Best Registered Agent Services in Missouri

The state of Missouri is an intriguing destination for both new and already-existing businesses. If you’ve already had an eye on Mother of the West, you probably know that like in every other state, all legal entities must get registered before they can start business operations.

The registration process is fairly simple and can be done online. However, in the Missouri Articles of Organization you must include the details about your registered agent that is going to receive business correspondence, legal mail, and other documents on your behalf.

So, before starting an LLC or corporation, you need to decide who is going to take this responsibility. It can be any individual or business that has a permanent Missouri address, so it’s not possible to use a regular post box. That’s where a Missouri registered agent search comes in handy.

Best Registered Agent Service in Missouri

The official website of Missouri’s Secretary of State describes registered agents as individuals or businesses that must fall into the following categories:

1. Individuals must be at least 18 years old;
2. Businesses must have an official state registration or permission to operate in Missouri;
3. Registered agents must have a permanent physical address where they can receive the documents in person.

In other words, businesses and individuals that act as registered agents can accept the correspondence at their office or at home respectively.

There is one more condition to be met. The statutory agent must be available 5 days a week during business hours (9 AM to 5 AM) to receive federal mail and sign the receipts, otherwise, your company’s reputation may be seriously tarnished. If your business operates without an agent for more than one month or the agent is regularly unavailable at the location, you can expect to pay big fines or even shut the operations down completely.

As you can see, getting the right compliance registered agent is extremely important, so we recommend going with a reliable professional service that will perform its duties at all times regardless of personal issues, health issues, or unexpected business trips. Furthermore, the best registered agent service in Missouri is going to help you in other areas besides its primary mail-receiving responsibilities. The full list of additional features provided by agent companies can be found down below.

Registered Agent in Jefferson City, Missouri

It’s a common practice among young Missouri entrepreneurs to look for registered agents in the capital of the state, Jefferson City. At first glance, this move seems logical since the Office of Administration and Secretary of State are both located here, so you can file the papers in person.

In reality, this is barely an advantage today. Digital technologies allow us to send and receive documents online in record time. Also, businesses in state capitals and large cities tend to charge more for their services due to high rental fees.

Instead of picking a registered agent based on location, it’s much more important to ensure that it is able to timely notify you about federal and legal documents, scan them, and then forward them your way.

However, if choosing a certain location like Jefferson City is a necessity, you can use a business search tool that you can find on the official website of the Missouri government.

Registered Agent in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City is the largest and most populated town in Missouri with a great choice of registered agent services. There are also a lot of similar companies in St. Louis, Springfield, and Independence.

Local services have their benefits, such as good awareness of Missouri’s legal system, attractive pricing, and the ability to meet and talk to your agent in person. On the other hand, there are several so-called national registered agents that not only offer their services in these cities but also can become your agent all over the US. For example, if you need to expand your business and open a branch in another state, you can use the same agent company and even get a good discount.

Large providers bring a lot of experience to the table and guarantee high-quality service 99% of the time. You can find out more about them online in Missouri registered agent reviews. Even if some national providers are more expensive than local ones, they make up for it with professional staff and a wide selection of features.

Let’s have a look at some of the most popular registered agent services in Missouri.

Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest is arguably the best registered agent service in Missouri in terms of price-to-value ratio. The company will represent your business for $125/year, which is not cheap but justified at the same time. For this money, you’re not only getting all essential features required from registered agents by the Missouri laws but also free correspondence scanning (which is usually provided for an additional fee), instant notifications about filing deadlines, and expert consultations.

Another strong suit of Northwest is customer support. Each client gets a personal corporate guide who assists them with business formation and then provides legal help during later periods. All guides are knowledgeable and professional, and Northwest’s support overall has good online reviews to back it up.

Pros

• 20 years of experience in the US market;
• High professional level of the staff, which includes accountants, lawyers, and entrepreneurs;
• Great customer support powered by personal corporate guides;
• Decent price for registered agent services ($125 per year);
• All scanned documents are easily accessible via online accounts;
• Full specter of business formation services: LLC organization, incorporation, DBA registration, licensing, etc.;
• All business formation plans include 12 months of free registered agent service (starting from $39/month).

Cons

• You can find a cheaper registered agent for LLC in Missouri;
• Some customers complained that business consultations were too complicated and detailed. It’s not a disadvantage per se, but not everyone likes this approach. Anyway, the company is constantly working on improving its service, so this “issue” might be fixed in the future.

Overall

Northwest offers everything you would expect from Missouri registered agent services, including a physical address for corporate use, default data protection, business registration, an operating agreement, and much more.

NW’s smart notification system ensures that you never miss annual deadlines and other important dates. As for the correspondence, the company scans your documents instantly upon reception and uploads them to your online account for easy access.

Northwest Registered Agent brings great value for a moderate price, beating the competition with an impressive roster of options that won’t break your bank.

Harbor Compliance Registered Agent

Harbor Compliance is a simple yet competent registered agent service that offers one of the lowest prices on the market at $99 per year. It’s easy to use and quick to set up, however, it’s lacking a few notable options found elsewhere.

Pros

• A very intuitive and useful website;
• Instant replies and notifications;
• An essential registered agent package;
• Low price ($99/year);
• Personal account manager.

Cons

• Limited compliance and business support.

Harbor Compiance has an experienced and helpful support team, but you are not going to get much help besides basic agent services. If you need advice on annual reports, accounting tips, tax calculations, or obtaining licenses, you should ask someone else.

It’s also worth mentioning that Harbor Compliance only scans federal and legal mail, so any personal documents they might receive on your behalf must be paid for separately.

Overall

Harbor Compliance is not a perfect agent service, but it gets the job done for a reasonable price. Compared to Northwest, it’s 25 dollars cheaper, but the number of features is significantly lower. For example, Harbor’s customer support only covers registered agent issues, whereas Northwest’s corporate guides offer professional help in all stages of business formation, especially at the very beginning.

However, if you only need a Missouri-based company that is going to scan official state correspondence and nothing else, Harbor Compliance is a great choice thanks to its high-quality service and low price.

ZenBusiness Registered Agent

ZenBusiness is known for being one of the USA's most versatile and reliable formation services. Registering an LLC only costs as little as $49 and it also includes accounting help and a few other useful features. Among them is a free year of statutory agent service that comes with every incorporation plan. If you need to order a registered agent for longer, the annual fee starting from Year 2 is $99.

ZenBusiness has an amazing reputation with over 6,000 positive reviews. All customers praise Zen’s solid support team and easy setup which helped them save a lot of time and money.

Pros

• Incredible value for the price;
• Superb customer support;
• Attractive business formation plans with a variety of useful options;
• Free 12 months of registered agent service included with every package.

Cons

If you do a quick Google search for “registered agent Missouri”, you will notice that ZenBusiness offers one of the lowest prices in the industry. But, there’s a catch. ZB is a formation company first and foremost, so its barebones registered agent service feels like an afterthought.

There’s a bundle pack that includes a Missouri agent and annual compliance with deadline alerts, but you will have to pay $149 to get it.

Overall

ZenBusiness is one of the most popular companies that provide Missouri LLC registration services and help up-and-coming entrepreneurs kickstart their business careers. All formation plans come with a free year of registered agent service while the standalone option costs $99 per year. However, annual compliance that covers filing deadlines and notifications has to be purchased separately, which drags ZenBusiness down to #3 on our list.

Rapid Registered Agent

Rapid is another national registered agent with offices in all 50 states as well as in D.C. and Puerto Rico. The company can become your agent for $100 per year, but it also offers several different service bundles, responsive customer support, and online storage for scanned documents.

Pros

• Competitive price – starting from $100/year for the basic registered agent service plus any additional options;
• Clear pricing policy – no hidden fees or third-party offers;
• No commission for forwarding the correspondence via fax (other companies usually charge extra money for this type of transmission);
• An online library of business templates for annual reports, tax reports, and other important documents;
• Professional assistance with filings;

Cons

The main downside of Rapid Registered Agent is the lack of customer feedback. Although the company has been in business since 2007, it has accumulated just around 100 reviews. Because of that, Rapid falls behind the competition on our list, despite being quite good in other categories.

Overall

Rapid Registered Agent is a decent company with an intriguing price tag and a good selection of services, free alerts and notifications, and business report templates. However, a low number of customer reviews makes recommending Rapid a bit risky, but you should definitely check it out after you try other services that we previously mentioned.

Rocket Lawyer Registered Agent

Rocket Lawyer is one of the leading providers of business formation services offered in several incorporation bundles or separately. The company’s main focus is legal assistance, so if you are looking for registered agent services in Missouri, Rocket Lawyer may not be your first choice, but it’s worth your attention nonetheless.

Over the years, Rocket Lawyer has helped launch more than 800,000 businesses which is an impressive number. Not only the company manages all paperwork necessary for business registration, but it also handles DBAs, operating agreements, articles of incorporation, licenses, and other permits required by the state laws. But as we’ve mentioned before, Rocket’s main selling point is professional legal help, so if you need a good lawyer and a registered agent at the same time, RL has got you covered.

Pros

• Experienced staff – a team of professional lawyers, accountants, and seasoned business experts who know the ins and outs of Missouri laws;
• Lots of positive reviews and high online ratings;
• The ability to incorporate a business and get legal help in all 50 states.

Cons

• A free year of your own registered agent is only available in the Premium bundle;
• Steep statutory agent price ($149 per year).

Overall

If you just need a Missouri registered agent, there are at least a dozen of better options that offer more value for less money than Rocket Lawyer. However, it’s hard to find a more efficient and knowledgeable service when it comes to legal assistance. Here is where Rocket Lawyer truly shines, offering tons of useful features and high-quality service.

Additionally, if you buy one of RL’s legal plans, you can get a good discount for a Missouri registered agent for service of process. For example, purchasing the Premium bundle can save you 25%. As a result, you receive a slightly cheaper registered agent on top of excellent legal service which makes it one of the better deals on the market.

Rocket Lawyer has been around since 2008 and has earned the reputation of a well-known and reliable business assistant (thousands of positive reviews can’t lie). If you’re looking for a solid one-two punch of legal knowledge and business formation proficiency, this company might be the one.

Registered Agent Review General Conclusions

Missouri laws require all LLCs and corporations to have dedicated registered agents. While you can do this on your own or ask one of your friends or employees for help, we recommend filling out the Missouri registered agent consent form with one of the names we’ve discussed today.

After a deep analysis of the Missouri market, we’ve decided to name Northwest Registered Agent as our top pick for 2022 thanks to its immense lineup of features and great price.

There are a few cheaper offers (as low as $99 per year), but they barely provide anything beyond the basics. For paying just $26 more, Northwest gives you:

• Physical address in the state of Missouri;
• Personal corporate guide;
• Business calendar with alerts and notifications about report filings, tax deadlines, registration requirements, etc.;
• Help with filing the paperwork with the Secretary of State;
• Scanning of all types of documents, including legal, federal, and personal mail;
• Convenient and protected cloud storage;
• An easy-to-use website with lots of useful information.

Besides Northwest, we’ve listed several similar services that offer different forms of collaboration for any budget. However, you may skip any unnecessary add-ons altogether and just go the cheapest route.

Benefits of Using a Missouri Registered Agent Service

Sometimes, inexperienced entrepreneurs think that there’s no need to search for a Missouri business registered agent and choose to represent their companies by themselves. In reality, this is a huge mistake that leads to the following issues:

• No privacy – your personal information becomes public knowledge;
• No schedule flexibility – you must be present at your registered address 5 days a week from 9 to 5 without lunch breaks, vacations, or sick leaves. If you fail to receive an important lawsuit and miss the court date, your business might be in big trouble. Also, a company can’t legally operate without a registered agent and must pay a fine otherwise;
• Damaged reputation – imagine that a delivery person brings a lawsuit to your office, right in the middle of your conversation with customers. Do you really need everyone to know about your legal problems?
• No business compliance – an expert registered agent will notify you about key deadlines and filings, and also advise you on different business matters. Without such help, you’ll have to deal with all your troubles on your own.

That’s why it’s extremely important to select a competent registered agent and reap the benefits of professional service. Even if you made a bad choice at first, you can always update your Missouri registered agent down the road. All you need is to file a change-of-agent form with the Secretary of State and pay a fixed fee.

Best Registered Agent Review – How We Choose

For many years, we’ve been monitoring the American market of business services, reviewing and comparing different companies, compiling ranked lists, and giving out useful business tips. Our experts constantly analyze both new and existing companies and everything they have to offer from the standpoint of service quality and state requirements.

For this research, we picked over 50 local and national companies and put them to a series of head-to-head tests until there were only 5 left.

Why You Can Trust Our Choice

We compared registered agent services in the following categories:

• Honesty and clarity – we disqualified every company that lied about its prices or pushed upsells or third-party offers;
• Website quality – we tested the usability of each company’s website, including menu navigation, design, access to useful information, and most importantly, the overall time of setting up the account and placing the order;
• Pricing – we compared prices for bundles and standalone services;
• Customer service and support quality – our experts contacted each company, testing response times, quality of help, and overall convenience of the service.

How We Selected the Best Registered Agent

The competition consisted of several rounds, with the worst participants being cut after each one. First, we removed all companies that provided incorrect information in their ads and promos. Then, we said goodbye to young services that had too little experience or not enough customer reviews.

Next, we studied official websites, comparing the selection of features and their prices. After cutting more than 50% of all companies, it was time to contact each of them directly. Disguised as potential customers, our experts spoke to every provider’s representatives, collecting data on prices and available options, asking complex questions about federal requirements, and grading the replies.

What you see here is the result of our hard efforts, and we hope this article helps you find the perfect Missouri registered agent service.

Conclusion

If you still have no idea how to find a registered agent for a corporation or LLC in Missouri, we recommend checking this comparison article. We did our best to explain the importance of choosing the right agent provider and selecting the best options available in The Cave State.

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