South Carolina Registered Agent
When You Want More
A South Carolina registered agent is an individual or company that accepts service of process and other legal notifications on behalf of a South Carolina business. All business entities registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State, including LLCs and corporations, are legally required to have a registered agent. If you hire Northwest as your registered agent, we accept legal documents or official business mail on your behalf, contact you immediately and upload these documents to your secure online account for you to view.
With our South Carolina registered agent service, get Privacy by Default®, business address, free mail forwarding, free Phone Service for 60 days, and local Corporate Guides®—only at Northwest.
Everything You Need To Know About South Carolina Registered Agents:
Get South Carolina Registered Agent Service
Instant Online
Service
Sign up & immediately get a secure account where you’ll find:
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South Carolina business forms
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Annual report reminders
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All your scanned & stored documents
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Easy access to all our business services
Do Business
the Right Way
See why the pros choose Northwest:
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Same price every year
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Free limited mail forwarding
- Free 60-day trial of Phone Service
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Privacy by Default®
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Lifetime support from our Corporate Guides®
South Carolina Registered Agent Service
$ 125 Per Year
Hire Us What Do South Carolina Registered Agents Do?
Per South Carolina law (Title 33 Section 33-5-101) at minimum, a South Carolina registered agent accepts legal documents on behalf of a company that has designated it as their SC registered agent. The agent(s) are expected to accept documents at a physical location in the state, known as the registered office.
In other words, your registered agent’s address acts as the official place where any service of process and official mail for your South Carolina LLC, South Carolina corporation or South Carolina nonprofit will be sent.
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.
How Do I Change My South Carolina Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in South Carolina.
- Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
- Do it yourself and file a Notice of Change of Registered Agent form with the South Carolina Secretary of State. There is a $10 fee to file this form.
What Makes Northwest Different From Other Services?
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.
South Carolina Registered Agent FAQs
Why Do I Need A South Carolina Registered Agent?
- To become a legitimate, registered South Carolina business, the state requires that you appoint a registered agent in South Carolina.
- The South Carolina Secretary of State will reject your filing if you don’t appoint a South Carolina registered agent.
- The reason for this requirement is that the state and the public need a way to legally serve your business in South Carolina.
Can I Be My Own Registered Agent In South Carolina?
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in South Carolina. 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, a South Carolina 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.
Where Is Northwest’s Registered Office In South Carolina?
We accept and scan all of our South Carolina clients’ documents from our office here in Charleston, SC.
Can I Use Your South Carolina Registered Office Address For Everything On My Business Filing?
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.
Can I Have My Business’s Mail Delivered To Your South Carolina Office?
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.
How Do South Carolina Registered Agents Get Served?
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 South Carolina 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.
How Do I Search For A South Carolina Registered Agent?
You can do a South Carolina business name search on the state’s website to find any company’s registered agent of record.
- Type in the company name you are trying to look up.
- Look at the SC registered agent name and registered office street address.
NOTE: If you want to legally notify a SC business through their registered agent service, just send a certified letter directly to their registered agent name and registered office address.
How Do I Resign From Being A Registered Agent In South Carolina?
In South Carolina, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit two copies of the Resignation of Agent for Service of Process form to the South Carolina SOS. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in South Carolina.
How To Order South Carolina Registered Agent Service:
You sign up online, clicking on one of the buttons or links that says “HIRE US.”
We collect the first year of the registered agent service fee up front.
For new businesses, we’ll become your South Carolina registered agent service once your business registration filing with the state is complete.
About a year later, we’ll send you an invoice for another year of South Carolina registered agent service. If you want to keep using us, great; if you don’t, you can easily cancel.
With offices in every state, we make it easy to add registered agent services anywhere in the country. 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 South Carolina registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with state corporate compliance.
Information Your SC Registered Agent Should Help You Understand:
- Domestic corporations need to have a South Carolina licensed attorney’s sign the filing. We can have our South Carolina attorney sign your filing for $150. This does not constitute any legal advice or a relationship with our attorney, but this is way cheaper than you will find anywhere else. It will take about 1-3 days to get the signed filing back to you. Domestic corporations cost $135 to file with the South Carolina Secretary of State.
- Domestic South Carolina LLCs do not need an attorney signature and cost $110, but they do need a registered agent’s name and address in South Carolina.
- Foreign corporations cost $135 total to file.
- Foreign LLCs cost $110.
- To incorporate in South Carolina, there are a few things you should understand. There is a spot on the filings where your registered agent can sign, accepting the consent to serve as your SC registered agent. You can leave this blank. If you do sign it, it needs to be an original inked signature. The forms to file are pre-populated correctly in your online account instantly. All business entities are required to keep and maintain a SC registered agent. The filings need an original inked signature. Most filings should be mailed into the state.
- There are detailed filing instructions for the South Carolina Secretary of State in your online account. You’ll have what you need literally less than 10 minutes after you sign up.
- Foreign entities need a certificate of status or existence from their home state of incorporation dated within 30 days.
At Northwest, we can also form your LLC or form your corporation in South Carolina for $100 plus state fees. As part of our commitment to Privacy by Default®, we put our business address on your filings to better protect your privacy. And you always have the support of our Corporate Guides®.