Opening a studio in Louisiana: the $25,000 bond, escrow and a void waiver

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in Louisiana. The state's Physical Fitness Services Act names studios and classes outright. There is nothing to register, but there is money to set aside.

Sell anything prepaid for longer than a month and you need $25,000 on file with the State Treasurer for two years. Every dollar a member pays before you open goes into a Louisiana trust account, bond or no bond. And no waiver in Louisiana releases you from a member's physical injury.

The Physical Fitness Services Act names studios

The Act defines physical fitness services as “facilities or services for the development of physical fitness through exercise or weight control.” It goes on: “This term includes the facilities, services, and classes of health or exercise centers, clubs, studios, health spas.” A center is anyone who “for profit, offers physical fitness services.” The only carve-outs are licensed physical therapy practices and physicians' medical services. A for-profit Pilates, yoga or barre studio is a center.

The Act has no registration or license. None of its sections, 51:1575 to 51:1582, creates one. What it has is a bond, a trust account and contract rules.

The $25,000 bond and what triggers it

Section 1582 is the one that costs money: “Every center which enters into prepaid or credit contracts for physical fitness services of over one month's duration shall maintain with the state treasurer a surety bond in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars.”

Instead of a bond you can pledge a $25,000 certificate of deposit from an FDIC-insured bank doing business in Louisiana, or furnish a $25,000 irrevocable letter of credit. It stays in place for two years from the date you sell a contract. Selling more than 50 percent of the business makes the bond rule apply again.

Post a copy of the bond or CD conspicuously wherever you take money or contracts. Advertising or selling without a required bond on file is unlawful, with a fine of up to $500 after a written warning. Any member may cancel if the bond lapses.

The question the statute does not answer

Some products are plainly in. A class pack good for 60 or 90 days and paid up front is a prepaid contract of over one month. So is an annual paid in full, and so is anything financed. Some are plainly out: a drop-in, and a pack that expires within a month.

A month-to-month membership on autopay with no end date is the one nobody has settled. The Act does not define “prepaid” or say how to measure the duration of a contract with no end. One reading says each charge pays for one month, so no prepaid contract runs over a month. The other says the agreement itself has no end date, so its duration is over a month, and every charge is paid before the month it covers. We found no Attorney General opinion, regulation or court decision choosing between them. This post does not pick one. If you sell autopay memberships, either post the bond or get an answer from the Attorney General's consumer protection section in writing before you launch.

Money taken before opening goes into trust

Section 1582(K) says “All monies paid by a customer to a center prior to the opening of the outlet shall promptly be deposited by the center in a trust account.” The account is at a bank, savings and loan, mutual savings bank or licensed escrow agent located in Louisiana. Within seven days of the first deposit you tell the Attorney General's office of consumer protection, in writing, where the account is. Each member gets a receipt and the name and address of the depository.

If a member cancels, or you miss the opening date in the contract, you refund the escrowed money within 10 days with the member's share of the interest. Unlike Missouri, posting the bond does not excuse you from the trust account. Money above normal monthly dues also goes into escrow while your services are not fully operational or you are promising construction or improvements.

In Frontmat a membership can be sold before opening with billing starting on opening day, and a founding membership can be capped at a number of spots. A founding member signed that way pays nothing before you open, so by our reading there is nothing to put in trust. Whether the founding membership itself needs the bond is the autopay question above.

What that means for your products

In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly on the member's card through Stripe. There is no annual or multi-month membership product. Class packs can expire after a number of days you set, or never. A pack set to 28 days never outlasts a calendar month.

What the contract must say

Section 1577 applies to every prepaid or credit contract of over one month:

• In writing, with a copy to the member at signing, showing the street address of the center and any outlet the member may use, and any finance charge.
• If you sell before opening, a written list of the equipment and services that will be available, given before the member signs.
• The member may cancel if you go out of business, move more than 10 driving miles without an equal outlet within 10 miles inside 30 days, do not finish construction within one year of the contract, or materially change the services you listed. Construction must start within 30 days of the first contract.
• Under a conspicuous caption in capital letters and boldface, “CUSTOMER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL”: the member may cancel before midnight of the third business day after signing, by hand delivery or registered mail. You return payments within 15 days, less a reasonable fee for days the member actually used.

No contract may run longer than 36 months, last for the member's life or waive the Act (51:1578). A provision that does not comply is unenforceable against the member (51:1579).

Two renewal laws mostly miss a studio. R.S. 9:2716 does not apply to a contract the member can cancel by written notice within thirty days or one month after the initial period. The Click-to-Cancel Act, in force January 1, 2027, skips businesses with fewer than 50 employees or under $5 million in revenue.

Sales tax: memberships are taxed, classes are unsettled

Louisiana taxes “the furnishing, for dues, fees, or other consideration, of the privilege of access to clubs, including buyer's clubs, or the privilege of having access to or the use of amusement, entertainment, athletic, or recreational facilities” (R.S. 47:301.3). The Department of Revenue's bulletin RIB 16-014 says membership dues that give access to workout facilities are taxable, even at the YMCA. The state rate has been 5 percent since January 1, 2025, and parishes and cities add their own.

Missouri's statute exempts “any instructional class.” Louisiana's has no such carve-out, and we found no Department of Revenue ruling on instructor-led classes or class packs. A 2024 bill, HB 9, would have put a 5 percent tax on group exercise classes and personal training outright. It did not advance, according to the US Registry of Exercise Professionals. Whether a class-only studio's packs are “use of athletic facilities” is open. The Department's own FAQs frame the question. Louisiana's state sales tax reaches only ten categories of services, and instruction is not one of them. The admissions category covers “use of amusements, entertainment, athletic or recreational facilities,” which “includes gym memberships,” and “charges for participation in games and amusement activities.” On our reading, a pack that buys instructor-led classes has an argument that it is untaxed instruction, and a pack that buys time in your space does not. Ask the Department of Revenue before you set prices.

Plan on memberships being taxable. Build the tax into the price or collect it with another tool. Frontmat does not add a sales tax line to packs or memberships today.

Your waiver will not release injury claims

Louisiana Civil Code article 2004 is two sentences. “Any clause is null that, in advance, excludes or limits the liability of one party for intentional or gross fault that causes damage to the other party.” And: “Any clause is null that, in advance, excludes or limits the liability of one party for causing physical injury to the other party.”

The Louisiana Supreme Court applied it in Ramirez v. Fair Grounds Corp. (1991), where a horse trainer fell from a stable loft after signing a release that named the track's negligence. The court held the release null. In Fecke v. Board of Supervisors of LSU (La. App. 1 Cir. 2015), a climbing wall's release was held null for exactly that reason. A signature does not release a Louisiana studio from an injury claim.

Minors follow from the same text. The article voids the clause itself, so our reading is that a parent's signature cannot do for a child what an adult's cannot do for themselves. We found no case on a parent's release specifically. What a Louisiana waiver can still do, such as recording that the member was told the risks, is a question for a Louisiana lawyer. So is how much liability coverage you carry.

In Frontmat the waiver is your own text. Members sign it once, at their first booking, with a typed name. We store the time and a fingerprint of the exact wording they signed, so an edit later never changes what an earlier member agreed to. It is plain text, so emphasis is done in CAPITALS. We never supply waiver language.

Workers' comp and texts

Louisiana has no headcount threshold. The workers' comp chapter covers every person performing services in the course of the employer's business (R.S. 23:1035), and every employer must insure (23:1168). Owners of 10 percent or more who are officers or LLC members, partners and sole proprietors may opt themselves out in writing with the insurer. Failing to insure costs up to $250 per employee for a first offense (23:1170).

The state Do Not Call law covers “any voice or data communication” made to encourage a sale (R.S. 45:844.12). Messages to someone who asked, or to someone with a current business relationship with you or one that lapsed less than six months ago, are exempt. Penalties run to $1,500 per violation, or $3,000 if the person is over 65 (45:844.15).

Frontmat sends booking texts only (waitlist offers, confirmations and cancellations) to members who opted in, and stores the time and wording of each opt-in. It sends no marketing texts.

Before you sign anything

1. Decide your menu: which packs run past a month, whether anything is paid up front, and whether you sell autopay memberships.
2. If anything is prepaid over a month, file the $25,000 bond, CD or letter of credit with the State Treasurer before the first sale, and post a copy wherever you take payments. For autopay memberships, bond or get the Attorney General's answer in writing.
3. If you take any money before opening, open a trust account at a Louisiana institution and notify the Attorney General's office of consumer protection within seven days of the first deposit.
4. Write the member contract with the CUSTOMER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL caption in capitals and bold, and the equipment list if you sell before opening.
5. Ask the Department of Revenue how your packs and memberships are taxed before you set prices.
6. Have a Louisiana lawyer write the waiver, knowing it cannot release injury claims.
7. Insure workers' comp from your first employee.

This is our reading of the statutes and agency pages as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm the bond with the State Treasurer, the Act's questions with the Attorney General's consumer protection section and the tax questions with the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

If you are still choosing where to open, we keep the rules in every state on one page.