Registered Agent Reviewed › What legit means

What “legit” can mean for a registered agent

A registered agent is a business that receives legal papers for yours. Four things can be checked; one cannot.

1. A published price and renewal. Whether the page gives the number you will be billed in year two. See our criteria.
2. A real in-state street address. The address on your filing has to be a street address in the state, not a P.O. box.
3. A state listing, where the state has one. The statutes of 9 states (Arkansas, Maine, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) describe a listing for commercial registered agents with the Secretary of State. In those states you can look the agent up there. In the other states, check the Secretary of State’s site for how it handles agents.
4. Clear terms. Auto-renewal, mail limits and how to cancel in writing.

What cannot be checked from the outside is how well a company answers the phone, or how fast it forwards a particular paper on a particular day. Be wary of anyone, including this site, who claims to rank that without a method. Ours is on the review page.

Mainstay Filing states: Service of process is scanned and uploaded the same business day at no fee. The first three government mailings a year are scanned free; after that a per-piece fee applies.