California Registered Agent

Yes, you can be your own registered agent in California. With that said, however, after considering the registered agent requirements most business owners elect to hire a registered agent service instead. Why? Well although being your own registered agent will cost you $0, an California registered agent’s name and address becomes part of the public record.  Additionally, the registered agent is required to be available to accept service of process during normal business hours 5 days a week.

• If your business is web-based or doesn’t have a physical presence in California, the business needs an agent of process located inside state lines.
• Some California business owners hire registered agent services because their business doesn’t keep regular business hours, so they are unable to receive notices and services of process in a timely fashion.
• Many business owners desire privacy and don’t want their home or business address listed on public record as a point of contact, so they hire a registered agent.
• Listing an employee or family member as your statutory agent could create a lot of unwanted distractions and tension. Do you really want your employee or relative knowing the intimate details your business’ lawsuits? Do you trust this person to notify you immediately if they receive a service of process? If not, you could miss a court deadline before realizing it.
• If you don’t want the added responsibility of tracking mail and notices from the state, you can hire a registered agent to track important paperwork for you. Having an online account to help maintain your business is often worth the registered agent fee.

That depends on you. Some people rest easier knowing they’ll be notified right away if something urgent arises. An agent of process should also help keep you updated on any business reports due to California. And if you hire Northwest Registered Agent, in your online account, we’ll also provide you with great customer service, any form you could file with the state, and helpful tips for filing forms and paying the state with no additional fees. Plus, a registered agent service will simplify your life if you plan on operating in multiple states (you’ll also receive a discount with Northwest if you have registered agent service in multiple states).

We don’t charge more for high volume clients. However, if you know you’re going to get served hundreds of times a year, we should create a custom price for you that makes sense for both of us. Our typical clients receive less than 15 lawsuits a year and never pay additional fees.

We have the most thorough alert system in the business. No joke. If you want us to bug you, or anyone else you elect, until you actually look at the documents we’ve uploaded to your account, we can accomplish this. We do not take our responsibility as your statutory agent lightly. When we receive a document for you, it starts a serious timeline and over the course of the next week, you’ll receive regular emails, phone calls, faxes, texts, and lastly mailed notices to look at your lawsuit. We can notify your California attorney for certain documents. You can customize the whole experience and decide who gets notified about what type of document. For heavy volume lawsuit clients, we have a special management portal where all your docs are OCR’d and customizable to meet your needs.

When we receive a notice from the state or a service of process for your business, within minutes we will scan the documents at our California office and upload them to your account. When this happens, you’ll instantly receive an email prompting you to log in to view the documents. We’re the only national registered agent service that uploads everything locally at our California office to your account in real time. We also send you reminders when any business reports to the California secretary of state are due. We don’t upsell your annual report or dupe you into having us file it so we can charge more fees. We give you the link, the form, and the instructions to do it yourself and save money. Once you hire Northwest Registered Agent, you will also have instant access to your online account. There, you’ll find every California state form you could file, and each form is pre-populated with our information to make filing simple. We also include ordering sheets and all kinds of California state forms that aren’t easy to find. We’ve worked with the California secretary of state for years. They know us, we know them. We’re great at helping smooth out any bureaucratic wrinkles your business may encounter with the state.

Definitely! We’re the only national registered agent service that allows our clients to list our address for everything when you’re doing a filing to keep your private address off public records.

While you can use our address, we are not a return depot for online or Amazon sellers, though we’d love to accept your foosball tables. We don’t want ALL of your business mail. It’s not what we do. And it wouldn’t serve you well. You wouldn’t have unique address or suite number. Any mail we receive on your behalf would come to to Northwest Registered Agent, care of you.

But we understand that businesses and clients sometimes reach out to you through your registered agent. Through us. That’s why we give you 5 FREE scans of regular business mail a year. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.

Yes. You will be unable to form your California LLC or corporation if you don’t have a designated registered agent (aka: statutory agent or agent of process) when forming your business.

A process server will deliver a summons form and a complaint form to the registered agent’s address. The registered agent will sign any of process server’s documents acknowledging receipt of the lawsuit. If you’ve hired Northwest, we’ll scan the documents, upload them to your account, and notify you immediately.

You can do a California business name search.

• Type in the name of the company you’re searching for.
• In the results, you’ll find the registered agent’s name and registered office street address.

If you want to legally notify a business through their California registered agent service, just send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.

In California, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Resignation of Agent for Service of Process form to the California Secretary of State. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in California.