About Mainstay Filing
The honest version of this is one flat price.
We form your company, serve as its registered agent, and file its annual report, all for one flat $199 a year. Every entity type, every state. The state's own fee is the only thing on top, passed through at cost and shown before you pay, and next year the price is the same $199. Here's who we are, and how we got here.
How we got here
We'll be straight with you, because being straight with you is the whole point of this company: Mainstay is not some decades-old institution. We started it because of a pattern we kept hearing about, and still hear about nearly every week.
It goes like this. Someone starts a company on a headline price and feels smart about it. Then the second year shows up with bills nobody mentioned on day one. The free agent renews at full price. The annual report is suddenly a subscription. An EIN the IRS hands out for nothing arrived as a line item. None of it is exactly hidden, but none of it is plain either, and the person running the business is the one who ends up worn down by it.
A lot of our customers find us exactly that way. They signed up somewhere else, opened the second-year invoice, felt the sticker shock, and went looking for a company that would just tell them the number. That's who we built Mainstay for.
Our goal is simple: be honest and straightforward. One fair price for the whole job, never moved. No teaser, no bundle that unwinds at renewal, no menu to climb. One number that covers forming the company, being its agent all year, and filing the annual report, with the state's own fee passed straight through at cost. We named it Mainstay on purpose: the steady thing you can count on to still be there, at the same price, next year and the year after.
Why the price is one flat number
Here's the number, and here's exactly what's inside it. For $199 a year we prepare and file your formation with the state, serve as your registered agent for the full year, and prepare and file your annual report when it comes due. That's true for every entity type we handle and in every one of the fifty states, at the same price.
The one thing we don't set is the state's own filing fee. That money goes to the state, not to us, so we pass it through at cost and show it on your receipt before you ever pay. It's the only number in this that isn't ours.
And it holds. There's no cheaper first year to reset from, because there's no pricier second year to reset to. The $199 you pay now is the $199 you'll pay next year. We think a price you can plan around is worth more than a headline you can't.
What we believe
The price you see is the price you pay
The number on the page is the number on your invoice, this year and next. No teaser first year that quietly resets, no “free” service that turns into a renewal, no line item that only shows up at checkout. If we say $199, you pay $199.
Filings are records, not funnels
A formation, an agent address, an annual report. These are matters of public record that keep a company alive, and we treat them that way: kept accurately, filed on time. They aren't a sequence of prompts to sell you the next thing.
No piecemeal
We don't keep an add-on menu, because there's nothing we're trying to move you up into. Everything we do for your company lives in that one yearly price. The only thing that varies is the state's own fee, passed through at cost.
What we do, and what we don't
We do
- ✓Prepare and file your formation documents with the state: LLC, corporation, LP, LLP, or nonprofit.
- ✓Serve as your registered agent, with a physical in-state address and same-day handling of anything served on your company.
- ✓Track your state's deadline and prepare and file your annual report, every year it's due.
- ✓Keep your filed documents in your account for as long as you're with us.
We don't
- ✕Give legal, tax, or financial advice. We're a filing service and registered agent, not a law firm or an accounting firm.
- ✕Decide which entity type or tax election is right for you. For that, talk to a licensed attorney or accountant.
- ✕Sell add-ons, upgrades, or “compliance plans” on the side. There is no menu.
One price. Everything your company needs on file.
Formation, registered agent, and the annual report. $199 a year, state fee at cost. See exactly what's included, or start with your state.