What is an appropriate statement of a corporation’s purpose?

Except for professional corporations, which must describe the specific profession in which the corporation will be engaged (e.g., law, medicine, accounting), the California corporation’s code requires only that a corporation state that its purpose as follows: “The purpose of the corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which a corporation may be organized under the General Corporation Law of California other than the banking business, the trust company business, or the practice of a profession permitted to be incorporated under the California Corporation’s Code”. Under prior law, Articles typically included a laundry list of powers of corporation, but it is no longer appropriate to include any additional statement regarding the powers or rights of a corporation in the Articles. It is appropriate, however, to include limitations on the powers or rights of a corporation in the Articles of Incorporation (e.g., prohibitions on the power of a corporation to engage in certain types of business transactions).