Oregon Registered Agent

An Oregon Registered Agent or Oregon Registered Agent Service is required by law for every business entity in the state of Oregon. A registered agent is an individual or business entity that will accept legal papers (documents) on your behalf if it is sued. The registered agent or registered agent service must have a physical street address in Oregon and be available during regular business hours.

In my Oregon Registered Agent guide, I’ll walk you through the detailed process of when you should get a registered agent or registered agent service for your Oregon business, how to pick one, if they are required and how to change one if needed. Typically you’re getting a registered agent when you setup your Oregon LLC. Check out my guide on how to setup an Oregon LLC so you can make sure you’re following all the right steps in the process. If you are just looking for the professional service to help you – use Northwest Registered Agent or ZenBusiness.

Best Oregon Registered Agent Service

ZenBusiness will be the best option for setting up a registered agent service in Oregon. They can also help you with getting your LLC formed so if you’re looking for the best option, check them out today!

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The best Oregon Registered Agent for your Oregon LLC is going to be using ZenBusiness. They will be setup for normal business hours and help you accept legal documents that you’ll be required to have a registered agent company do for you. They have also been cleared by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office who is going to be the group you need to make sure clears the registered agent service you’re going to use for your Limited Liability Company.

Whether you’re looking for a new registered agent or if you’re changing your registered agent to a new group – the best registered agent is ZenBusiness.

I have my Limited Liability Company based out of Oregon and I always recommend an LLC formation service vs. acting as your own registered agent. If you ever need to change registered agents or look for a new registered agent business – you’ll love how easy it is to work with ZenBusiness.

What is an Oregon Registered Agent?

An Oregon Registered Agent is no different than any other state. A registered agent is an individual or business entity that will accept legal documents on your behalf, have a physical street address in Oregon and make sure they are open during normal business hours. It’s required by Oregon law to have a registered agent or statutory agent and make sure they have a registered agent’s address in the state they are operating.

The registered agent requirement to operate in Oregon are

Must be available during normal business hours
Have a physical street address in Oregon
The registered agent service provider can not be the LLC or Corporation itself

When you’re forming your LLC – you’ll need to list the name and address of the registered agent on the Articles of Incorporation. The registered agent requirement is important to maintain the liability protection that your LLC provides.

Why do I need an Oregon Registered Agent?

It’s required by law. The Oregon Registered Agent Services you’ll need to have in place will have a physical address in Oregon. It’s also important to realize that everything related to your registered agent is public record. This means that if you decided to be your own registered agent, you’d have your own address on record for anybody to look up. If you’re going to be served legal papers – they will go to that address on file. You’d potentially have people showing up at your house if you decided to use your home address.

The Oregon Secretary of State’s office has a portal for you to search for any business here and if you need to look up a business filings – you can use this search portal to do just that.

The State Corporation Division may have business documents to review too but really when you’re going through and setting up your formation documents – you’ll need to have the registered office address setup – so make sure you’re using a service that responds in a timely manner and has helped other Limited Liability Companies.

You’re also going to need a registered agent service to help you make sure if you’re asking for mail forwarding services or want to have a post office boxes with your mail – you work with them to make that happen too.

When should I obtain an Oregon Registered Agent?

The best time to get an Oregon Registered Agent Service setup is when you’re forming your domestic LLC, foreign LLC, Limited Liability Company or whatever the type of business entity is that you’ll need a resident agent for. You’ll need to transact business and in order to do that you will need a registered agent on file. You’ll want your registered agent’s name to be something that you’re going to use for the business you’re setting up in Oregon.

There will be an annual report you’ll need to follow and compliance deadlines on an annual basis so it’s important that you do this from the beginning of the formation of the business. If you don’t there may be some administrative dissolution you’ll need to deal with if you don’t follow through.

I would also recommend you understand the state fees associated with having registered agents. There are other Oregon Registered Agents you could look for that are not the national providers like law firms but I always recommend getting a registered agent address that is in Oregon and used by the national groups like NW Registered Agent. If they have an Oregon office it’s a plus but again – using other services may be ok but I just like the national providers who have done this for years.

Can I Be My Own Registered Agent In Oregon?

Technically yes you can do be your own registered agent but like we’ve talked about that can cause you many issues. If you’re going to have an attorney client relationship for items outside of business formation – you can talk to a lawyer about it. It’s just important if you have official mail that is related to being a business owner, you’ll want to make sure your Oregon registered agent services are going to accept legal documents on your behalf.

If you decided to be your own registered agent then you will have people that could show up in person and you’re going to be required to always be there during normal business hours. That means that someone will need to be there year round – at all times. It may be cheaper in the short term but what happens when you want to go on a vacation… you can’t or you have to have someone at the location while you’re not physically there.

How Much Does a Registered Agent Cost?

The cost ranges depending on how you’re going to do this. It can be anywhere from $0 if you’re your own registered agent to $300/year. It really depends on the Oregon Registered Agent Service that you decide to go with. If you go with Northwest Registered Agent while you’re forming your LLC, they will include the first year which is awesome to make your life much easier.

There are filing fees for this which the Oregon Secretary of State’s office is going to need from you so make sure you have the right documents online to file and you get the right online access.

How Do I Elect A Registered Agent In Oregon?

The election of a registered agent is made by the incorporator or organizers when you’re forming your Oregon based business. You’ll just need to have the name and address of the resident agent on the articles of incorporation, organization or formation.

You can always change your Oregon Registered Agent in the future if you wanted to but that isn’t the main question here.

In order to elect a registered agent in Oregon, you’ll need to do this with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office here.

How Do I Change My Registered Agent In Oregon?

If you need to change your registered agent for any reason – it’s actually a pretty easy process in Oregon. The first step is going to be filing form LLC-5 with the state of Oregon and making sure you’re following all the requirements which you can find here.

You can get this updated by mail at the following address:

Oregon Secretary of State

Business Division

255 Capitol St NE, Suite 151

Salem OR 97310-1327

You can also get this done by fax at 503-986-2204.

The turnaround time for processing this form is pretty quick as the state of Oregon works to process quickly. There isn’t a cost associated with making this change so go get the right document and get working on it quickly.