Delaware Registered Agent
Starting a business in Delaware requires an in-state registered agent to meet state laws. With a third-party registered agent like Northwest, you stay compliant, and our address is listed for your registered agent instead of your own.
Northwest’s registered agent office in Dover is near the Division of Corporations, ensuring swift filings, hands-on troubleshooting, and free mail forwarding. And when you want more? Northwest is the only registered agent that can provide your business services from domains to DBAs easily, and all in-house.
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When You Want More
Our registered agent service gives you access to:
- Virtual Office Address
- Trademark Registration
- 1 Year Free Domain Use
- 90 Day Free Website Hosting
- 90 Day Free Business Email Account
- 90 Day Free Business Phone Number
What Is a DE Registered Agent?
A registered agent is a person or company that you designate to receive legal mail (like service of process) on behalf of your business. Registered agents exist to provide an official and reliable way to contact your business.
If your business is ever served with a lawsuit, the process server will deliver the paperwork directly to your registered agent. At that point, your business is legally considered served. The registered agent should then forward you your mail, quickly and securely.
Per, Delaware’s state statutes (8 Del. C. 1953, § 131), registered agents are legally required in Delaware. At a minimum, your registered agent must list a physical address on the public record and be present at that address during business hours. But ideally, your registered agent should do more.
How Do I Change My Registered Agent in Delaware?
Changing your registered agent is a straightforward process:
- You’ll file a change of agent form with the Delaware Secretary of State.
- If you place an order with us, the form will be available instantly. We’ll even pay and file the change of agent filing for you.
- It’s a simple change, but for more info, see our guide on how to change your registered agent in Delaware.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in Delaware
Our Delaware Registered Agent Service includes the tools you need to keep your business running without a hitch. When you hire Northwest as your registered agent, you get:
- Same-Day scans: We scan your legal docs the same day we receive them and reach out if your essential mail goes unread.
- Mail forwarding: We accept and scan all your state and legal mail, and will scan up to five personal documents for free. For $20 a month, we offer unlimited Delaware mail forwarding.
- Privacy by Default®: We list our business address on public docs to keep your personal info safe. And unlike those other guys, we never sell your data.
- Corporate Guides®: Have questions? We have answers. Our guides are business experts whose sole job is to provide support for all your business questions.
As the nation’s top choice for starting businesses easily and affordably, we also offer in-house services to build your business’s online identity:
- Domain name: Pick a domain name for your business with your choice of extension (like .com and .net).
- Website: We provide a pre-built business website for you to customize using an open source platform, so it’s yours to own whether hosted by us or anyone you choose.
- Business email address: Create up to 10 business email addresses. For branding ease, they’ll all end in your chosen domain name.
- Phone number: Keep your personal line private by establishing a business phone number for client communications.
- Web hosting: Our web hosting service includes SSL security at no additional cost.
How to Order Northwest DE Registered Agent Service
You sign up online, clicking on one of the buttons or links that says HIRE US.
We collect the first year’s fee for registered agent service up front.
For new businesses, once your business registration filing with the Delaware Secretary of State is complete, we’ll become your registered agent.
About a year later, we’ll send an invoice for another year of registered agent service. If you want to keep using us, great; if you don’t, you can easily cancel.
It’s easy to add registered agent services in other states if your business expands. We have offices in every state. We don’t farm out work (or your info) to other companies—wherever you are, WE are your registered agent.
We make your account a real go-to resource for you, not just for registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with corporate paperwork formalities like the Delaware Annual Report.
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Delaware Registered Agent FAQs
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Delaware and pay $0, but there are several requirements that have to be met. A registered agent must be a Delaware resident or business entity with a physical address in Delaware where the registered agent will keep regular business hours and accept hand-delivered services of process (no P.O. Boxes).
Be aware, though, that if your business is sued and you are your own registered agent, the sheriff, deputy, or process server will be delivering the lawsuit to your home or place of business which can be distracting, if not flat-out embarrassing.
But if you’d like to save some money, you just need to live in Delaware and be willing to list your address and name on public documents. (The state and court needs to be able to serve legal process and notices on your business in Delaware. That’s why a registered agent has to have a physical location actually in Delaware).
- If your business is web-based or doesn’t have a physical presence within Delaware, the business still needs a registered agent located inside state lines.
- Some Delaware business owners hire registered agent services because their business doesn’t keep regular business hours in which service of process or official mail can be delivered.
- Many business owners don’t want their home or business address listed on public record as a point of contact, so they hire a registered agent.
- It’s a way of avoiding distractions. Listing an employee or family member as your registered agent could be a huge mistake, as that may be the last person you want knowing the intimate details of lawsuits involving your business. Worse, just having a process server hand them a document is proof that you got it, regardless of whether they actually get it to you in a timely manner. You could miss a court deadline before realizing it.
- If you don’t want the added responsibility of tracking mail and notices from the Delaware Division of Corporations, you can hire a registered agent to track the important paperwork for you. Having an online account to help maintain your business is often worth the nominal registered agent fee.
First, if you never get sued, congratulations! But don’t think of fees paid for a registered agent service as wasted money. Your Delaware registered agent should also keep you updated on any business reports owed to the state. And if you hire Northwest Registered Agent, we’ll provide you with any form you could file in Delaware, along with helpful tips for filing forms and paying the state with no markup, as well as amazing customer service. If you end up with multiple states on your account, you’ll be able to easily see your annual report dates in every state.
Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t charge more for high volume clients. 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 to both parties. Our typical clients get fewer than 15 lawsuits a year and never pay additional fees.
We accept and scan all of our Delaware clients’ documents on site at our registered office in Dover, Delaware.
Yes! Just sign up for our unlimited Delaware Mail Forwarding option ($20/month). You’ll get a unique suite number and a Delaware business address you can use for mail, advertising, and more. 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.
Don’t need a unique suite number? Our Delaware registered agent service comes with free limited mail forwarding. We’ll list our business address (no unique suite number) on your public docs to better protect your privacy. And, we’ll scan the occasional business mail we receive—up to five documents a year, for FREE. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.
Yes. You will be unable to form a Delaware business entity if you do not have your registered agent’s information.
A process server will deliver a summons form (basically instructions for responding to the lawsuit) and a complaint form (this describes who is suing, the reasoning behind the lawsuit, and what the person or entity suing want from the lawsuit—typically this is an amount of money) to a Delaware registered agent’s address. The registered agent will sign the process server’s documents acknowledging receipt of the lawsuit. If you’ve hired us, within minutes of receiving service of process, we’ll upload the document to your account and you’ll instantly receive an email prompting you to log into your account.
You can easily look up a company’s basic details online with a Delaware 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.
To legally notify a business, just send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.
In Delaware, to resign as a registered agent, you must submit a Certificate of Resignation of Registered Agent to the Delaware Secretary of State and make sure to provide the name and address of the new registered agent if appointing a successor. It’s pretty straightforward, but for a more detailed walkthrough you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Delaware.