Maintaining a registered agent for corporations and LLCs is required by Delaware State Law. According to The Delaware Code, every corporation and LLC company shall have and maintain a registered office and agent.
Although you have to maintain a registered agent for your company, there is no exact rule about who it will be. You, your family member, a member of your company, or your friend can be your registered agent or you can hire a registered agent service operating in Delaware.
There are some requirements for you to be your own registered agent:
- You must be 18 years old or older.
- You must have a physical address located in Delaware. It can be your home address or office address.
- Your address must be available during regular business hours and accept hand-delivered services of process.
If you meet the requirements mentioned above, you can be your own registered agent. However, you should keep in mind that there are some risks and disadvantages if you are your own registered agent. Some examples of what can go wrong:
- Delaware Department of State should be able to serve legal process and notices to your physical location as a registered agent. If you are not at your address during regular business hours, the Department of State may not reach you.
- The court also needs to be able to serve court documents and notices of lawsuits with a person called a process server. If your business is sued and a process server can’t reach you, a court case could proceed in your absence and this would be a big disadvantage for your situation in the case.
- If you maintain your home address as your registered agent address and your business is sued, you might not want the process server to deliver a lawsuit to your home.
- Your name and home address will be in public records. You might not want your name and address to be listed because of privacy reasons.
- You won’t have the flexibility to be able to go on a vacation or out of town.
- If you moved from your address, you must file your move.
If these risks are acceptable and tolerable for you and you meet the requirements, you can register yourself as your own registered agent for your company in Delaware.
