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Time to keep a promise. In December, I wrote about 4-1/2 ways to kill off your company, legally. I mentioned amalgamation as the "1/2" way. So here's the scoop.

Some years ago, Paul Simon wrote the song "50 ways to leave your lover". As in love, so in business: sometimes you have to get rid of your own corporation. It won't leave; so you have to do something to it.

I'm not talking about killing your business -- about running it into the ground, deliberately or unintentionally. There's certainly 50 ways to do that. And no doubt, there's more than 50 ways. Enron itself probably added another dozen, just by itself.

With the real estate market being so hot these days in many parts of British Columbia, it's become more important than ever to understand why it's important to keep your British Columbia company in good standing. If you used your company to buy land, you can lose that land to the government if you don't keep up with your company's annual filings. The same considerations apply to societies that are incorporated in British Columbia -- all those charitable groups, religious and community organizations, and so on.
 

I thought it might be helpful to begin a series of posts on points to ponder when it comes to forming your BC corporation. (And some of the ideas will be useful when you're incorporating in Canada or elsewhere.) We've already put some information on the main part of our website (http://www.incorporate.ca), so you might want to read there, too. There will be overlap, but it's all in a good cause.

Today, we'll discuss choosing a name for your new company.

To begin with, you'll need to consider:
 

Important note: Effective November 28, 2016, the old Society Act was replaced by the quite different Societies Act. All existing BC societies will need to file transition materials by November 28, 2018 or face dissolution. For more information, go to Societies Online. We would be pleased to help in preparing and filing transition materials for your society.