Montana Registered Agent
In Montana, all domestic and foreign LLCs and Corporations must maintain a registered agent. This page explains what that means as well ass all the ways that requirement can be fulfilled. We'll explain how you can serve as your own registered agent vs the privacy and compliance benefits of hiring a professional (like us). When you choose Northwest as your Montana Registered Agent, you get instant service, Privacy by Default®, a business address, and free mail forwarding. And if you want more, Northwest is the only registered agent that can provide you with a full range of business services like domains and DBAs, and we do it all in-house.
When You Want More
$125 a Year Every Year
Northwest is the choice of professionals for registered agent service.
- Same-Day Scans, Instant Notifications
- Privacy by Default®
- Business Address & Free Mail Forwarding
- Instant Domain, Website, Email & Business Phone
What Is a Montana Registered Agent?
A registered agent in Montana 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 for the state to ensure they can contact your company.
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.
According to the Montana Model Registered Agents Act, a registered agent must:
- Be able to accept legal documents.
- Have a physical, registered office address located within the state. No P.O. Boxes.
- Must be a Montana resident or a business that provides registered agent services.
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 Montana Registered Agent?
Changing your registered agent is a straightforward process:
- You’ll file a change of agent form with the Montana 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 Montana.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in Montana
Our 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 Montana 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 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 Montana Secretary of State is complete, we’ll become your Montana registered agent.
About a year later, we’ll send an invoice for another year of Registered Agent Services. 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 Montana Annual Report.
Get a Registered Agent Today!
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Montana Registered Agent FAQs
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Montana. 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 Montana 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 five days a week.
- If your business is web-based or doesn’t have a physical presence within Montana, the business still needs a registered agent located inside state lines.
- Some Montana 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.
- Privacy. 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.
- 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 your business might become entangled in. 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 Montana Secretary of State, 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 Montana 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 Montana, 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 with us, you’ll be able to easily see your annual report dates in every state in your account.
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 scan all documents locally from our office in downtown Whitefish, Montana.
Yes! We’re the only national registered agent service that allows our clients to list our address for everything on a filing to help keep your address private.
Yes! Just sign up for our unlimited Montana Mail Forwarding option ($20/month). You’ll get a unique suite number and a Montana 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 Montana 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.
First, sign up for registered agent service and then do your business registration filing with the Secretary of State. The state won’t allow you to form an LLC or corporation without a Montana registered agent. Plus, you’ll find all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you sign up.
Serving a registered agent is legal proof that you were notified of an event. It doesn’t matter if the company sees the documents or even gets them from their registered agent. You are considered notified if your registered agent signs for the documents, and this is a responsibility we take seriously.
- A sheriff, process server, or any third party will walk into our office and hand us legal papers. This delivery is known as service of process. We sign to indicate we’ve received the documents.
- The process server then gives an affidavit to the court stating that they served us.
Send a certified letter to the registered agent’s office address if you would like to legally notify someone through their Montana registered agent service.
- You can start with a Montana business name search on the state’s website
- Type in the company name you are trying to look up.
- Look at the MT registered agent name and registered office street address.
In Montana, to resign as a registered agent, you must submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent to the Montana Secretary of State. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Montana.