How to Change Your Registered Agent (All 50 States)

When you incorporate a business, there are plenty of requirements to keep track of.

You’ll need to come up with the perfect business name, decide which type of business entity you want to form, and acquire business licenses to operate in a compliant manner.

Another of the important early steps for any LLC, corporation, or nonprofit corporation is to designate a registered agent for your company.

But what is a registered agent, and why do you need one?

The role of the registered agent for an American business entity is not a terribly complex one, but it is an incredibly important role that requires careful consideration. Similarly, the process for changing a company’s registered agent doesn’t isn’t complicated, but failure to complete it correctly could have dire consequences for your business. Let’s discuss how you can go about changing registered agents for companies across the United States.

Guru Tip: If you would prefer to have a professional service deal with the paperwork and take over registered agent duties, hire an online registered agent service.

What Is a Registered Agent?

A registered agent is someone who serves a business by acting as the point of contact between that business and the state government. Maintaining a registered agent is a legal requirement for any and all incorporated businesses.

Almost anyone can serve as a registered agent. In fact, you can serve as your own registered agent, you can hire a business to handle this role, or you can designate another individual, like a family member or friend, or perhaps a lawyer or accountant.

The only real restriction is that Colorado requires an individual to be at least 18 years old, although other states don’t have age restrictions. Regardless of who the agent is, the registered agent must be available to accept service of process during all regular business hours.

A registered agent has a physical address in the state, sometimes called the registered office. The agent’s address cannot be a P.O. Box, because the state does not always deliver documents through the mail. Since process can be served at any time, it’s very important that the agent is available from 9am to 5pm, every Monday through Friday.

That’s why many professionals recommend that you hire an agent and not serve as your own.

What Does a Registered Agent Do?

A registered agent accepts all formal written communications from the state government on behalf of the business.

These communications include service of process, tax documents, notifications from the Secretary of State, and more. The agent then forwards any relevant documents to the business in a timely manner.

This might not seem like that big of a deal — and it can even seem like an antiquated and unnecessary middleman role — but it is an important function. And if you hire a registered agent service, they may also help remind you of when certain forms are due, such as the annual report or business license renewals.

Steps to Changing Your Company’s Registered Agent

The exact process for changing a company’s registered agent varies a bit from state to state. However, the process is pretty similar in most states. Before we begin, we’ll point out that there are a few states that allow you to change your registered agent by altering its information on your annual report filing. That said, most states require you to file a standalone “Change of Registered Agent” form, so that’s the process we’ll discuss here.

The information required for a registered agent change filing does vary from state to state as well, but for the most part, you’ll need to include the name of your business, your business entity type, the name and address of your previous registered agent, the name and address of your new registered agent, the new registered agent’s signature, and your name, title, and signature.

Once you’ve prepared this document, the next step is to file it and pay the filing fee. Each state has its own fees for changing registered agents, and most of them are very reasonable, often amounting to only $10 or $20. The turnaround time varies in each state as well, from just a few business days up to several weeks, so make sure to check with your state to see how long you should expect the process to take.

When the state confirms your filing, your registered agent has officially been changed.

Who Should Be My Company’s New Registered Agent?

Like we’ve mentioned, you can serve as your own agent, or you can enlist the services of a trusted friend or family member. In addition, some businesses like to give this role to their attorneys or accountants, because the business already has a professional relationship with them. However, both of these options have their downsides.

Serving as your own agent (or designating a friend or family member) is far from ideal because of several significant downsides. For instance, you’ll need to make your address a matter of public record, which can lead to a massive influx of junk mail and a loss of your privacy. In addition, you would need to be present at the provided address during all standard business hours, every weekday. If you aren’t, you run the risk of missing a service of process document delivery.

How about handing this role to your attorney or accountant? Even though attorneys and accountants are highly educated professionals, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have much experience or expertise regarding the role of the registered agent. Also, lawyers and accountants often charge very high rates to serve as your company’s registered agent.

Best Registered Agent Services

The other popular option is our favorite: hiring a registered agent service. Several big names in the world of professional registered agents include Incfile, ZenBusiness, Northwest Registered Agent, and LegalZoom.

The advantage of hiring one of these companies is that they can usually act as your agent for every state.

There are quite a few good reasons to use these services, especially if you haven’t yet incorporated your business. An often-overlooked benefit is how easy it is to expand your business into other states if you choose a professional registered agent. They typically have offices in all 50 states, so if you begin transacting business in an additional state, your same registered agent service can handle that for you.

While these companies do charge annual fees, they’re usually much more affordable than an attorney or accountant will charge you. Our favorite registered agent services all charge in the $100-150 range per year. In addition, several of these companies (including Northwest and Incfile) will provide you with a full year of registered agent service if you use their incorporation service.

If this sounds like an option you’d like to try, we recommend hiring one of the top services listed on our “Top-Rated & Best Registered Agent Services Online” guide. We will also include a brief rundown of a couple of our favorite companies right here.

What Happens if a Company Does Not Maintain a Registered Agent?

There are potentially severe penalties for failing to designate or maintain a registered agent for a business. Let’s start by discussing what could happen if a business doesn’t designate a registered agent to begin with. In this scenario, it’s quite likely that your business entity was never actually formed.

That’s because every state requires entrepreneurs to designate a registered agent when they file their business formation documents. Whether you’re starting an LLC, a corporation, or another entity type, this holds true. If you don’t include registered agent information on your Articles of Organization or Articles of Incorporation (or similar document), the state will not accept your filing. Instead, you will need to file your formation documents again, with registered agent information included.

How about the penalties for a business that fails to maintain a registered agent? This is quite a different scenario, as the business is already in existence. In this scenario, the exact penalty will vary by state, but we can run down some of the common ones.

Failing to maintain a registered agent will lead to your business losing its good standing with the state. In addition, you might have to pay a monetary fine. If you fail to maintain a registered agent for long enough, many states will administratively dissolve your business, leaving you wide open to lawsuits and forcing you to enter into a costly and time-consuming reinstatement process.

In other words, it is strongly advisable to designate a registered agent before forming your business and maintain an agent throughout your company’s life cycle.

Hiring a Service to Change Your Registered Agent

We’ve already discussed how you can hire a registered agent service to take that role off your hands, but did you know that many of these same companies also offer to handle your “Change of Registered Agent” filing? Many companies offer this service for free when you hire them to be your registered agent, and you can also hire a few of them to file your paperwork even if you’re designating someone else as your registered agent.

For example, if you’ve been fulfilling the role yourself but now your business partner will take over, you can hire one of these companies to prepare and file the documentation, freeing up valuable time for you to build and develop your business.

As it turns out, only a couple of our favorite registered agent services offer registered agent change service as an a la carte feature. Let’s take a look at the options and discuss which one is the better option for you.

• Incfile ($49 + state fee): Our top pick is Incfile, which is one of our favorite business services companies overall. This company has a low price point of just $49 for a change of registered agent filing — it’s actually the lowest rate we’ve found online. Incfile receives outstanding customer feedback, with tens of thousands of positive reviews available online. Incfile also has plenty of experience, with more than 500,000 businesses formed since 2004.
• CorpNet ($149 + state fee): CorpNet is also a great company that’s easy to recommend, but with a price point exceeding three times what Incfile charges, it is a distant second place in this discussion. If you can look past the high price point, you’ll find a company with excellent customer feedback and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That said, we can’t really find a reason to recommend spending the extra $100 to use CorpNet instead of Incfile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The process for changing a registered agent isn’t a complicated one, but it’s certainly advisable to know exactly what you want to do ahead of time. If you know what you want going in, you’ll find that the process is really quite painless.

There are some fees involved with changing your registered agent, but they’re usually quite manageable in most states. Make sure you submit your documents in a timely fashion to ensure your business maintains its good standing with the state.