Registered Agents

There are a couple of ways to search for the registered agent of a company:

Westlaw is the quickest and easiest resource through its Combined Corporate Records & Business Registration Records CORP-ALL database, which contains state Corporate, Limited Partnership, Partnership and Reserved Name records from 49 states (excluding Delaware), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is also possible to search each state individually by using the CORP database identifier followed by the state abbreviation. For example, use CORP-CA for California. You can use the CORP-ALL and CORP-state databases to obtain information on businesses including the correct name, address, and date of incorporation; identify names and addresses of officers, directors and partners; locate a corporation's registered agent for service of process; verify that a client or adverse party is in good standing prior to closing; and review existing business names for possible conflicts of interest.

You can also find the registered agent of a company by going directly to the websites of the individual Secretaries of State. One resource you can use to link to the websites of the Secretary of State in every state is e-SecretaryOfState.com, provided as a free public service of InCorp Services, Inc. In addition to providing direct links to the Secretary of State webpages, e-Secretary <http://www.e-secretaryofstate.com> also provides state contact information, links to state tax forms as well as the "Search for Entities" pages on the state websites (this latter feature is not available for all states). Another resource is National Registered Agents, Inc. (NRAI) <http://www.nrai.com/>, which is a professional registered agent service for business entities. NRAI's website includes a Research Center page with links to State Online Databases, Secretaries of State, State Revenue Departments, State Insurance Departments, Banking Commissions and State Legislatures <http://www.nrai.com/dynamic_frame.asp?page=research>.

Once you select the Research Center page, there is a list of links on the left side. Select "State Web Links" and then on the next page select "Online Database" at the top of the page in the second column. This link will take you to a list of states with links to their corporate pages (called either Corporate Information, Corporate Inquiries, Corporate Database, Business Name Searches, Corporate Searches, etc.). Since each database is created by the individual state, the quality, availability and detail vary greatly. Some databases are free, some fee-based and some a combination of both. Sometimes the information provided by the state databases supplements what is in Westlaw.