A registered agent, also known as a statutory or resident agent, is responsible for receiving government correspondence on your behalf. They also accept subpoenas and summons for your company and pass on crucial information between the company and the government while filing, maintaining, and keeping government correspondence records. While you could appoint yourself to play the role of a registered agent, it is better to hire a professional resident agent.
If you are thinking about forming a corporation or an LLC, here are five top reasons to hire a qualified registered agent.
1. To avoid non-compliance.
While you can be your own registered agent, you may not be up-to-date with the legal requirements, or compliance may not be your area of interest or expertise. This could result in non-compliance, legal implications, and fines, so you should hire a professional statutory agent. A resident agent has expertise in compliance and is familiar with the federal and state deadlines, laws, and regulations. This means they will help your company stay in compliance, maintain excellent standing in the state of qualification or formation, and avoid legal penalties and fees.
2. Physical address in every state.
It is mandatory that a company appoints and maintains a resident agent with a physical address in every region it conducts its business. However, if you run an online business or conduct business in different states, you may lack a physical address to exploit as a registered agent address. In this case, seeking professional registered agent services with offices in the regions your business operates in becomes imperative.
3. Flexibility.
Registered agents should stay at their desks during regular working hours to accept official notices from the government and service of process. Hiring a registered agent instead of taking on the role yourself can enable you to maintain flexible working hours as you will not be tied to the desk from nine to five each day. It also allows you to focus on other business aspects that could yield profits, including forming LLC in any of the 50 states.
4. Protect company privacy.
Few things can be more embarrassing than being served a subpoena or summons in front of potential investors, customers, or in the middle of a meeting. Not only does this spark harmful rumors. It could also ruin your company’s reputation and kill potential business deals. Hiring a third-party registered agent could protect your company’s privacy because their contact information and address will be made public and not yours. If the company is involved in a lawsuit or gets sued, the statutory agent will pass the information discreetly. This ensures the business’ legal matters remain as private as possible.
5. You can change your company’s address.
If you want to move to another location to expand or downsize your office, you will require an official formal filing and pay a certain fee to the state to change the address if you are your own resident agent. The statutory agent’s address filed with your local state must be current. Since the resident agent address does not change when you hire a third-party agent, even when you change the company address, you could avoid the costs of changing the registered agent address. You just have to notify your statutory agent of your new address whenever you move your company.
Endnote
Hiring a registered agent can help protect your company’s privacy, avoid non-compliance, and foster flexibility. Be sure to hire a third party registered agent provider with a history of providing compliance services to different-sized companies and with a nationwide office network to enable you to meet compliance needs in any of the 50 states.
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