Michigan Registered Agent
Michigan businesses like corporations and LLCs are required by law to have an in-state registered agent to stay in good standing. Professional Registered Agent Service through Northwest means you can focus on running your Michigan business while we handle all the procedural compliance stuff for you. We provide your company with a real Michigan address for your paperwork—and we forward your Michigan legal mail to wherever you’re located. And if you need more, Northwest has services for your business ranging from domains to DBAs, all in-house.
When You Want More
$125 a Year Every Year
Find out why professionals choose Northwest.
- Same-Day Scans, Instant Notifications
- Privacy by Default®
- Business Address & Free Mail Forwarding
- Instant Domain, Website, Email & Business Phone
What Is a Registered Agent in Michigan?
A Michigan 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, a process server delivers 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.
In accordance with Michigan Law § 450.1241 (for corporations) and Michigan Law § 450.4207 (for LLCs) your registered agent must:
- Be a resident or company that provides registered agent services.
- Have a registered office address that is a physical address located within the State of Michigan.
- Be available to accept legal documents.
Note: In documents and legislation in Michigan, registered agents are sometimes referred to as resident agents. These two terms mean the same thing and the names can be used interchangeably.
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.
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Michigan. However, after considering the registered agent requirements most business owners prefer to hire a registered agent service instead. Why? Well although being your own registered agent doesn’t cost anything in Michigan, the name and address of a company’s registered agent becomes part of the public record. Plus, the registered agent is required to be available to accept service of process during normal business hours every weekday.
You should hire us first and then do your business registration filing, because you can’t form an LLC or corporation in Michigan without a valid registered agent. You’ll get all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you place an order.
You can do a Michigan 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 Michigan business through their registered agent, just send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.
Service on your registered agent is legal proof that you were notified. Regardless of whether you actually receive the documents your Michigan registered agent signs for, once they accept the documents, you’ve been notified. This is a serious responsibility that we do not take lightly. This is how it works:
- A process server, the county sheriff, or any third party will walk into our office and hand us the documents (service of process), which we sign for.
- The process server then gives an affidavit (a receipt of service) to the court as confirmation that they served us.
Note: If you’ve hired Northwest, you’ve received your documents long before the process server hands in their affidavit to the court, because we scanned them to your online account within minutes of having been served.
How Do I Change My Registered Agent in Michigan?
Changing your registered agent is a straightforward process:
- You’ll file a Certificate of Change of Registered Agent form with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).
- 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 Michigan.
In Michigan, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Resignation of Resident Agent form to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Michigan.
- To become a legitimate, registered Michigan business, the state forces you to appoint a Michigan registered agent. Sorry.
- The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs will reject your filing if you don’t appoint a registered agent that can legally operate in Michigan.
- So the general public has a reliable way to send important mail or legal notices to every registered Michigan business.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in Michigan
Our Michigan 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 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 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 secondary phone number for client communications.
- Web hosting: Our web hosting service includes SSL security at no additional cost.
We provide a commercial registered office location in Okemos, MI in Ingham County.
Absolutely! We’re the only national registered agent service that allows our clients to list our addresses for everything when you’re filing, helping keep your private addresses off of public records.
We don’t want ALL of your business mail. It’s not what we do. And it wouldn’t serve you well, because without a unique address or suite number, any mail we receive on your behalf would come to Northwest Registered Agent, care of you.
But we understand that businesses and clients sometimes reach out to you through your registered agent. That’s why we give you five FREE scans of regular business mail a year. You can request to forward additional documents for $15 per document.
How to Order Michigan 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 Secretary of State is complete, we’ll become your registered agent in Michigan.
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, since 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 in Michigan or paying a bill, but for keeping up with corporate paperwork formalities like the Michigan Annual Report.
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