What is a registered agent, and why do I actually need one?
A registered agent is someone designated to accept service of process and official mail on your behalf. If you do not know what it is, you might be new to State bureaucracy. Basically law suits can't continue in court unless one party can prove they notified the other party. So companies could easily hide from law suits if they said they never were notified properly. When someone files an affidavit in court that they served a document via certified mail or walked into the office and handed it to someone, it is legal proof that the company in question, was notified. This is the proper way to notify anyone of a company complaint. This also allows a law suit to continue in court even if the other party is not there to try to fight it. Let's say you use yourself or a friend or employee as a registered agent. Technically, you're required by law to be available during business hours every day. Is there a "Registered Agent Police" out there monitoring this? No. But, if a sheriff or process server tries repeatedly to serve notification on you, and no one's there, you can lose your corporation or LLC's standing. You could lose your liability protection. They will then proceed to publish the notification in the paper, and can complete a court litigation process without you even knowing. Or the State agency that governs the Corporation, LLC, or any business or non-business entity, can determine that you're not keeping a registered agent and dissolve your company. You'll face higher re-instatement fees for a lack of not keeping a registered agent. Wyoming for instance is $300.00!
Is it that big of a deal to hire a registered agent? Well that's a question you'll have to ask yourself. Maybe no one will ever want to notify you of something, and you'll be ok.
As your registered agent, we also receive State notifications, like annual reports. When the State can't get hold of you, they will send their final notification to us. This can be a big deal if you have a discrepancy on your taxes and the State is about to file liens on your personal assets or business assets. If you don't have a registered agent you can trust, you could never even know it happened until it's too late.
Let me explain the benefits to you, a consumer, of companies having to have registered agents. Have you ever had a complaint on your utility bill, cell phone bill, etc. Well if you've tried writing a letter, and including it with a partial payment, it's amazing how your check gets cashed, and the letter somehow never got there. You then get an unpaid balance on your next bill. You can try calling customer service for an hour or two, but usually it gets you nowhere. If you want to notify a big company of your complaint, you can mail it certified mail to their registered agent, and they WILL take you seriously. They then know that they have been legally notified and they can't hide from it. You will usually get a call or letter back within days from a very high up person in the company.
Bottom line is, you're required to keep a registered agent and registered office address in every State. Maybe you've listed yourself as your agent in your home State, but unless you have an office in the other States you plan on working in, you'll have to hire someone, or write down a friend or family members name and address, and hope they do their job.
Detailed step by step information on how to incorporate or register your business in:
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, National, 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 and Wyoming.