The PLLC formation quote: the state's fee, and what the rest buys

What the state itself charges to form a PLLC

The state sets two lines in a formation quote, both published: the filing fee, and an expedite if one was bought. Texas charges $300 for the certificate of formation an LLC or PLLC files 1Ref 1Texas Secretary of State (2025).Business Filings & Trademarks Fee Schedule (Form 806).The Texas statutory filing fee of $300 for a Certificate of Formation for an LLC or PLLC, and the separately priced expedite options ($50 standard, $500 next-day, $750 same-day), as one state's published example of what formation costs before any firm's markup.. New York charges $200 for a professional service LLC's articles of organization, the same amount an ordinary domestic LLC pays there 2Ref 2New York Department of State, Division of Corporations (2026).Fee Schedules.The New York filing fee of $200 for a Professional Service LLC's Articles of Organization, identical to an ordinary domestic LLC's fee, and the recurring $9 Biennial Statement as a second-year cost example.. Whoever sent the invoice prices the rest, except publication, which a newspaper bills where a state requires it.

Those two figures are examples of what one state charges, and neither is a national number. Fifty states set fifty schedules, and yours sits on your secretary of state's own fee page, usually as a one-page PDF. Look it up before you read the quote; checking it takes about a minute.

Texas also sells speed, priced separately and named as its own service: $50 for standard expedited processing, $500 for next-day, $750 for same-day 1Ref 1Texas Secretary of State (2025).Business Filings & Trademarks Fee Schedule (Form 806).The Texas statutory filing fee of $300 for a Certificate of Formation for an LLC or PLLC, and the separately priced expedite options ($50 standard, $500 next-day, $750 same-day), as one state's published example of what formation costs before any firm's markup.. An expedite charge is a real thing to buy if the filing had to clear this week. But the invoice should say which of the three it bought, and a same-day filing bought for a practice that opens in two months is a line worth striking.

The quote, line by line

A formation invoice usually bundles six things, and only some of them are money passing through to a government. Separate them on the page before arguing about the total: the state filing fee, drafting of the formation document, the operating agreement, the EIN application, a registered agent, and, where the state requires it, publication. Two of those carry published prices. One of them is free.

The EIN line is the quickest test in the stack. The IRS issues an Employer Identification Number online at no charge, and it warns on that same page that a site charging for one is not the government 3Ref 3Internal Revenue Service (2026).Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) online.That the IRS issues an EIN online at no charge and warns that sites charging for one are not the government, which is what makes an EIN line item on a formation invoice a question about the firm's time rather than a pass-through fee.. A firm may reasonably bill for the time someone spends applying on your behalf. If the line reads EIN filing fee, ask which of the two it is, because the number itself costs nothing.

Why a New York quote looks twice the size

Publication is the reason, and it is state law rather than a firm's markup. A newly formed New York LLC or PLLC has to publish notice of its formation in two county newspapers, once each week for six successive weeks, within 120 days of filing, and then file a certificate of publication with the Department of State 4Ref 4New York State Senate — Consolidated Laws of New York (2026).Limited Liability Company Law § 206 — Filing of Articles of Organization; Publication.New York's statutory publication requirement for a new LLC or PLLC (two county newspapers, once a week for six successive weeks, within 120 days, then a certificate of publication), the suspension consequence for missing it, and the fact that the newspapers are county-clerk designated so the statute fixes no price.. Miss that window and the entity's authority to carry on business in the state is suspended 4Ref 4New York State Senate — Consolidated Laws of New York (2026).Limited Liability Company Law § 206 — Filing of Articles of Organization; Publication.New York's statutory publication requirement for a new LLC or PLLC (two county newspapers, once a week for six successive weeks, within 120 days, then a certificate of publication), the suspension consequence for missing it, and the fact that the newspapers are county-clerk designated so the statute fixes no price..

The statute names the requirement and never names a price. The two newspapers are designated by the clerk of the county where the office sits, so what lands on the bill is a local advertising rate, and it moves with the county 4Ref 4New York State Senate — Consolidated Laws of New York (2026).Limited Liability Company Law § 206 — Filing of Articles of Organization; Publication.New York's statutory publication requirement for a new LLC or PLLC (two county newspapers, once a week for six successive weeks, within 120 days, then a certificate of publication), the suspension consequence for missing it, and the fact that the newspapers are county-clerk designated so the statute fixes no price.. No rate table in reach publishes those numbers, so a dollar figure on this line is an estimate, and it is worth asking what it rests on and who covers the difference.

A New York quote that dwarfs a Texas one may be quoting the same work plus six weeks of newspaper.

Whether your state has a publication step at all belongs in the first question you ask, because it changes what a fair total looks like before a single hour is counted.

Where the drafting hours are load-bearing

The part of the fee you cannot look up is drafting, and eligibility is where it starts earning. A PLLC, PC, or plain LLC are not interchangeable for a licensed clinician: the professional forms are creatures of state law, and a state's statute and its licensing board decide which entity a licensee may use 5Ref 5U.S. Small Business Administration (2026).Choose a business structure.The framing that entity forms differ in liability and tax treatment and that professional variants such as the PLLC and PC are state-created, so a state's statute and licensing board control which entity a licensee may use.. That is the entity decision sitting underneath the quote.

An operating agreement for a single-member professional entity is mostly a set of answers to questions that only matter later: what happens to the practice and its records if the owner dies or is disabled, whether a second clinician can be admitted and on what terms, and who may hold an interest at all, which your state's professional-entity statute decides. A template answers those in the abstract. A drafted agreement answers them for one practice in one state.

Counsel earns the hours when any of these is in the picture:

• more than one owner, or a plan to add one inside the first year
• anyone without a license holding an economic interest, or asking to
• forming in one state while licensed in another, or licensed in several
• an employment agreement from the job you are leaving that still restricts where and how you practice

Where none of them applies, the drafting is narrower, and narrower drafting is the thing to price in the email.

The recurring bill a one-time quote does not show

Year one is the cheap year in some states. California charges every LLC and PLLC an $800 annual tax whatever the entity earns and whether or not it is conducting business, and it keeps charging until the entity is formally cancelled 6Ref 6California Franchise Tax Board (2026).Limited Liability Company (business entity types — annual tax).California's $800 annual tax owed by every LLC and PLLC regardless of income or activity until the entity is cancelled, and the additional income-tiered fee once the entity grosses more than $250,000, as the recurring charge a one-time formation quote omits.. The statute behind that tax reaches an entity merely registered with the secretary of state, not only one already seeing patients 7Ref 7California State Legislature (2026).Revenue and Taxation Code § 17941 — Annual Tax; Limited Liability Companies.The statutory basis for California's annual LLC tax and its reach to an entity merely registered with the Secretary of State rather than actively doing business, which is what catches a practice entity formed early and left dormant during credentialing..

That reach catches clinicians who form early. An entity filed in the spring and left dormant while credentialing runs owes the same year's tax as a full panel does 7Ref 7California State Legislature (2026).Revenue and Taxation Code § 17941 — Annual Tax; Limited Liability Companies.The statutory basis for California's annual LLC tax and its reach to an entity merely registered with the Secretary of State rather than actively doing business, which is what catches a practice entity formed early and left dormant during credentialing., so when you file is a scheduling decision with a price on it.

California's charge also scales. An LLC grossing more than $250,000 in a year owes an additional, income-tiered fee stacked on top of the flat annual tax 6Ref 6California Franchise Tax Board (2026).Limited Liability Company (business entity types — annual tax).California's $800 annual tax owed by every LLC and PLLC regardless of income or activity until the entity is cancelled, and the additional income-tiered fee once the entity grosses more than $250,000, as the recurring charge a one-time formation quote omits.. New York's recurring line is smaller and easier to forget: a $9 biennial statement, due every two years 2Ref 2New York Department of State, Division of Corporations (2026).Fee Schedules.The New York filing fee of $200 for a Professional Service LLC's Articles of Organization, identical to an ordinary domestic LLC's fee, and the recurring $9 Biennial Statement as a second-year cost example..

Ask for year two on the same page as year one. A quote that includes a registered agent's first year and stops there has priced twelve months of something you intend to keep for a decade.

So is $2,400 too much?

No source in reach can say. No agency, association or published survey in reach reports what attorneys and formation services charge to form a healthcare PLLC at the grain that would let anyone call $2,400 high, ordinary or cheap, and the wide ranges circulating in search results cite nobody. What can be checked is the composition of the number, which is the part a firm has to answer for anyway.

Run the subtraction. Take the state's published filing fee off the total, take off an expedite if one was bought, take off the registered agent's first year where it sits on its own line, and what remains is the firm's time and its forms. That remainder is the figure the two of you are negotiating over, and it is the figure to set beside another firm's.

But the remainder does not rank two quotes on its own. A template operating agreement and one drafted for a single-clinician practice can appear on an invoice under the same six words at very different prices, and the difference surfaces years later, in a clause nobody read.

What to send back before you sign

Four questions, one email, and each has a short answer if the firm has done this work before. They ask for the itemization an invoice compresses into a total, and the answers are what let you set this quote against the next one instead of comparing two round numbers. Send them before signing, while the answers still cost nothing.

• Which lines are paid to a government, and which are the firm's own time?
• Is the operating agreement drafted for a single-clinician professional entity in this state, or a template with a name dropped in?
• Where the state requires publication, who arranges it, who files the proof, and is the newspaper cost inside this number?
• What does the entity owe in its second year, before it earns anything?

The HIPAA compliance quote arrives a few weeks after this one and splits the same three ways, into a pass-through, an hourly component and something that recurs. Keep the email.