Your Nevada LLC operating agreement is a legal document that establishes rules for how your LLC will handle procedures like voting, allocating profits and losses, management, and even—should it ever come to this—dissolution.
An operating agreement is an internal document, but that doesn’t make it any less important than documents filed with the state. In fact, adopting a strong operating agreement is essential. That’s why we at Northwest offer a range of free, attorney-drafted operating agreement templates to help suit your business needs.
Your LLC’s operating agreement maps out how it will function internally. You can include almost anything your operating agreement—as long as it doesn’t go against Nevada’s laws—but it’s important that you cover the following subjects:
Want to leave the legal document sourcing 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? An old car? Put that here.
You’ll just write in 16 here since our version has a set amount of pages.
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.
Address where 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 Nevada 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.
A Nevada LLC “may, but is not required to, adopt an operating agreement,” according to NV Rev Stat § 86.286 (2019). However, you will need an operating agreement to maintain your LLC. Here’s why:
You’ll be asked to show your operating agreement when you open a bank account for your LLC, which is a crucial step in maintaining your limited liability status.
To benefit from limited liability status, business owners must show that their LLC is its own legal entity separate from its members. One way to do this is to open a separate bank account for your LLC. Another way is to create (and follow) an operating agreement.
People won’t always be on the same page—that’s life. But with an operating agreement to establish agreed-upon rules and procedures for your LLC, you can prevent those misunderstandings from flaring up into bigger problems down the line.
Without an operating agreement, your LLC will automatically be governed by Nevada’s LLC statutes. The problem is that these default laws might not fit your business needs. An operating agreement enables you to adjust many aspects of company operations—without defying state laws—to best 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 Maya I-215, LLC v Moore , where the LLC’s manager believed that some individual members received unauthorized fees to the detriment of other members of the LLC. Consequently, the manager initiated litigation attempting to recover those unauthorized fees. The offending individuals tried to collaterally attack the manager’s efforts by asserting to the courts that the manager lacked standing (legal concept determining who is permitted to file a lawsuit) to bring and continue litigation against the offending individuals. Fortunately for the other LLC members, the members had previously adopted and maintained an operating agreement and the courts gave weight to the operating agreement’s provision authorizing the LLC manager to institute, prosecute, and defend against any proceeding on behalf of the LLC.
“ Had the members failed to adopt and maintain an operating agreement, untold amounts of resources would have been expended litigating and resolving this dispute. For these reasons (and more), a reasonably prudent business owner would (and should) adopt and maintain an operating agreement.”
Here are our LLC operating agreement templates. Select the one that best suits your LLC below.