What limits does Utah place on a med spa's business structure?
Ownership · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
The cited rules do not settle which entity form is required — only that in a professional corporation, officers, directors, and shareholders must be same-licensed or qualified under the applicable licensing act, plus a nonlicensed secretary or treasurer.
Utah shuts the unlicensed out of every seat but two. “a person may not be an officer, director, or shareholder of a professional corporation unless that person is: (i) an individual licensed to render the same specific professional services as those for which the corporation is organized; or (ii) qualified to be an officer, director, or shareholder under the applicable licensing act for the profession for which the corporation is organized.” The one exception is administrative: “a nonlicensed person may serve as secretary or treasurer of the professional corporation.” Medicine and osteopathic medicine count as the SAME specific service here, so an M.D. and a D.O. may hold shares in one entity.
Utah Code § 16-11-8 (Officer, director, or shareholder shall be licensed professional) · verified Sep 8, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Utah rules
And shares issued to anyone else are void, not merely voidable. “a professional corporation may issue the shares of its capital stock and a shareholder may voluntarily transfer shares of capital stock in a professional corporation only to: (a) persons who are duly licensed to render the same specific professional services as those for which the corporation was organized; or (b) persons other than those meeting the requirements of Subsection (1)(a) to the extent and in the proportions allowed by the applicable licensing act for the profession for which the corporation is organized.” “Any shares issued in violation of this section are void.”
Utah Code § 16-11-7 (Issuance of shares of capital stock — Restrictions) · verified Sep 8, 2026
And the work itself must flow through licensed people: “a professional corporation may render professional services only through its officers, employees and agents who are duly licensed to render such professional services.”
Utah Code § 16-11-9 (Licensed persons to render professional services) · verified Sep 8, 2026
How other states answer this
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Related Utah questions
- Can a non-physician own a med spa in Utah?
- In Utah, may a non-clinical owner or manager be paid a share of revenue?
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← All Utah rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).