A limited liability company, limited liability partnership, and corporation cannot be registered and operate in New Jersey without a registered agent in place. Want to know how you can provide this service? Then read our quick guide before digging in.
Registered Agent Definition
A registered agent is a business representative responsible for receiving and handling formal correspondence on behalf of your company. Primarily, it’s lawsuit notices, subpoenas, court summons, and service of process. The article on Outlookindia about the Best Registered Agent in New Jersey: What Is Your Best Choice In 2022 fully describes how to choose a registered agent in NJ.
Other official paperwork and communications under RA responsibility include:
- Governmental notifications and regulatory orders;
- Official letters and statutory notes;
- Tax forms and payment requests;
- Licensing documents;
- Annual reports;
- Filing statements, etc.
Normally, those papers call for some actions, set up deadlines, and timely responses. Neglecting regulatory directives might put your NJ entity’s compliance at risk.
It’s vital that you obtain those papers without delays to provide timely feedback or fulfill the orders. By serving as a point of contact between your company and government authorities, an agent helps a company stay on top of its state commitments in New Jersey.
Who Can Serve as Your Registered Agent in New Jersey?
Though RA rules and requirements are mostly generic across the nation, there might be some state-specific nuances. In New Jersey, an RA could be either an individual or an organization.
There are a few basic qualifications a resident agent should match in this state:
- A natural person should be at least 18 years old and reside in New Jersey;
- A legal person should be a registered entity authorized to do business in the state;
- An actual street address in New Jersey is a must for an RA;
- An agent should be available during regular business hours throughout the year.
Notably, New Jersey laws concerning a registered agent for different entity types are somewhat controversial when it comes to organizations serving as RAs.
Thus, regulations for corporations and LLPs call for corporations to perform an RA function. Meanwhile, LLC laws allow both corporations and LLCs to provide RA services.
New Jersey RA Duties
The prime task of an RA is to regularly obtain legal mail on behalf of the company. Other services and duties might also include:
- Ensuring a registered address for the entity registration;
- Forwarding urgent and confidential mail to the company owners;
- Sending compliance reminders for the company owners to catch up with their filing commitments;
- Filing annual reports or franchise taxes.
Any added services are usually agreed upon between an agent and a company and can be provided on a payable basis.
How to Become an RA in New Jersey?
Similar to requirements, the agent enforcement procedure in New Jersey is simple. A company should enlist RA’s name and address when filing with the Secretary of State.
Before giving your consent to serve as a company’s RA, you should know that once a legal entity is registered, your personal info will appear on state records and become available to the general public since you’ll be an official company’s rep.
Roundup
With no specific requirements for RA education or professional background, pretty much any physical person or legal entity can serve as a registered agent in New Jersey.
If you are an adult person, reside in NJ, have a registered address there, and can be consistently present under that address to personally handle mail as required, nothing will limit your ability to provide RA services in New Jersey.