Iowa Registered Agent

An Iowa registered agent is any company or resident of Iowa that agrees to accept official state correspondence, service of process, and annual charter renewal notifications on behalf of business entities registered in the state.

At minimum, your Iowa registered agent should accept important legal documents on behalf of your Iowa LLC, Iowa corporation, or Iowa nonprofit.

However, the right registered agent service can do much more. At Northwest, we go above and beyond the minimum to ensure top speed, security, privacy and support. Get Privacy by Default®, a business address, free mail forwarding, and local Corporate Guides®—only at Northwest.​

An Iowa registered agent must have a registered office with a physical street address in Iowa. The registered office must remain open during normal business hours. Whenever documents are served upon the registered office, your Iowa registered agent is required to forward those documents to you in a timely manner. This system ensures that the state has a reliable means by which to contact a business entity.

Or more specifically, according to Iowa State Code § 489.113 and Iowa State Code § 490.501, a registered agent must:

• Be able to accept legal documents.
• Have a physical, registered office address located within the state. No P.O. Boxes.
• Be an Iowa resident or a business that provides registered agent services.

Note: If a company’s registered agent cannot be served after a reasonable attempt, the company’s secretary will be served at the company’s principal address. If your secretary cannot be reached, you’ll never know you were served.

There are two ways to change your registered agent in Iowa.

1. Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
2. Do it yourself and file a Statement of Change of Registered Office and/or Registered Agent form with the Iowa Secretary of State.

At Northwest, we do business the right way. We’re dedicated to getting you your docs fast, protecting your privacy and offering you support. Here’s how:

• Same-Day Scans, Instant Notifications: We accept and scan your docs at our local office the same day. We notify you instantly and reach out to you if your essential mail goes unread.
• Privacy by Default®: We automatically minimize the exposure of and access to your personal data. If we can put our address on a public doc instead of yours, we do. If we don’t have to list your personal info, we don’t. We have tough privacy policies to keep your data safe and private. And we never sell your data.
• Free Limited Mail Forwarding: Of course we’ll get you your state and legal mail. That’s our job. But what if we get some of your regular business mail? It happens a lot—clients and businesses trying to connect with you via your registered agent. We scan 5 documents per year for FREE. We can also scan additional mail at a per document rate of $15.
• Corporate Guides®: Have questions? We have answers. Our guides are business experts whose sole job is to provide phone and email support for all your toughest business questions.