Mark Kohler explains why listing yourself as your LLC or corporation's registered agent at your home address is risky. You expose your personal address publicly and miss critical IRS and state notices, lawsuits, and compliance deadlines. A professional registered agent keeps your address private and ensures you actually receive official mail.
Chapters
Every LLC and corporation needs a registered agent. Most business owners treat this like an afterthought, or I'll just do it myself. They form the LLC online and list themselves as this contact or registered agent. They use their home address and click submit. And since they didn't talk to a lawyer about this, just somebody in a cubicle working for an influencer, they never think about it again. But that's one decision that can create two major problems. First, it can expose your personal address on public records. In many states, whatever address you use for your entity filing can be searchable on Google. Second, your registered agent is where legal notices, official state correspondence is going to be delivered. Lawsuits, service of process, these IRS or state notices or compliance warnings, annual report reminders. This is not junk mail. You need to receive this. Imagine missing a lawsuit notice because it went to an old address or having a process server show up at your home while your family's eating dinner. And that's not where you want your business problems showing up. A professional registered agent keeps your personal address private, off public records.
