Gavel & Glass Briefing - The First 90 Days: A New Executive Director's Legal and Compliance Checklist
This article was originally published by the Wisconsin Society of Association Executives (WSAE) in the Vantage Point weekly e-newsletter for the week of June 9, 2026, available at https://arpnewsletters.com/archives/WSAE/WSAE-060926.html. It was proudly co-authored with my dear friend and non-attorney colleague, Brenda A. Frederick. Republished with permission.
The First 90 Days: A New Executive Director’s Legal and Compliance Checklist
Stepping into the role of an executive director or chief executive officer at an association is an exhilarating milestone. The initial weeks are typically filled with introductory meetings, strategic briefings, and cultural onboarding. However, amidst the excitement of setting a vision and building board rapport, critical operational mechanics are easily overlooked.
In advising organizations through leadership transitions, a recurring pattern emerges: many incoming executives inadvertently miss foundational legal and compliance tasks in their first 90 days. When left unaddressed, these administrative gaps can lead to severe operational and financial consequences. To ensure a seamless transition and protect your new organization, add these five critical administrative safeguards, and an understanding of their failure modes, to your immediate 90-day roadmap.
Secure Your Legal Lifelines: Registered Agents and Mail Forwarding.
Every association must maintain a registered agent and a registered office to receive service of process and official state notices. Frequently, this registration is left in the name of a former executive or a past board member. Official state notices include annual report reminders, unemployment insurance correspondence, and reinstatement notices when a registrations might lapse. These are routine, but time sensitive.
The consequences of failure: If the state sends an annual report notice, tax document or legal summons to an outdated address, the association will remain entirely unaware of the communication. This lack of visibility quickly cascades into administrative dissolution, loss of good standing or devastating default judgments because the organization failed to respond to a lawsuit it never knew existed.
Consequently, if your organization is incorporated out of state, you should contact your corporate agent to designate yourself as the primary forwarding agent. For completely remote organizations, verify the exact logistics of physical mail delivery. This transition often requires formally updating mail-forwarding forms with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure sensitive correspondence goes directly to the correct, authorized individual without delay.
Audit, Anchor and Protect Your Financial History.
As the new executive, you inherit the organization’s financial legacy. Because of this responsibility, you must ensure you can seamlessly access the association's historic regulatory filings. Be sure to confirm 990 filing status and upcoming due dates. Secure full, unredacted copies of the organization’s tax returns (IRS Form 990) and corresponding schedules.
The consequences of failure: Relying on the assumption that these documents are easily accessible online or sitting safely in a legacy file drawer is a significant risk. If the organization faces an unexpected state or federal audit, a sudden loss of tax-exempt status or an urgent banking inquiry, an inability to instantly produce past returns will paralyze operations. Furthermore, attempting to retrieve these records retroactively from the IRS without updated executive authorizations can take months of administrative delays. To prevent this, if the association's official mailing address has changed with the leadership transition, ensure the appropriate address update forms are filed with the IRS promptly so that federal tax notices reach your desk.
Convene With Every Critical Vendor.
Another major vulnerability during a leadership handoff is contract and account management. To mitigate this risk, take the time to identify and meet with every key vendor supporting the association, from your technology providers and event planners to your insurance brokers and financial institutions. Establishing an early, direct relationship ensures there is no ambiguity regarding who holds the authority to bind the organization or alter services. Furthermore, it guarantees that you are formally established as the primary point of contact for future renewals, modifications, or notices. Part of this should include having the logins and passwords to all programs and websites provided by these vendors, changing passwords as needed to ensure access is centralized to you or your staff.
As a critical part of this vendor audit, you must immediately contact the association's banks and credit card companies to transition account control. It is vital that the new executive director is formally added to all operational and reserve accounts as an authorized signer. Simultaneously, if authorized by your board's financial policies, you should initiate a cardholder transition on any existing corporate credit cards, replacing the prior executive director as the named cardholder rather than canceling the account outright. Canceling unnecessarily disrupts recurring vendor charges and autopay arrangements tied to that card. To protect the organization from ongoing liability, ensure the prior executive director is removed from all corporate banking accounts and that their card access is revoked promptly upon transition.
Inventory Your Intellectual Property Portfolio and Contact Data.
An association’s brand, logos, and proprietary educational programs are among its most valuable assets. Therefore, do not assume your intellectual property is automatically secure. Conduct an immediate audit of all trademarks, patents and copyrights held by the organization. Ensure that you, or a specific, designated member of your staff, know exactly what registrations exist and when renewals are due.
As a best practice, an organization will typically retain a qualified attorney or law firm to serve as the formal attorney of record on its trademark registrations to manage legal filings and monitor renewals. However, even with legal counsel attached, the primary registrant data on the trademark file, the organization's physical address, phone number, general email and internal contact person, must be kept current. This operational contact data is almost universally overlooked during leadership shifts. Ensuring this information is updated prevents critical maintenance reminders from being sent into a digital void.
Ultimately, taking control of these administrative levers is not merely about checking compliance boxes; it is about building an infrastructure of trust with your board and staff. When a new leader demonstrates total command over the organization's legal and financial obligations from day one, it signals sophisticated leadership and protects the association's bottom line. By prioritizing these structural foundations in your first 90 days, you insulate your association from operational risk and clear the runway to focus entirely on strategy, culture, and growth.
About the Authors:
Edward Richard McMurray, MBA, JD is the managing attorney at the Association Law Group LLC and serves as a legal strategist specializing in association governance, non-profit law, intellectual property, and legal/regulatory compliance. He is an active member and leader within the professional association community.
Brenda A. Frederick, CNBC, IOM, ACC is the Founder and CEO of Profound Leadership LLC, specializing in strategic planning, governance, and organizational effectiveness within the association and nonprofit sector. With more than three decades of experience, she partners with boards and executive leaders to move organizations from discussion to action.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is provided for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. No recipients of content from this article, clients or otherwise, should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in the article without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from an attorney licensed in the recipient's state.
