A registered agent is a vital service for business entities of all forms—LLCs, corporations, and sole proprietorships.
Registered agents are not only a central part of the formation process, they also help your business meet its legal obligations and the compliance filing deadlines established by the Connecticut Secretary of State Commercial Recording Division.
But what is a registered agent, how do you find the best one, and does your business really need one?
What Is a Registered Agent in Connecticut?
A Connecticut registered agent service is an individual or business entity that is present at your business address and available to accept legal documents, tax notices, service of process, and official correspondence from government agencies (like the Connecticut Secretary of State Commercial Recording Division) during regular business hours on your company’s behalf.
Of course, this legal mail needs to reach your hands at some point. That’s where the second half of a registered agent’s job comes in: mail forwarding. This means that you’ll have access to your mail and be notified about filing deadlines for things like your Connecticut annual report.
Sometimes you’ll see a Connecticut registered agent referred to as a statutory agent or resident agent, so if you run across these terms on your formation documents, just know that they all refer to the same service.
Connecticut requires that any business that has registered itself as a business entity must name and maintain a registered agent in Connecticut. This isn’t a stipulation that’s exclusive to the state of Connecticut, but nationwide. And if your Connecticut business conducts business in other states, then you’ll need a registered agent, resident agent, or statutory agent in each additional state it conducts business in. So either you’ll need to name someone that’s already present at these locations as your registered agent, or hire a professional registered agent service.
What Is the Purpose of a Registered Agent in Connecticut?
By now you’re likely wondering whether you could just set up a PO box for your company and check it occasionally for important legal correspondence to meet the registered agent requirement for your business. Simply put, that won’t work.
You can’t list a PO box as your registered agent’s address because the Connecticut Secretary of State stipulates that your Connecticut business has to have a physical street address. Also, receiving legal documents is just one facet of the services that a Connecticut registered agent delivers.
Compliance
Your Connecticut registered agent is in charge of ensuring that your Connecticut LLC or business meets all of its compliance requirements. It does so by issuing compliance notifications or annual report reminders.
You can think of your registered agent as a broker between your business, government agencies (like the Connecticut Secretary of State or the IRS), and legal agencies. Your registered agent makes sure that you know about filing deadlines and issues compliance alerts so you can file your annual reports on time. Also, designating a Connecticut registered agent means you’ll know about any legal or administrative issues that pop up and be able to sort them quickly.
Management of Important Documents
As I’ve said, the business address listed on your formation documents is where all the mail and each dreaded service of process for your Connecticut LLC or business will be sent. You’ll want to keep all that stuff organized.
If you designate an inexperienced individual as your Connecticut registered agent, then you’ll likely get your mail and documents mailed to you. But in a worst case scenario, you may never receive them.
Many quality Connecticut registered agent services offer document management systems that clients can use with an online account. This system is where the registered agent service scans and uploads your documents and it gives you a way to quickly and conveniently view and sort or dispose of them.
Who Can Be a Registered Agent in Connecticut?
The requirements for Connecticut registered agents are pretty standard. Here are a few requirements that your Connecticut registered agent or Connecticut registered agent service must meet:
- 18+ years. Every registered agent in Connecticut must be 18 years of age or older.
- Who you can designate. As long as they meet all the requirements, you can designate anyone you’d like as your registered agent (an employee, family member, friend, or lawyer). But your registered agent in Connecticut has to be physically present at the street address listed for your Connecticut LLC or company during normal business hours. Many businesses choose to hire registered agent services to meet this requirement.
- Physical address. The Secretary of State requires that your registered agent in Connecticut have a physical address in Connecticut, and that they’re present at the address during normal business hours to receive service of process and other mail.
- State laws. Many states have laws specifically for registered agents, so brush up on laws pertaining to Connecticut registered agents to ensure you comply with them.
What Happens If My Business Operates Without a Registered Agent?
Failing to name a reliable Connecticut registered agent could result in missed important correspondence and dire consequences.
If a process server can’t deliver a service of process to your limited liability company or limited partnership because no one is available, the process server will deliver the service of process to the Secretary of State instead. In the event that this happens, the lawsuit will proceed without you and can result in a default judgment. You may even be responsible for paying for the process server’s repeated attempts to serve you.
Another detrimental result of not maintaining a registered agent in Connecticut or keeping up with compliance filings (annual reports, taxes, etc.) is the revocation of your company’s good-standing status. This is bad; your company could be disqualified for business loans, barred from expanding to other states, and even forbidden from legally conducting business in Connecticut.
The worst consequence you could encounter by not maintaining a Connecticut registered agent is what’s known as administrative dissolution. This automatic dissolution of your LLC is the result of missing filing deadlines or failing to follow Connecticut registered agent laws.Once your LLC is dissolved, your business name is back on the market and other businesses are free to swoop in and take it. So while it may not take you long to sort out your legal issues and regain your company’s LLC status, the damage may already be done. You could PERMANENTLY lose your company’s business name.
There are further risks that any business owner or LLC member faces if they conduct business without legally recognized LLC status. A business owner still conducting business once the LLC status has been revoked assumes legal liability for the company and loses liability and asset protection. This means that if the company is sued, the business owner is both legally and financially responsible.
Of course, the consequences for failing to maintain a registered agent in Connecticut aren’t exclusive to LLCs. There are legal and financial consequences for any company that’s registered as a business entity.
Can I Be My Own Registered Agent in Connecticut?
No state in the US explicitly prohibits you from being your own registered agent. So, yes, you can be your own Connecticut registered agent. But before you rush off to find out how to do this, you should learn about the pros and cons of being your own agent in lieu of hiring a Connecticut registered agent service.
Cons of Being Your Own Registered Agent
Liability
The biggest disadvantage of being your own registered agent instead of hiring a registered agent service is the serious legal and financial problems that result from missing a service of process. Missing a service of process is no joke. You’re being sued and you need to respond. If you’re not present to receive service of process and answer the summons and complaint, then a court could make a default judgment against your business and you’ll just have to abide by it.
Lack of Privacy
If your company doesn’t have a physical address and you don’t hire a Connecticut registered agent service, you’re left with no other choice but to list your home address on formation documents, which means it will be listed on public record as your business address.
Using a registered agent service means you’re able to list your registered agent’s name, as well as the rest of your registered agent’s information, on the public record rather than yours. This keeps your information off the public record and safeguards it from cybercrime and identity theft.
Time
Another big drawback of not using a Connecticut registered agent service is the massive amount of time that being your own registered agent takes up.
Being a registered agent and owning a business are both time consuming. You’ll need to be at your company’s listed business address during normal business hours to accept service of process, mail, and other legal documents on behalf of your business as its registered agent. Because most businesses have hours of operation that fall during that time frame, it’s a safe assumption that you won’t be able to perform both jobs well, if at all. As far as I know, no one currently has the technology to be in two places at once.
Pros of Being Your Own Registered Agent
The only benefit of being your own registered agent is that you won’t have to pay a Connecticut registered agent service. But it’s worth paying for a registered agent service. Their fees aren’t that high and the risks associated with doing the job yourself are so dire.
Should I Use a Registered Agent Service?
There are a plethora of reasons to hire a registered agent service:
- Because they issue compliance notifications, you’re guaranteed to know about important upcoming filing deadlines, like your annual report.
- You won’t miss important information or correspondence, which means lower odds of default judgments or losing your company’s good-standing status.
- Without the restraint of simultaneously managing your business and being its registered agent, you can run your business more effectively.
- Companies that conduct business in multiple states can more easily meet their legal obligations by hiring a registered agent service because all their mail and compliance issues are handled by the same company.
- Hiring a registered agent service is an ideal solution for any company that operates outside of standard business hours. Being available to accept service of process from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then running your bowling alley or pub until 2 a.m. is next to impossible.
- Hiring a registered agent service can keep your personal information off the public record if your business doesn’t have a street address or only has a PO box.
- Businesses receive a staggering amount of junk mail. If you list your address as your business address, then all your company’s junk mail will be sent to your home and you’ll have to sort through it and dispose of it. Hiring a registered agent service eliminates all this work and inconvenience.
- Some registered agents offer premium registered agent services, such as specialty insurances,like identity theft insurance, or payment of any filing fee you’re charged when you switch over to their registered agent services.
- You can get help starting out. Some companies are a mash-up of business services and offer a combination of both registered agent services and formation services. You can even luck out with some of them and take advantage of promotions for choosing service bundles like registered agent service free for a year with a formation package.
At the end of the day, you’re the only one that knows whether a registered agent service is the best decision for your Connecticut corporation or LLC. But I ALWAYS recommend that new businesses employ registered agent services.
What Is the Best Registered Agent Service?
A variety of factors matter when you’re trying to determine which registered agent service is best for your company. Here are some of the things you should look for when choosing your company’s registered agent:
Service Features
To put it plainly, it does you no good to hire a registered agent service if it doesn’t provide the services you need. There are a lot of companies out there with loads of different services, so there’s no reason to settle.
Some only offer compliance calendars that include important filing deadlines but are easily forgotten or lost, while others offer worry-free compliance notifications. Some companies only offer basic mail forwarding, which will eventually inform you of important legal notices, while others scan and upload your documents to an online document management system the same day they’re received and allow you to conveniently access and manage them with an online account.
Value
An easy way to judge the overall value of a registered agent service is to take into account both the total amount of quality services it offers and the fee that it charges for them.
With that in mind, it’s also important that you avoid “budget agents.” These companies advertise low start-up fees (typically $39–$59) that lock in unwitting clients to their services before charging loads of extortionate additional fees for vital services that your company needs just to get by (like compliance alerts or online document management systems). So it’s best to keep well away from budget agents.
Easy Sign-Up
Some registered agent companies have sign-up processes that are labor intensive for new clients and take weeks, sometimes months, to complete. Go for registered agent services with simple, quick, and automated sign-up processes, instead.
User-Friendly Interface
Because you’ll use your registered agent’s system so often, it’s important that it’s easily operated. Some companies have obsolete systems with elaborate layouts and navigation systems teeming with bugs and technical issues. Stay away from any provider with a vexing system and choose instead a company with a foolproof system.
Customer Service
Even if your Connecticut registered agent has a comprehensive service package and easy-to-use system, it’s inevitable that you’ll run into technical problems or have a question about your service. Quality customer service is majorly important considering the fact that a registered agent is in charge of crucial business processes that could mean the difference between your company maintaining its legal ability to conduct business in the state or permanently going out of business.
I evaluated companies with each of these factors, as well as applying my four-stage research process, and determined that Northwest Registered Agent is the best registered agent service for most businesses. If you’d like more information about registered agent services or about how to choose the best registered agent, read my guide on the best registered agent.
Conclusion
There’s a huge amount of information that new business owners must learn, like various business management techniques, how to use new technology, legal and business terminology, and state and federal business regulations. On top of all of that, they’ve also got to remember compliance filing deadlines for things like taxes or annual reports. But registered agent services exist to ease some of the workload for business owners like you.
If you haven’t yet chosen a business structure and would like to learn more about LLC formation, read my guide on how to start an LLC. And if you’d like additional assistance to navigate the complicated formation process, check out my guide on the best LLC formation services.
Connecticut Registered Agent FAQs
What’s the Difference Between a Commercial and a Noncommercial Registered Agent?
There’s one key difference between a commercial registered agent service and a noncommercial registered agent. A commercial agent is one that has filed a commercial registered agent statement and registered as a commercial registered agent with the Connecticut Secretary of State. Some states stipulate that all registered agent services register as commercial agents. The Model Registered Agents Act defined these two types of registered agents in an attempt by the American Bar Association to create a set of national standardized regulations regarding registered agents.
A noncommercial registered agent is one that hasn’t registered with the Secretary of State as a commercial registered agent. This includes individuals and businesses. So, if you delegate your sister as your registered agent, she’d be a noncommercial registered agent.
How Do I Change the Registered Agent for My LLC?
If you’re here because you’re frustrated with your current registered agent, you’ll be happy to know it’s easy to change your registered agent. All you have to do is fill out a Change of Agent form. You’ll need to add your registered agent information (like your registered agent’s name and Connecticut registered office address) to the Change of Agent form, and it may require your new registered agent to accept its appointment online. This means that your registered agent will electronically sign a form confirming that it is, in fact, your registered agent. You’ll also be charged a filing fee for submitting the document.
How Much Does a Registered Agent Cost?
The cost of your registered agent or resident agent depends on a variety of metrics, such as which provider you choose and which services you require. Registered agents typically cost between $39–$299 per state, per year plus state fees. If you want to learn more about registered agent pricing, read the Best Registered Agent Services.
