when you need to create a will/testament – LegalZoom is your go-to-place.
Since, we said there are quite a lot of services you can take advantage of, let us start by separating them into their distinguished categories:
1. Business Category – includes services such as:
2. Wills, Trusts, and Family Category – includes services such as:
3. Attorney Advice Category – includes services such as:
There are three LegalZoom LLC bundle packages, which include a lot of services for a convenient price.
Each state charges a separate filing fee, and you can find out more about them by selecting the state you live in on the official LegalZoom website.
Let’s take a look at their prices and see what’s the differences between the bundle packages:
Service | Economy ($79) | Standard ($329) | Express Gold ($349) |
Name Check and Business Filing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Articles of Organization | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
LLC Next Steps Guide | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Peace of Mind Review | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Lifetime Customer Support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Financial Account Authorization Letter | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Deluxe Organizer | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Official Certificates and Seal | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
LegalZoom VIP Processing | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Rush Processing with Secretary of State | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Express Shipping | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Each of the package bundles comes with a particular processing time.
Please, keep in mind that add-ons come at an additional cost. Therefore, all of the prices listed above are the starting prices of services, and if you would like an additional service, each comes with a certain fee.
That being said, if you require more than what the Business Advisory Plan includes, you can get it for an extra cost. For example:
In addition to this, let’s say that your legal issues demand more time to be resolved, rather than a 30-minute phone consultation. If that’s the case the attorney will charge their hourly rate, however, with a twenty-five percent discount, because you are a LegalZoom customer.
Here’s a table with the description of other services, alongside LegalZoom’s price tag, have a look at it and get a better understanding of their pricing:
Surely we can agree that LegalZoom is one of the most prominent online legal services for business. Compared to other service providers and LLC creation platforms, LegalZoom has affordable starting prices, all of which are transparent and clearly stated on the website. For critical thinking purposes, we can take a closer look at some pros and cons of using this platform.
Their services and experience in the field are unparalleled, but for those less experienced with online platforms, we need to take a closer look at the registration process itself and overall ease of use. For a better understanding of their registration process, let’s do this together, step by step.
Step 1 – When forming an LLC, first you will be asked for a name for your business, of course. Once you have a name, we strongly suggest you check and see whether it is available or if there are others similar to it.
Step 2 – Once that’s done. You can continue to the second screen, where you should enter the state of residence. After that, you will be asked to enter personal info, like name and phone number to make sure your order is safe.
Step 3 – This step of the LLC formation takes you to the business bar; where you need to enter some details, like when you want to launch your business, also some specs about the business itself, will you have employees, etc.
Step 4 – When the system processes the information you supplied, you will be offered the best service to suit your needs.
Step 5 – Finally, you get to choose one of the bundle packages we talked about earlier, in a different section and proceed to checkout.
The entire registration process takes up to 10 minutes, and the platform is fairly simple to use.
On the plus side, once you have an account created with them, you can use their services through their mobile application too, this way you will have everything on the go.
This is a question we all ask ourselves when dealing with legal services since it is really important to have a trustworthy service provider for your needs.
Yes, it is safe. LegalZoom collects the information you leave, when you fill out a form or request, or when you place an order. Any of this information can be used to give you a more personalized experience, processing transactions, or sending periodic emails. Nonetheless, it is clearly stated on their website, that your information will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company without your consent.
Furthermore, for your peace of mind, they also use a secure server and take excellent care of protecting your personal or public information. As far as your sensitive information goes, you should know that all sensitive/credit information supplied, is transmitted via SSL and further encrypted for ultimate information protection.
Additionally, LegalZoom’s website uses cookies for data processing, and by using their website, you are giving consent to the privacy policy we just mentioned.
Overall, you can rest assured that your data is safe and protected with LegalZoom.
As every business, company, or organization, LegalZoom too has its fair share of competitors/alternatives. Some of their competitors worth mentioning are RocketLawyer and Incfile.
Let’s take a closer look at some differences and similarities between them.
While LegalZoom comes with a lower price tag, RocketLawyer offers more services for the price they ask for. We’ve already mentioned that LegalZoom’s downside is the lack of customer support efficiency. Whereas that’s not the case with RocketLawyer – they offer a much better customer service experience.
And, this may not be something to get you to make a final decision, but RocketLawyer has served over twenty million customers, compared to LegalZooms’ number of just over four million customers.
However, RocketLawyer lacks some very important services that you can use if you decide to opt for LegalZoom—those would be, copyright registration, tax advice, or a review of a document.
Let’s kick off this comparison with the fact that LegalZoom is an established and well-known name, while Incfile is still fairly unknown. Anyway, further on, Incfile for a mere state fee, can execute your order the following business day; therefore, it can be of use to you as a registered agent for the first whole year free of charge. On the other hand, this is something you won’t get from LegalZoom, since they don’t have this option on the table at all.
Another important thing, LegalZoom takes up to 30 days to process an order, while Incfile sets a record-process time of 24 hours. In terms of price, Incfile does come slightly cheaper than LegalZoom, and it also offers certain options that you won’t find with LegalZoom.
All-in-all, both of these companies are excellent at what they do. But if you are on a budget, then you might want to stick to Incfile. And, if the brand reputation is what affects your decision, you might want to choose LegalZoom.
With this many years of work, and more than four million customers served, one can be sure to find plenty of reviews, from rating sites and customers.
Let’s see what the most prominent names/websites in the review rating section have to say about LegalZoom.
ConsumerAffairs: LegalZoom has an excellent 4.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up on more than 700 reviews.
Trustpilot: They gave LegalZoom a 4.1 star-rating/5. This is a decision brought based on no more than 759 reviews.
G2: LegalZoom scores no more than a 3.6-star rating out of 5 on G2. And, from what we could see this a star rating based on 8 reviews, solely.
BBB (Better Business Bureau): LegalZoom has an incredible rating on BBB. 4.2 star-rating/5, concluded on more than 2.200 customer reviews. Furthermore, we discovered that in the last three years, LegalZoom solved more than 600 complaints, and exactly 350 complaints were resolved in just one year. What’s more important is that LegalZoom is a BBB accredited business, with an amazing A+ grade.
This part of the article is dedicated to what verified customers have to say about their experience with LegalZoom. Be ready to read through some very satisfied and happy customer reviews and some that aren’t as happy as satisfied.
(The screenshots are taken from customer reviews left on ConsumerAffairs and Trustpilot.)
(The screenshots are taken from verified customer reviews on Trustpilot, BBB, and ConsumerAffairs.)
LegalZoom has been around for twenty years now, and as you just read, there are many reviews and comments – some more positive than others. If you are someone who would rather pick a prominent and well-known service provider, then LegalZoom is the safest way to go. With their reasonable bundle package prices and a wide spectrum of services offered, we are more than certain that you will find what you need with this company.
We recommend you to bookmark this LegalZoom review article in case you might need to be advised on how to start or register an LLC, or you might need some legal help/advice on something personal.
1. What are the benefits of using LegalZoom?
By using LegalZoom’s services you avoid a costly and overpaid lawyer, not to mention the whole back-and-forth that is inevitable when dealing with one. You can use their services either for professional purposes or personal legal affairs. LegalZoom has three packages to choose from, and they come at reasonable prices. In the end, if there’s something that doesn’t sit right with you, LegalZoom will grant you a full refund, sixty days from the day of purchase.
2. How can I reach LegalZoom customer service support?
You can give them a ring on (800) 773 0888 – Mondays to Fridays, from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M., and weekends from 7 A.M. to 4 P.M. That would be one way. Though, you can ask a question on their website too, by filling out a web form. Or, you can always refer to their extensive frequently asked questions section, which can also be found on their official website.
3. Is the LegalZoom platform easy to use?
Yes. And we know this, because we went through tons of verified customer reviews, and found no whatsoever complaints about any complexity with LegalZooms’ platform. On the contrary, numerous customers rated this platform as easy-to-use, straightforward, and with smooth navigation.
4. What are LegalZoom discount policies?
Yes, LegalZoom does have some discounts. For instance, military personnel, veterans, or retired military personnel, can save 15 percent on all legal services with LegalZoom.
Also, there’s another discount for those who are members of the Business Advisory Plan and the Legal Advantage Plus—they are entitled to 25 percent off consultations with an attorney when their paid package is exceeded. Moreover, they can also use a 10 percent discount on particular documents of legal nature.