Florida Registered Agent

Duties of Registered Agents in Florida

A registered agent is your main representative with the Florida department of state. They accept and forward service of process and government notices to your organization so that you can stay on top of your obligations. To be able to receive your notices, an agent must be present at a designated physical location in the state, known as a registered office, during regular business hours.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a challenging task. Still, failing to perform it diligently can have significant negative consequences on your organization.

For example, if an agent misses a legal notice, you may not know that your organization is involved in litigation. You’ll most likely miss the court hearing, which courts don’t take lightly. There’s a high chance the judge will resort to default judgment and rule in the plaintiff’s favor due to your absence.

A responsible registered agent ensures you don’t need to worry about such worst-case scenarios. They deliver all important correspondence timely to help you operate in accordance with the law.

Registered Agent Requirements in Florida

According to Section 607.0501 of the Florida Statutes, your registered agent can be any of the following three:

1. An individual residing in Florida (e.g., an attorney, employee, friend, or family member)
2. A domestic organization other than yours
3. A foreign organization authorized to transact in Florida

While you have various options if you decide to appoint an individual, an organization—often referred to as a commercial agent—is a more reliable option. That’s because an individual might miss your notice for many reasons (travel, emergencies, other obligations, etc.), while a commercial agent ensures someone is always present at the registered office to receive it.

You might also feel compelled to appoint someone from your organization to resolve the availability issue, but this means you might receive a lawsuit in front of your team or clients. There’s no risk of such inconveniences with a commercial agent since notices will be accepted discreetly at their address (registered office).

How To Appoint or Change Your Florida Registered Agent

When forming your organization in Florida, you’ll appoint a registered agent by filling out the relevant section of your formation documents, which depend on your business structure:

• Articles of Incorporation for profit or nonprofit corporations
• Articles of Organization for LLCs

If your organization is already operating in another state and you wish to expand into Florida, you’ll name the agent in your foreign qualification filings.

Regardless of the situation, you need to provide the agent’s name and address of the registered office. The agent must consent to be appointed by signing the statement of appointment included in the formation/foreign qualification documents.

To change your existing registered agent’s address or partner with a different one altogether, you need to file the Statement of Change of Registered Office/Agent with the Florida department of state. Failing to keep the department updated on your agent’s details is grounds for administrative dissolution, which means your rights to operate in Florida are revoked.

Florida Registered Agent Service by Harbor Compliance

Harbor Compliance combines extensive industry experience with an efficient process to deliver a reliable Registered Agent Service to organizations of various types and sizes. Here’s how it works:

1. We receive your notice at our local office in St. Petersburg
2. We process the notice locally and send it on the same day
3. You receive an email with a link to the secure Client Portal from which you can download and manage your notice

In case of litigation, we also call the person associated with the account via phone to ensure important legal notices aren’t missed. This way, we give you complete peace of mind as you don’t need to worry about undetected legal issues.

Harbor Compliance goes beyond serving as your registered agent to help you meet Florida’s other statutory requirements. The following table highlights some of our most popular services:

Individual Florida Registered Agents vs. Harbor Compliance

By partnering with Harbor Compliance, you can enjoy numerous benefits you might not get from an individual agent, most notably:

• Complete privacy—If you enlisted yourself as a registered agent, your personal details would become publicly available. Appointing Harbor Compliance means our name and address enter the public record, protecting your privacy.
• Discretion—We can save you the discomfort of being served in front of different stakeholders of your organization. All notices are delivered discreetly through the Client Portal so you can keep them on a need-to-know basis.
• Flexibility and convenience—If you run a multistate organization, appointing yourself as a registered agent in all of them isn’t possible because the agent must reside in the represented entity’s state. Appointing a separate individual might cause unnecessary complications as you’d have to maintain multiple communication channels. By contrast, Harbor Compliance’s nationwide coverage allows you to appoint us in every jurisdiction you operate in and manage all notices in one place.
• Security—We implement strong data encryption, penetration testing, third-party audits, and other industry-standard security measures to keep your information safe. A typical individual might not have the infrastructure or resources that would allow for such an advanced level of security.

How To Appoint Harbor Compliance as Your Registered Agent in Florida

There are three scenarios in which you can engage with us:

1. Registering a new organization in Florida
2. Expanding your organization from another state
3. Changing your existing registered agent

Forming a New Organization

If you’re registering in Florida for the first time, we can do much more than serve as your registered agent. Harbor Compliance offers three comprehensive services that handle the formation process from start to finish:

1. Incorporation
2. Nonprofit formation
3. LLC formation

Choose your preferred service, and we’ll submit all the necessary filings to the Florida department of state and automatically appoint Harbor Compliance as your registered agent.

Of course, you can also play a more active role in the formation and order our Registered Agent Service separately. In this case, you can appoint us by taking these steps:

1. Purchase the service
2. Find the address of our St. Petersburg office and pre-filled state forms in the Client Portal
3. Complete the forms and submit them to the department of state

Expanding From Another State

Our Foreign Qualification Service package makes it easy to expand your operations into Florida without setbacks. Here’s what it includes:

• A fully managed foreign qualification process
• Your Florida certificate of authority
• The Registered Agent Service at no additional cost for a year

All you need to do to enjoy these benefits is complete the wizard, and we’ll take it from there.

Changing Your Agent

If you want to change your Florida agent, you have two options—a DIY approach that involves sending the aforementioned Statement of Change yourself or a hands-off solution where we take care of the entire transition process.

If you opt for the latter, click on the Change of Agent add-on while ordering our Registered Agent Service. You’ll see the option right before checkout, and selecting it means we’ll update the department of state on your behalf.

Enjoy Freedom and Flexibility With Harbor Compliance

By appointing Harbor Compliance as your Florida registered agent, you’ll be sure that your notices are in good hands and that you can focus on impactful work without worrying about default judgments and administrative dissolution. Order our Registered Agent Service today and outsource a vital responsibility to a team of experts.

As mentioned, we can help you navigate Florida’s regulatory framework in many additional ways. Here’s what you can do to get started:

• Reach out to us and inquire about the other services you saw in this guide.
• Get a clear picture of your organization’s regulatory standing through a free Harbor Compliance Score™.
• Schedule a demonstration of our innovative software solution that helps organization leaders meet all their obligations effortlessly.

If you plan on growing your organization beyond Florida and need a registered agent in other jurisdictions, refer to the following table to learn more: