Expert: Steven Taylor - 5/24/2010

Question
May be a dumb question but when a charter is cancelled, does the shareholders of record have no recourse.  Perhaps you might clarify this process.

Answer
Gord, a corporate charter is what a corporation files with the government body that officially incorporates the company. A charter is cancelled by the government body (the State or Province of Incorporation) when a company fails to meet its ongoing regulatory obligations. That usually consists of filings its required annual financial information and related documents, as well as pay its taxes and fees. When a charter is cancelled, the company ceases to be incorporated. In rare cases, a charter can be revived, but it takes a lot of work, including resolving the problems that got the charter cancelled in the first place, as well as additional remediation work. Charters are rarely revived at all, and the handful that are are rarely done more than a year or two from original revocation.

From an individual shareholder standpoint, there is no recourse. The corporation is no more, and unless you can muster enough shareholders to try to revive it (and the money and expertise required), it will probably stay dead. Sorry.