An Aged Corporation can save you invaluable time and money if you are just making your debut into the corporate world. Newbies have a hard time convincing clients and lenders that they are worth a shot given that they don’t have a solid business history to back them up. Trust and confidence in business are like interpersonal relationships, earned over time. While purchasing a shelf company earns your new entity significant time-in-business, if you don’t tread carefully you might end up inheriting punishing corporate debts or getting scammed by unscrupulous online vendors.

So then what makes a good aged corporation? Well, here are a few things to keep in mind while shopping for your ideal shelf corporation.

While shopping for an aged corporation that meets your individual needs, age alone is not everything. Keep in mind that the new owner almost automatically takes over all the existing debts and liabilities of their new acquisition. Inheriting exorbitant debts of an aged company beats the whole idea of saving cost and time by purchasing a ready-made company that can begin transacting immediately. Ensure that all fees are kept current for a shelf corporation that has been active during the seasoning period.

A Certificate of Good Standing issued by the state is proof that the business has been duly registered and, therefore, cleared to operate within the state. Articles of Incorporation's together with a set of other formal documents legally document the registration of the corporation. The latter bears the business’ name, formal address, agent for service of process, and type and amount of stock. Always ensure that these important certificates that form the legal backbone of the company are available for transfer upon completion of the transaction.

The goal is to get a clean aged company with no assets, trade lines, and transferable public debts. It is normal to find aged companies with trading histories they built up during the aging period. However, uncertainty about the company’s past should keep you up at night. The only way you can argue yourself out of a listed public debt is to have a written guarantee by the vendor declaring that the corporation is clear of previous tax obligations and other liabilities.