Wind-Down Service, Law Firm or Restructuring Firm: Who to Hire to Close a Company

Who does which part of closing a company

Closing a company has legal work and administrative work. Your lawyer advises on legal decisions: approvals, creditor claims and disputes. In the team we recommend, a wind-down service prepares, files and tracks the paperwork and works with your lawyer, and a CPA prepares the final returns. Some services list tax or legal work in their own scope, so ask.

The comparison below reflects the sources reviewed on October 19, 2026:

These services can work together. Whichever combination you choose, direct legal questions to your lawyer and tax questions to your CPA.

The five routes, one by one

A wind-down service: Starcycle

Starcycle prepares filings, tracks franchise tax deadlines and handles subscription cancellations alongside your lawyer's work. A short online intake provides a quote for a simple closure. Complex cases receive a dashboard and a dedicated team member, and every filing is reviewed before submission.

Key features

• A tailored action plan, built from a short intake of mostly yes-or-no questions.
• Key-date tracking for franchise tax due dates, filing windows and contract renewal dates, plus an automatic good-standing check across all 50 states.
• Contract and subscription cancellation, timed to avoid early-termination fees and auto-renewals.
• Document management for every filing, contract and closure document.
• State filings, such as articles of dissolution and certificates of cancellation, in every state where the company is registered, with final returns coordinated with a CPA.

Strengths

• You have support tracking the work. Questions that require legal or tax judgment go to your lawyer and CPA, or to our partners.
• Every letter and filing is drafted, then reviewed and approved by a team member before anything gets sent.
• Simple cases move straight to a quote, and complex ones get a dated action plan, quoted upfront, from a dedicated person who works through it with you.

Limitations

• Operational support for shutdowns, not a substitute for legal, tax or financial advice.
• Legal questions go to your lawyer, and we can introduce you to lawyers and accountants.

Pricing

• A quote online for a simple case; an upfront quote for a complex one. Both start on our pricing page.

Other wind-down services offer different levels of support. Inkle's dissolution page lists board and shareholder approval, the articles of dissolution, and final state and federal returns prepared by its in-house team. For a venture-backed startup, our list of startup shutdown services compares the services built for investors and Delaware C-corps, and our guide to business shutdown services compares the services themselves.

Your company's law firm

The firm that handled your last financing or drafted the lease may already know the documents relevant to your closure. Your lawyer advises on legal decisions regardless of who handles the administrative work.

Key features

• FindLaw's lawyer-reviewed guide, updated August 9, 2026, lists articles of dissolution, final tax returns, settling creditor debts, terminating commercial leases and tax clearances among the work a lawyer can do.
• One Florida firm's dissolution page lists preparing "filings and supporting records" and coordinating legal planning with tax, accounting, payroll and insurance advice.

Strengths

• Legal judgment on your company's own documents, contracts, creditor claims and disputes.
• Advice to the company's owners or board, who then decide and sign.

Limitations

• LeanLaw, a legal-billing software company, writes in its February 2026 guide for law firms that "Most law firms do not prepare final tax returns", so ask your firm what it does itself and what it hands to a CPA or a wind-down service.

Pricing

• Set by each firm, in an engagement letter you sign before the work starts.

A restructuring or turnaround firm

A restructuring or turnaround firm may be relevant when the company is in financial distress and the board is assessing whether it can meet its obligations.

Key features

• Riveron's distress practice lists "Interim Management", "Bankruptcy and Fiduciary" and "Distressed Transaction Services", and its bankruptcy and fiduciary page lists "Provide Chief Restructuring Officer leadership" and "Serve as trustee, receiver, or assignee for benefit of creditors".
• CMBG Advisors describes "Corporate restructuring and strategic advisory services" and acts as the assignee in an assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC), which it describes as a state-law insolvency proceeding in which the assignee liquidates the company's assets and distributes the proceeds to creditors.

Strengths

• Interim leadership and fiduciary roles for a company in financial distress.

Limitations

• The firms' pages focus on financial distress, interim management and fiduciary roles. Ask which closing filings they handle.

Pricing

• Not published on the pages we read.

Your lawyer can advise whether an ABC, bankruptcy or ordinary dissolution fits the company's circumstances. Our guide to liquidation and bankruptcy explains the differences. Discuss any debts with your lawyer.

A CPA

Your CPA handles the final returns, drawing on the company's filing history.

Key features

• Final federal and state returns. The IRS asks you to check the "final return" box, and it cannot close your business account until you have filed all necessary returns and paid all taxes owed.

Strengths

• Tax judgment based on how your company's returns have been filed over the years.

Limitations

• Ask whether the firm also handles the state filings and key dates, or works alongside your lawyer or a wind-down service that does.

Pricing

• Set by each firm, in an engagement letter.

Depending on how your taxes have historically been filed, some of the requirements may have changed, so confirm the filing list with your CPA.

Doing it yourself, with your formation platform's help pages

You formed the company through Stripe Atlas or Clerky, and their help pages point you elsewhere to dissolve it.

Key features

• Stripe's dissolving your company page tells Atlas founders to "Choose a service to help you dissolve your company", names three services, says one of them, Elevate, "connects Stripe Atlas users with lawyers" and adds that "It's a good idea to work with an accountant to confirm your tax obligations."
• Clerky's dissolution help page says "we don't have any products for dissolution" and asks companies it formed to contact it for details.
• doola's dissolution help page lists what its service excludes, including tax clearance certificates, sales tax account closures and payroll tax account closures.

Strengths

• You control the order of the work and pay each state's own fees.

Limitations

• You are responsible for tracking and completing each task, with legal and tax questions directed to your lawyer and CPA.

Pricing

• State fees and any taxes owed. Our guide to what a DIY LLC shutdown costs sets the two routes side by side.

What to ask before you hire anyone

An engagement letter should make responsibilities clear, including who files in each state. Ask every firm and service the same questions, including us, and get the answers in writing:

• Which documents do you prepare, and which do the company's owners or board sign?
• Is your work legal or tax advice, or administrative support, and who are your partner lawyers and CPAs?
• How do you work with my lawyer, and what do you hand back to them?
• Who prepares the final federal and state returns, and at what cost?
• Which states will you withdraw the company from?
• What does the quoted price include, and which state fees are additional?
• If the company can't pay all its debts, how do you work with my lawyer?

If a fund is overseeing the close, our guide to portfolio company wind-down services covers the fund's side.

Putting the team together

List the closing tasks and assign each one to someone, with your lawyer responsible for legal advice and your CPA for final returns.

For administrative support, bring the list to Starcycle. Simple cases receive an online quote. For a complex case, a team member builds a plan with dates and provides an upfront quote. We can also introduce you to lawyers and accountants.

FAQ

Do I need a lawyer to close my company?

A lawyer and a wind-down service do different parts of the work. The service prepares and tracks the filings, and your lawyer advises on the legal decisions, such as approvals, contracts, creditor claims and disputes. Talk to your lawyer before filing, including about any debts.

Is Starcycle a law firm?

No, Starcycle is a shutdown service that handles the administrative side of closing a company: filings, deadlines, contracts and records. For legal or tax questions about your own case, we work with partner lawyers and CPAs, or yours, and we can introduce you to lawyers and accountants.

Can a wind-down service work with my company's existing law firm?

Yes. We work through partner CPA and legal relationships, or yours. Ask any service how it hands work back to your counsel.

Is a restructuring firm the same as a wind-down service?

They generally describe different work. The restructuring firms reviewed here focus on financial distress, interim management and fiduciary roles. The wind-down services focus on filings, deadlines and closing tasks. Your lawyer advises on which approach fits the company.