Affordable Company Secretary Services for Startups in Malaysia: What You Actually Need

How Much Does a Company Secretary Cost?

How much does a company secretary cost in Malaysia? Here's the honest, direct answer: there isn't one number, because the law doesn't fix a price for this service — it fixes a floor. What the law does fix is what happens if you skip it. Leaving the position vacant for more than thirty days is an offence under the Companies Act 2016 that can draw a fine of up to fifty thousand ringgit, plus a further one thousand ringgit for every day it continues.

So the real question isn't "how much" — it's "which shape of fee, and does it cover what I actually need." At PT Corporate Services, we act as a named company secretary under the Companies Act 2016 for companies across the Klang Valley, and this is one of the first questions every founder asks us.

Today I'll walk you through exactly what the law makes mandatory regardless of price, how firms actually structure their fees, what genuinely drives the number up, and the questions that expose a bad deal before you sign.

What's Legally Mandatory, Regardless of Price?

So what does the law actually make mandatory, no matter what you end up paying? Four things, and none of them are optional. A named company secretary — a natural person, ordinarily resident in Malaysia, qualified to act under Section 235 of the Companies Act 2016, appointed within thirty days of incorporation. A registered office — a real Malaysian address where your statutory records are kept. The annual return, lodged within thirty days of every incorporation anniversary.

And your financial statements, lodged with SSM through the MBRS system within thirty days of being circulated to members. Add the running duties — keeping statutory registers current, and notifying SSM of any change to directors, secretary, registered office or shareholding within fourteen days — and that's the complete legal floor every provider is pricing around.

That's a different number from the flat one thousand and ten ringgit SSM charges to register the company itself. That fee is one-time, and it's fixed by law. What a firm charges you to act as your ongoing company secretary is priced by the firm, not by SSM — which is exactly why the number you get quoted varies.

What Does a Pre-Revenue Startup Need?

If the mandatory core is fixed, what actually should move the price for you specifically? Start with how much secretarial work your company genuinely generates. If you're pre-revenue with one or two founders and ordinary shares, your real annual volume is small — the mandatory core, plus a handful of resolutions: opening a bank account, confirming your financial year end, maybe recording founder share arrangements. Ten to fifteen documents a year is a realistic volume for most early-stage companies.

Malaysian private companies don't even need to hold an AGM — decisions travel as written resolutions instead. That matters for cost because it tells you exactly what you're buying: the mandatory core, delivered accurately and on time. Nothing about being a startup requires a premium package.

How Are Company Secretary Fees Structured?

So how do providers actually price this work? There are four common shapes, and knowing which one you're being quoted matters more than the headline number. A monthly or annual retainer — one recurring fee covering the named secretary, the registered office and routine compliance; usually the right shape for an active startup, but ask exactly which filings and how many resolutions sit inside it.

Per-filing pricing — a lower base fee, with each resolution and lodgement charged individually; this can suit a genuinely dormant company, but for an active startup the per-item charges accumulate invisibly. A bundled first-year package — incorporation plus the first year of secretarial service in one price; convenient, but check what year two costs before you commit, because the bundle price is not the renewal price.

And disbursements — the statutory fees paid to SSM on your behalf, which should always be itemised separately from the service fee, not folded in. None of these four shapes is dishonest by itself. The trap is a cheap retainer that quietly excludes every filing — per-filing pricing wearing a retainer's clothes.

What Pushes the Price Above the Baseline?

What actually pushes the price above that baseline? Complexity you haven't triggered yet. Preference shares, employee option paperwork and multiple share classes belong to your first serious fundraise — setting them up "investor-ready" before any investor exists means paying today for documents you may well redraft anyway. Meeting attendance and minute-taking services are rarely justified for a two-founder startup that's simply passing written resolutions.

And bundled extras you didn't ask for — mail-handling volume you won't use, periodic reviews of registers that are only months old — are useful later, and padding now. Everything on this list can be added within days once the trigger event — a fundraise, a new share class, a larger board — actually arrives, so deferring isn't neglecting.

What Does Choosing on Price Alone Cost You?

So what does choosing purely on price actually cost you later? More than the fee difference. Miss the annual return three or more times in a row and a company can be put on the path to being struck off by SSM entirely — at that point, the true cost of a weak, cheap secretary was never the retainer difference, it was the company itself.

Along the way, the cheapest providers sometimes keep the thinnest records, and that surfaces during due diligence, when an investor's lawyer asks for the register of members and the resolution behind every share movement — rebuilding years of records then costs a multiple of what accurate upkeep would have.

Copying a resolution template off the internet feels free, but a resolution that misstates share numbers creates a defect in the register that surfaces at the worst possible time — and notifiable changes still have to reach SSM within fourteen days regardless of who drafted the document.

What Should You Ask Before You Sign?

So before you sign with anyone, what should you actually ask? Six questions filter most of the field. What exactly does the recurring fee include, and what's charged per item? Are SSM's statutory fees passed through at cost, and itemised on the invoice? What does a standard resolution cost, and what's the turnaround time? If year one is a bundle, what does year two cost? If you ever leave, what does handover of your registers and records cost?

And who, by name, is your secretary — and how fast do they actually respond? Any provider comfortable answering all six in writing is probably safe to hire, whatever their price point turns out to be.

Recap: What We'd Actually Tell You

So, to recap: there's no single market rate for a company secretary in Malaysia, because fees are priced in different shapes, not on one scale. What's fixed is the legal floor — appoint within thirty days or risk a fine up to fifty thousand ringgit — and what's smart is matching your package to what your company actually generates, not what a provider wants to bundle in.

At PT Corporate Services, we're a corporate secretarial firm in Kota Damansara, in the Klang Valley, and we confirm scope and fee upfront, in writing, before any work starts. Message us on WhatsApp, and the full written breakdown — with all four fee shapes and every one of those six questions — is on our website.