The registered agent, state by state.
Every state you are registered in keeps a name and an address on the record for service: the person or company that receives legal notice on the entity's behalf. Who is allowed to hold the role, what address the state will accept and what it takes to change it are all set locally. Pick your state for the rules that apply to you.
Four things that change with your state.
The job is the same everywhere: be reachable at a known address so legal notice reaches the company. The rules about who does it, from where, and how you swap them are not. These four are where states diverge.
Who can hold the role
Whether you can serve for your own company, whether someone else in the business can, and what a professional service has to be in order to act are decided by the state. Each state page opens with who qualifies there and on what terms.
What address counts
The agent has to be reachable at a real street address in the state, which is why most states reject a PO box for the agent and for business filings generally. A mail handling address usually will not stand in for it either.
The change is a filing
Swapping agents is not an arrangement between you and the old one. It is a filing with the state on a form that goes by a different name depending where you are, from a certificate of change in one state to a statement of change of registered agent in another.
One agent per state
The agent belongs to the register rather than to the company, so every state you are registered in wants its own. Register in a second state and designating an agent there is part of that registration, not something carried across from home.
The address on the record is where the state assumes you are. Make it somewhere you actually read.
Pick your state.
Each state page covers who can serve as agent there, what address that state will accept, how the change filing works and what it is called locally, and what happens to the record when the agent details go stale.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
Most people arrive here because the agent needs changing rather than choosing. Either way the sequence is the same, and it ends with the public record saying what you think it says.
Confirm what your state allows
Who can serve, what address qualifies, and how many states the entity is registered in. Registered in three states means three agents, each on that state's own record and each maintained there.
Name the agent
Yourself, someone in the business, or a professional service holding the address for you. The trade is availability against privacy, because whichever you pick goes on a public record.
File the change
The state wants the change on its own form, filed with its office. We prepare it from the record we hold and submit it, so the register carries the new details from a known date.
Keep the record current
The stamped confirmation goes to your vault, and the agent detail stays on the compliance calendar alongside everything else the state expects you to keep up to date.
Service of process only works if somebody is there to receive it. That is the whole job.
The rest of Secretary of State directory.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State annual report
The annual report, state by state
All 51 states → HubArticles of Amendment
Articles of amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubBusiness license
Business license requirements, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State business search
Secretary of State business search, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State Certificate of Good Standing
Certificate of Good Standing, state by state
All 51 states → HubEntity conversion
Entity conversion, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State DBA
Secretary of State DBA, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Secretary of State directory.
The questions people ask before they switch.
What does a registered agent actually do?
It is the contact the state keeps for legal notice. Service of process, and the official mail that travels with it, goes to the agent's address on the record rather than chasing you around the business. That is why states care that the address is real, reachable and inside the state, and why they treat a change to it as a filing rather than an update.
Can I be my own registered agent?
Often, yes, provided you meet what your state asks of an agent: an address it will accept and reliable presence at it. The second part is the one people underestimate. The role assumes somebody is actually there when something is delivered, and that the address is one you are content to see published on a public record.
Does a PO box work as the agent address?
Generally not. Most states reject a PO box for the registered agent and for business filings more broadly, because the point of the address is that a person can be handed a document at it. A virtual office street address is a separate question and usually still is not a substitute for the agent, though the answer depends on the state.
What happens if my agent resigns or moves?
The record stops matching reality, and notice keeps going to the old address until the state is told otherwise. That is the quiet failure: something is served, nobody sees it, and the first you hear about it is later and worse. The fix is the change filing, made promptly, on the state's own form with the new details.
Do I need an agent in every state?
One in every state where the entity is registered. Formation puts an agent on your home state's record, and registering to do business in a second state means designating one there too, on that state's own terms. The registers are maintained separately, so a change made in one state does not carry across to another, and neither does a resignation.
Can I change agents whenever I want?
The change is a filing with the state rather than a private arrangement, and it takes effect when the state records it. The form has a different name depending where you are, and the details it asks for differ with it. Your state page covers what the filing is called there and what has to go on it.
Keep going, in order.
Secretary of State directory
Every hub in secretary of state directory, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
A person who files these every day, not a call centre.
Get in touch →