what are articles of incorporation 
articles of incorporation are a set of formal documents filed with a government body to legally document the creation of a corporation articles of incorporation generally contain pertinent information such as the firm s name street address agent for service of process and the amount and type of stock to be issued the articles of incorporation are used to legally form the corporation understanding articles of incorporationmany businesses in the u s and canada are formed as a corporation which is a type of business operation that is formed in the state where the company carries out its operations to be recognized legally as a corporation a business must incorporate by taking certain steps and making certain decisions required under corporate law one such step is filing a document known as articles of incorporation articles of incorporation are in the document necessary to register a corporation with a state and acts as a charter to recognize the establishment of a corporation the document outlines the basic information needed to form a corporation the governance of a corporation and the corporate statutes in the state where the articles of incorporation are filed articles of incorporation are also referred to as the corporate charter articles of association or certificate of incorporation 