Two addresses a business gets asked for
One gives a business somewhere to receive its everyday post. The other is the contact a state keeps on file for legal papers and official notices. They are often offered side by side and easily confused, yet different people write to each.
Two flaps, two jobs
Both put an address between a business and the outside world. What differs is who is expected to write to it, and what rides on a letter going unanswered.
A street address run by a company that receives post on your behalf. Depending on the service, letters are scanned, forwarded, held for collection or some mix of the three.
Customers, suppliers and banks are the ones who usually write to it, and it is the address that ends up on an invoice, a website or a business card.
A person or company named on a business's state filings to accept legal papers and official notices on its behalf. Courts, state offices and anyone serving a lawsuit write here.
It is a role a business is asked to fill when it forms an entity, and whoever fills it is expected to be reachable at that address.
Before choosing either
The answers change with the business, the state and the provider, so they work better as questions than as a verdict.
Customers and suppliers, or a court and a state office. The answer usually tells you which role the address is playing.
Where a business is on file shapes what its registered agent address has to be. The detail is set state by state and is worth reading at the source.
An agent's address can end up on public records, and a mailing address on invoices and websites. Either one can keep a home address out of view.
Some companies offer both services together. Whether that suits you depends on how each half handles what arrives.
The sorting list
What the services do with your post, and what they leave to you.
Everyday mailHow a letter gets from a mailroom to wherever you work.
Everyday mailWhat the role asks of whoever fills it.
Legal noticesHow legal papers reach a business, and why being reachable matters.
Legal noticesKeeping a house off filings, invoices and websites.
BothWhat to look at when a single company offers each service.
BothArticles on these subjects are on the way.
One, the other, or both
The registered agent question arrives with the formation paperwork. Until then, the choice is mostly about where mail goes and how the address reads.
The state filing names a registered agent. That can be you, someone you trust or a company that does it for a living, alongside whatever mailing address you use.
Each service can stand in front of a home address for its own kind of post, which is why some owners who work from home look at both.