Legal Question in Business Law in Massachusetts

Re: When do I have to show Inc. in a document or sign?

The risk in not using the full corporate name is that you can lose the liability shield and become personally liable for some obligations that otherwise would only be applied against the corporation. Best practices would be as follows:

On business cards or letterhead, if you want to use a brand name and/or logo as the central focus, be sure to add the full corporate name in the address field, e.g.,

(FORD)

Jerome Q. Mugwump, Vice President

Ford Motor Company, Inc.

12345 Ford Place

Detroit, MI

In the signature block of any document to be signed by a corporate officer, the form should be:

Ford Motor Company, Inc.

By:_________________________________

Jerome Q. Mugwump, Vice President

(signature appearing after the "By:" on the line)

[some formatting does not work on this site; each line of the address should be separate, and the line "Jerome Q. Mugwump, Vice President" should be directly under the "BY:___" line]

Best wishes,

LDWG