Corporate Secretarial Services in Chile – Not your classic ancillary service

Corporate Secretarial Services

Back-Office providers frequently get this so wrong: They target existing clients for cross-selling services they neither fully comprehend nor are adequately equipped to deliver.

A similar scenario arises with new clients: In an effort to increase revenue, Back-Office Providers often offer a broad array of ancillary services without clearly distinguishing which are mandatory and which are ad hoc or tailored to specific client or sector requirements.

Among these “non-core” services, Corporate Secretarial Services (“CoSeC”) are often overlooked, which is problematic given their critical role in ensuring that local companies remain fully compliant with legal, regulatory, and public entity requirements. One would expect such essential services to be prioritized in a Back-Office Service Provider’s catalog; however, they are frequently relegated to the end.

A significant commercial challenge for Back-Office Providers is that CoSeC services are typically billed annually, whereas most other services are rendered and invoiced monthly. This discrepancy often leads to invoicing complications such as services not being invoiced, incorrect invoicing, or improper proration. Such inefficiencies can lead to client dissatisfaction.

Then comes the question of who will actually provide these CoSeC services?  Back-Office providers usually go for one of the following two options:

1. In-house lawyers who:

2. Frequently neglects CoSeC responsibilities in favor of more profitable monthly services.

3. Are typically not specialists in Corporate Law or broader compliance matters.

2. Outsource the service:

3. Resulting in higher costs for the client

4. Introducing communication and operational challenges.

5. Causing quality control concerns.

It is striking that such a critical function as Corporate Secretarial Services is often neglected by local Back-Office providers in one way or another.

At South Gate, however, we treat these services with utmost seriousness, recognizing their role as the backbone of business operations in Chile for two main reasons:

1. They Guarantee entity legal compliance.

2. They significantly help boost operational performance.

It is more than a matter of good practice; robust Corporate Secretarial Services ensure a company’s good standing and compliance with local regulations, while also driving continuous improvement in operations, governance, procedures, and structure. A successful expansion by a foreign company into Chile depends not only on commercial agreements and key performance indicators, but also on legal compliance, risk mitigation, accountability, transparency, and administrative proficiency—all of which are elements encompassed by CoSeC services.

At South Gate, we ADD VALUE to our clients’ operations by providing a tailored range of CoSeC services delivered by experienced specialist lawyers and skilled administrative professionals. This scope typically includes:

• Shareholders´ Ordinary Meeting - (1) per year, including summons, drafting of the Minutes, signing of the Minutes, and pertinent formalities.

• Shareholders´ Extraordinary Meeting - (1) per year, including summons, drafting of the Minutes, signing of the Minutes, and pertinent formalities.

• Board of Directors´ Meetings - (1) per year, including summons, drafting of the Minutes, signing of the Minutes, and pertinent formalities.

• Custody and maintenance of physical Corporate Books.

• Commercial License management, including reminders and assistance with payments twice a year.

• Aiding and supporting Official and Internal Audit Process.

• Periodic regulation updates/bulletins.

Corporate Secretarial Services in Chile 

Author: Allan Schulder – Co-Founder & CEO at South Gate Advisory.