Connecticut Registered Agent Service for Residents and Out-of-State Owners

Connecticut's LLC Act sets the qualifications for a registered agent in section 34-243n, which requires each LLC to designate and maintain a registered agent in the state. The Secretary of the State's fee schedule sometimes calls the same role a statutory agent, which can cause a double take, but it is one role. The Business Services Division in Hartford keeps the record, and filings run through the Business.CT.gov portal.

The agent is where lawsuits are delivered. Under section 34-243r the company can be served by leaving a true and attested copy with its registered agent, and under section 34-243n(f) the agent has a duty to forward what it receives to the LLC. State reminders do not travel that way: the annual report reminder is emailed to the address you provided about a month before the report is due, and a forfeiture notice goes by email to the LLC's email address on record.

The Certificate of Organization asks for the name, a principal office street address with no P.O. box, a mailing address, the registered agent's signed acceptance, the name, title, business address and residence address of at least one member or manager, a required entity email address and a required six-digit NAICS code. The LLC cannot be its own organizer. The fee to file it is $120, and by statute that fee includes the appointment of the registered agent, so naming an agent at formation does not add a separate charge. The rules below are for LLCs. Corporations, LPs, LLPs and nonprofits can use our agent service as well.

The statute allows two groups. One is a natural person who resides in Connecticut. The other is a Connecticut or authorized foreign corporation, LLC, LLP or statutory trust. The form is blunt about one more point: the entity may not appoint itself as its registered agent. An individual agent can be a principal of the business, such as a member or manager of the LLC.

Section 34-243n(e) also says the agent has to have a place of business in the state. And the agent has to sign accepting the appointment. The Certificate of Organization has a signature line for that.

So a business entity can serve if it is a Connecticut entity or registered to do business in the state. That is the category commercial agents occupy, and it is how an owner who lives in another state meets the requirement.

An individual agent supplies three addresses on the Certificate. First is a business address, with no P.O. box, or the word "none". Second is a Connecticut residence address, and that one cannot be a P.O. box. Third is a Connecticut mailing address, which can be a P.O. box. A business agent gives a Connecticut business address, again with no P.O. box.

The statute allows service by leaving a copy with the agent, or at the agent's usual place of abode in Connecticut, and the form's residence line says no P.O. box. That is why the residence address is the one with the strictest rule, and why an individual with no Connecticut home has nothing to list.

Filed documents are public records, so a home address entered for the agent can end up in public view.

A Connecticut resident can name themselves as a member or manager. It costs nothing extra. The price is exposure: if you travel, work at client sites or run the business part-time, a summons can reach you at a place where you are not, and being served at your place of business can happen in front of customers or staff.

A friend, family member or employee who lives in Connecticut can serve if they agree, and each carries the same public-record exposure. If they leave the company, move out of state or stop agreeing to serve, the designation breaks.

A commercial agent puts its own Connecticut address on the public record, so yours stays off it. That is also the answer for any owner who lives elsewhere.

The filing is a Change of Agent, Form BUS-009, and the state fee is $50 under section 34-243u(a)(4). It can be filed online through Business.CT.gov or on paper to the Secretary of the State in Hartford, and the Secretary says most filings made there are accepted automatically. Connecticut does not publish a turnaround for these changes, so confirm the record afterward. The members or managers of the LLC do not need to approve the change.

Once you sign up with Mainstay we prepare and submit the Change of Agent, with the $50 charged at cost. The incoming agent has to meet the same tests as any Connecticut agent, and has to sign accepting the appointment.

Confirm the new agent in the public business record before you consider it done. Until the change posts, your old address stays there.

A Connecticut agent resigns by filing a certificate of resignation, which costs $50. Only the agent can file it, and it is done online at Business.CT.gov. It takes effect on the earlier of the 31st day after it is filed or the date a new registered agent is designated, and the agent has to immediately give the LLC notice, in a record, of the date it was filed. The resignation does not name a replacement, so an additional filing is needed to assign a new agent. The change of agent is $50 as well.

If the LLC ceases to have a registered agent, or its agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, section 34-243r(c) allows service by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, or a similar commercial delivery service, addressed to the company at its principal office as shown on its most recent annual report.

A missing agent can cost more than that. If a delinquent LLC has failed to maintain a registered agent, the Secretary of the State can email the LLC at its email address on record that its rights and powers are prima facie forfeited. Unless the LLC files an appointment of a registered agent within three months of the notice, the Secretary files a certificate of dissolution by forfeiture. Reinstatement costs $120 with an agent appointment.

Registered agent service from Mainstay is $149 a year in Connecticut, renewing at $149. The agent role and compliance reminders are the whole of it. Your annual report, due March 31 and filed online with an $80 state fee, is not included. For a new company the $199 package is the better buy, since it covers that report and the agent as well as the Certificate of Organization and your EIN application.

Connecticut's public record will show our address in place of yours. If a summons arrives, it is scanned and uploaded the same business day at no fee. Government mail gets three free scans a year, and each additional piece carries a scan or shipping fee. We do not offer free physical forwarding.

A lawyer, not us, answers a lawsuit.