Registered agent
Registered Agent Service, Every State and DC
Every LLC has to name a registered agent: a person or company with a street address in the state, there during business hours, to accept lawsuits and state notices for the company. You can be your own, and your home address goes on the public record. Or you can name ours while you form the company or order its annual report, and our partner's office in your state goes on the record instead, with everything that arrives scanned to you the same business day.
Updated November 1, 2026.
Add it where you need it
Choose our registered agent inside the LLC application, or inside an annual report order for a company that already exists.
The agent's yearly charge is itemized on the checkout review screen before you pay.
What a Registered Agent Does
The registered agent is the company's official point of contact for the state and for the courts. When someone sues the LLC, the papers (service of process) are delivered to the registered agent at the registered office. When the state has something formal to say, a notice that the annual report is due, a tax notice, a warning that the company is about to be dissolved for not filing, it goes to the same address. The agent's one job is to be there, accept the document and get it to the owner fast enough to act on it.
That is also why the role exists at all. A state needs a reliable place to reach every company on its register, and a plaintiff needs a reliable place to serve one. The agent's name and street address are published on the state's record for anyone to look up, which is the part owners who work from home tend to mind.
The agent does not run the company, sign for it or give it legal advice. It receives, it records, it forwards. Every state's LLC statute requires one, and the formation filing in every state has a field for it; a filing without a qualifying agent is rejected.
What arrives at the registered office
- Service of process: the summons and complaint when the company is sued, subpoenas, garnishment orders.
- State notices: annual report and franchise tax reminders, late notices, the warning before administrative dissolution.
- Tax agency mail addressed to the registered office.
- Occasionally, mail from vendors who found the address on the public record. It is forwarded like the rest.
The Physical-Address and Business-Hours Rule
A street address in the state
Every state requires the registered office to be a physical street address inside the state of formation. A PO box is refused everywhere; Virginia also refuses virtual offices and mail drops, and Texas returns a filing whose agent sits at a mailbox store. The address must be where the agent actually is.
Someone there in business hours
Process servers deliver in person during normal business hours, and an agent who is not there has not been served. An owner who is on job sites, travelling or simply out at lunch can miss a delivery, and some courts treat a diligent failed attempt as good enough. A staffed office does not have that gap.
Who may serve
In most states any adult resident with a street address, or a business entity authorized in the state, including a member or manager of the LLC. The LLC can never be its own agent. Virginia narrows the individual option to a resident member or manager or a Virginia State Bar member. Your state page states its rule.
Same-Business-Day Scanning
With our registered agent service, our national partner is named as the LLC's agent of record in the state where it is formed. Legal papers and state mail delivered to that office are scanned and emailed to you the same business day they arrive, with the original held for you. A lawsuit has a deadline that starts running on the day of service, and a dissolution warning has a date on it; a same-day scan is what makes either of them something you can act on in time.
The service renews yearly from the day the agent is appointed, with a reminder 30 days ahead, and it can be cancelled online from your order page or by email at any time. If you cancel, you name a replacement agent with the state so the company is never without one.
- Our partner's street address in your state on the public record instead of your home
- Service of process and state notices scanned to your email the same business day
- Originals held and available on request
- Yearly renewal with a reminder 30 days ahead; cancel online whenever you like
- Available in all 50 states and DC, inside a formation or annual report order
How to Add It
1. While forming the LLC
In the LLC application, the registered agent step asks whether you will serve yourself or want ours. Choose ours and our partner's address in your state goes into the agent field of the articles, with the acceptance or consent the state wants supplied by the agent. The charge is itemized on the checkout review screen.
Form an LLC by state2. While ordering an annual report
For a company that already exists, choose our agent on the annual report order form. In the states where the report itself names the agent, the change rides on that filing; elsewhere the change is its own state filing. The same yearly charge, itemized before you pay.
Annual reports by state
Where the Agent Changes on the Annual Report
In these states the annual report (or its local equivalent) can itself name a new registered agent, so switching to our agent needs no separate filing when the change goes in with the report:
- CaliforniaChange it on the California annual report
- FloridaChange it on the Florida annual report
- GeorgiaChange it on the Georgia annual report
- IdahoChange it on the Idaho annual report
- MichiganChange it on the Michigan annual report
- OregonChange it on the Oregon annual report
- UtahChange it on the Utah annual report
Everywhere else the agent change is a separate filing with the state (a statement of change, or the state's change-of-agent form), and in Virginia the yearly obligation is a fee payment with no report at all, so the change is always its own filing there. For a company we are forming, none of this applies: the agent you choose in the application is on the articles from the start.
Registered Agent by State
Our sister site Standard Filings handles state-specific agent service and agent changes: the agent for a company that is not forming or filing a report with us, and the change-of-agent filing in the states where the annual report cannot carry it. Each state's page there covers that state's rule on who may serve and how the change is filed.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- 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
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
- District of Columbia
Registered Agent Questions
Can I be my own registered agent?+
In every state, yes, if you have a street address in the state where the company is formed (not a PO box) and someone is there during business hours to accept legal papers. Virginia is the exception that proves the rule: an individual agent there must also be a member or manager of the LLC or a Virginia State Bar member. The trade-offs are the same everywhere: your address goes on the public record, and a process server can arrive at it while you are with a customer.
What happens if I have no agent?+
A filing without a registered agent is rejected, so an LLC cannot be formed without one. If the agent later resigns or cannot be found, state notices and lawsuits can be served on the state's fallback (in Virginia, the Clerk of the Commission) or go unanswered, which is how default judgments and administrative dissolution start. Name a replacement with the state as soon as the old agent goes.
Can I switch to your agent later?+
Yes. In Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Utah, Idaho and Oregon the annual report itself can name a new registered agent, so choosing our agent when you order the report puts our partner's address on the record with that filing. Elsewhere the change is its own state filing; for a company we are forming, choose the agent in the application and it is on the articles from day one. For an existing company in another state, our sister site Standard Filings handles the change-of-agent filing. Standard Filings registered agent
Is your agent in every state?+
Yes. Our registered agent partner maintains a staffed street address in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, so the same service is available whichever state the LLC is formed in. The state's own rules on who may serve are met in each one, including Virginia's, where the agent must be an entity authorized to do business in the state.
Do you forward mail or scan it?+
Scan. Legal papers (service of process) and state mail that arrive at the registered office are scanned and sent to you by email the same business day they arrive, and the originals are kept available. Ordinary business mail is not what a registered office is for; keep the company's mailing address with you and give the state the agent's address only in the registered agent field.
Does the agent's address become public instead of mine?+
For the registered agent field, yes: the state publishes the agent's name and street address, and with our agent that is our partner's office rather than your home. Other addresses the state asks for, such as the principal office or the organizer's address, are still yours and still public in most states; the state page for your state says exactly who and what appears on its record.
Our address on the record, your mail scanned the same day
Choose our registered agent while forming your LLC. Every state and DC.
Service fee guarantee