Legislation continues to be robust for the month of July, more statutory updates in states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. Please e-mail me if you would like a copy of any of these bills.

Georgia – House Bill 87, effective July 1, 2017, authorizes the Georgia Secretary of State to adopt rules and regulations that will allow annual reports to be valid for up to three years for all business entity types, and also enacts provisions that allow domestic nonprofit corporations to convert/domesticate into foreign nonprofit corporations and vice-versa.

– House Bill 192, effective July 1, 2017, deals with duties of directors and officers of corporations and bank and trust companies, and their liability for their actions as such.

– Senate Bill 173, effective July 1, 2017, makes numerous changes to Georgia’s laws regarding captive insurance companies, and among other things allows captive insurance companies to be formed as either corporations or LLCs.

Kentucky – House Bill 35, effective June 29, 2017, authorizes public benefit corporations as an entity type in Kentucky.

– Senate Bill 235, effective on June 29, 2017, provides among other things that legal actions can be brought against domestic and foreign business entities in the county where their registered office is, except as otherwise provided for specific types of actions in Kentucky's venue provisions and amends the LLC law regarding among other things expulsion and dissociation of members, meetings, charging orders, nonprofit LLCs, and derivative suits.

Maryland – House Bill 182, effective July 1, 2017, requires seven categories of licensees (check cashers, collection agencies, consumer lenders, debt management companies, installment lenders, credit service businesses, and sales finance companies) to register with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System as part of their initial and renewal licensing process going forward.

– House Bill 363/Senate Bill 111, effective July 1, 2017, provide for a possible exemption from transfer and recordation taxes when real property is transferred by a sole proprietor to an LLC and the sole proprietor is the only member of the LLC.

Oklahoma – House Bill 2357, effective May 12, 2017, increased the fee to reinstate suspended charters because of a corporation's failur to file an annual franchise tax return and remit franchise taxes to the state Tax Commission.

South Carolina – Senate Bill 279, effective May 11, 2017, implements and requires licensing of appraisal management companies.

Tennessee – Senate Bill 482, effective May 9, 2017, amends the nonprofit corporation and LLC laws to remove prohibitions against nonprofit corporations and LLCs reserving or using more than five assumed names during the same five year period.