The Risks of Being a Registered Agent for Your LLC

The Risks of Being a Registered Agent for Your LLC

When someone first sets up their LLC in Florida, it’s completely understandable that they would want to act as their own Registered Agent. This, however, can be a mistake. The duties of a Registered Agent are practically a job in and of themselves. Even innocent mistakes can have major consequences. Here are some situations that demonstrate the risks of being a Registered Agent for your own LLC. If you need help selecting your Registered Agent, then we recommend that you check out our guide here.

Registered Agents Need a Florida Address

This point is absolutely non-negotiable: to serve as a Registered Agent in Florida, an individual or business is required to have a physical location in the state. A P.O. Box won’t work for these purposes, nor will a private mail service or mailbox. There must be an actual building where a service of process or other important mail can be delivered. In other words, if you live outside of Florida, then you can’t act as your Florida LLC’s Registered Agent – you’ll need to find a third party.

Privacy Concerns

The Registered Agent’s address, also known as the Registered Office, is publicly available information. This is especially pertinent for those of you running a business out of your home. If privacy is a big concern of yours, then this alone should be a good enough reason to not act as your own Registered Agent. After all, finding out that you’re being sued in front of your entire family isn’t ideal. And that’s not even including disgruntled litigants or former employees! Using your home address as your Registered Office puts a big target on your back for marketers, scam artists, and junk mail, too.

Registered Agents Handle Time-Sensitive Information

One of the greatest risks of being a Registered Agent for your LLC is that it makes you more likely to miss important legal notices. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get bogged down or distracted by the important tasks that make up your business operations. That can be bad news if you’re trying to wear your Registered Agent hat and your business owner hat at the same time. This is because acting as a Registered Agent can be more involved than many people realize. Their work is very time sensitive in nature, even when you aren’t facing litigation.

Even something as apparently simple as notifying the state of an address change can be time consuming and costly when you do it yourself. Oftentimes, it’s easier to find a third party to handle it for you so that you can focus on running your business.

Registered Agents Keep Regular Business Hours

Registered Agents are required to keep regular hours at their Registered Office. This is because those are the hours when services of process or other legal notices will be delivered. Not everyone is going to want to stick around all day in case someone decides to sue the LLC. Many business owners love the flexibility and freedom of being their own bosses. Acting as your own Registered Agent means sacrificing some of that.

A Registered Agent is Needed for Each State

An LLC needs to have a separate Registered Agent for each state that it does business in. This means that acting as your own Registered Agent can limit your options for expanding outside of Florida.  It isn’t impossible, just unnecessarily costly and complicated when Registered Agent services are an option.

Some Things Are Too Important to Miss

The notices and other correspondence that are sent to Registered Agents are too serious to let slip through the cracks. Trying to do this on your own will only pull your mind in more directions, unnecessarily distracting you. The risk of being a registered agent for your business here is that these notices must be responded to quickly. Not doing so can have grave consequences for tax issues, litigation, and more.

When launching a business, it’s crucial that you have a solid foundation that will encourage growth. As a firm of entrepreneurs ourselves, we know how to get businesses started off the right way. Hiring an attorney reduces the chance that your company will run into trouble down the line and helps ensure that you’re armed with the information and documents that you need for success. For assistance with starting your business or growing the one that you already have, visit our Service Page or contact us by calling (727) 279-5037.

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