South Dakota Registered Agent
When you choose Northwest as your Registered Agent, you get instant service, Privacy by Default®, and a business address. Want more? Northwest is the only registered agent that can provide your business services from domains to DBAs easily, and all in-house. Want to learn more about what a registered agent does in South Dakota? We'll explain the South Dakota Secretary of State’s requirements, what your registered agent should do for you, and how to change your registered agent in South Dakota.
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
- Instant Domain, Website, Email & Business Phone
What Is a South Dakota 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 guarantee a way for the state and the public to reliably 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.
Per South Dakota’s state statutes, registered agents are legally required in South Dakota. 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.
What Are the Legal Requirements for Registered Agents in South Dakota?
According to the South Dakota laws, whether your business is a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation, the state requires the following from a registered agent:
- Must be a state resident or company that provides registered agent services.
- Must maintain a registered office (a physical address in South Dakota).
- Must accept legal documents (service of process) during normal business hours.
How Do I Change My Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in South Dakota.
- Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
- Do it yourself and file a Statement of Change of Registered Agent form with the South Dakota Secretary of State. There is a $10 fee to file this form.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in South Dakota
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.
- 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 of the registered agent service fee up front.
For new businesses, we’ll become your registered agent once your business registration filing with the South Dakota Secretary of State is complete.
About a year later, we’ll send you 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.
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 Registered Agent Services or paying a bill but for keeping up with South Dakota corporate compliance.
Get a Registered Agent Today!
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South Dakota Registered Agent FAQs
South Dakota requires all registered businesses to appoint a registered agent. The Secretary of State will reject your business filing if you don’t appoint a registered agent. The registered agent requirement exists so the general public and the have a reliable way to contact your business.
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in South Dakota. 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 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.
We accept and scan all of our South Dakota clients’ documents on-site at our registered office in Sioux Falls, SD.
Please do! 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.
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 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. Through us. That’s why we give you five FREE scans of regular business mail a year. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.
You should hire us first and then form your LLC or corporation because the Secretary of State will reject your business registration filing if you don’t. You’ll find all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you place an order.
Serving a registered agent is legal proof that you were notified. Regardless of whether you receive the documents your South Dakota registered agent signs for on your business’ behalf, once they accept the documents, you’re legally considered 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, which we sign for. This document delivery is known as service of process.
- 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 us, long before the server hands in their affidavit to the court, you’ve received your documents because we scanned them to your online account within minutes of having been served.
- Perform a South Dakota business name search via the SD Secretary of State.
- Type in the name of the company you’re searching for.
- Find the registered agent’s name and registered office street address in the search results.
If you want to legally notify a business through their South Dakota registered agent service, just send a letter through certified mail directly to the registered agent at their registered office address.
In South Dakota, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent form to the South Dakota Secretary of State. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in South Dakota.