Is Your Registered Agent Hurting Your Company? Here Is What Your Must Know

Company owners prefer to incorporate or structure a Limited Liability Company (LLC) to help shelter personal assets from company liabilities and to offer tax-deductible remuneration for employees and owners. Either incorporating or the LLC structures for small businesses and entrepreneurs are created via an official state filing. As a state-acknowledged business entity, there are a number of legal and tax papers that your company will receive each year from the state.

Most jurisdictions call for corporations and LLCs to appoint and sustain a Registered Agent to take delivery of and forward such documents on behalf of your company. The Registered Agent for your LLC or corporation shall be located at a legal address (not a PO Box) within that state, hence they are sometimes referred to as "Resident" Agent. We find that mail forwarding services such as the UPS Store can suffice for this address. Your company's Registered Agent such as an attorney is obligated to be accessible continuously during typical business hours to receive documents and tax notices from the state and service of process from any legal proceedings. This is another reason we prefer a mail forwarding store address.

Failure to retain a Registered Agent can result in loss of corporate or LLC standing. Similarly imperative—if an answerable party is not accessible to receive service of process at all times, then your company could be unaware of a legal claim and a judgment may be entered against you.

It is not a high-quality suggestion for businesses to serve as their own Registered Agent. Probably, the safest route is to select a reliable third party such as a service company or an attorney. Using a service company as Registered Agent provides peace-of-mind for busy business owners:

It allows freedom to let business (and vacation!) take you out of the office.

It provides a vital piece of personal privacy, protecting you from being served with a legal proceeding in front of customers, clients, vendors or neighbors. You could also avoid being served if you set up your address and registered agent properly.

It allows you freedom to change addresses or locations as your company increases in size and revenue, without filing costly changes of address with the state each time.

It allows you to not come up on an asset search done by creditors if properly set up. This makes is so your not a target of a lawsuit.

The Registered Agent serves a significant function and is an essential part of protecting your corporate standing and your company's financial future. It is vital that small businesses decide on who they will have serve as their Registered Agent strategically. Incorporation and LLC service companies often provide Registered Agent service as part of their formation package. You can also have an attorney be your Registered Agent.

A good Registered Agent should understand business laws and have some type of relationship with Secretaries of State. They should forward to you all important documents as soon as the arrive especially the service of process the same day it arrives, so that you know immediately who is bringing suit, in what court jurisdiction, what day process was served, the type of case it is and how much time you will have to respond. (You will usually 20-30 days to respond) In addition, they should promptly forward official state documents received such as tax notices and yearly reports.


------

Protecting assets through company structure and utilizing your Registered Agent. Debt Help at www.freedomfromcreditors.com