Maryland keeps the resident agent at SDAT — the Secretary of State does not file that line

What Maryland actually requires

Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210 is who must keep an agent. Each limited liability company shall have: (1) a principal office in this State; and (2) a resident agent. That is the whole of subsection (a). Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 1-101 then defines the words. Department means the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Principal office means the place in this State filed or recorded with the Department as the principal office, or, if none is designated, the main office in this State for the transaction of business. Resident agent means an individual residing in this State or a Maryland corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership whose name, address, and designation as a resident agent are filed or recorded with the Department. Address means the post office address, and includes street and number, if any, county or municipal area, and state. We print that “if any.” We do not pretend the definition banned a P.O. Box in the same sentence. The Articles of Organization form does. Insert the name and address (cannot be a P.O. Box) of the resident agent. A resident agent is another entity or individual designated to accept service of process for the LLC. The resident agent can be any Maryland citizen who is over eighteen, a Maryland corporation or a Maryland LLC. That person must also sign the document. We print the statute and the form. We do not invent a third sentence that makes them the same.

Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 2-108 is why this page still talks about corporations. Each Maryland corporation shall have: (1) a principal office in this State; and (2) a resident agent. The corporation statute uses the same two words as the LLC statute. Maryland does not switch to registered agent for corporations the way Massachusetts does. The LegalZoom Maryland article, updated April 30, 2026, still says the term registered agent in Maryland can mean something slightly different if the business is an investment firm or broker dealer. That is LegalZoom copy. This page is the LLC / formation-owner job at SDAT. We do not score a broker-dealer registration.

Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 1-208 is the written-consent rule. An entity that is required to have a resident agent may not designate a person as a resident agent without first obtaining the person’s written consent. Unless waived by the Department, the entity shall file that written consent with the Department. The consent is effective on acceptance by the Department. If the Department waives the filing, the entity shall certify that the written consent was obtained, keep a copy in its records, and give the Department a copy on request. That waiver path is the statute’s. Subsections (a) and (b) do not apply to resident agents designated before October 1, 1998. A person designated a resident agent may resign without paying the fee under Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 1-203. The Business Express entity-search page repeats the consent line and cites § 1-208(a). It also says the Department cannot recommend any company to act as your resident agent.

The Charter Filing FAQ is the office’s own gloss. A resident agent is a person designated to accept court papers if the company becomes involved in a lawsuit, or if someone is attempting to subpoena the company’s records. The resident agent must be a resident of the State of Maryland. If you are appointing an individual, that person must be at least 18 years old. If you are appointing a company, that company must be a Maryland corporation or a Maryland LLC, and you must use the full, legal name. A person must sign the resident agent consent on behalf of the appointed company and recite their name and title. If you are at least 18, are a Maryland citizen, and sign the consent, you can be the resident agent for your own company. The Maryland Business Express change-of-agent screen we retrieved adds a different sentence: an LLC or corporation cannot act as its own agent. Northwest’s Maryland FAQ, retrieved the same day, answers “Can my Maryland LLC be its own resident agent?” with yes, so long as the address is not a post office box. We print the statute’s who-may-serve list, the FAQ, the portal, and the vendor FAQ. We do not invent a winner.

Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210 is also how an LLC changes the line. The company files a statement signed by an authorized person. A change of the resident-agent address is a statement signed by an authorized person. The designation or change is effective when the Department accepts the statement for record. A resident agent who moves in this State may file one statement that names the company, the old and new addresses, and the date the change is effective. If those addresses are also the principal office, the same statement may move the principal office after written notice to the company. The official Resolution to Change Principal Office or Resident Agent cites § 2-108 on the corporation side. File it on Maryland Business Express or on paper. Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 1-203 prices a notice of change of address of principal office at $25, and a notice of change of name or address of resident agent at $25, up to a maximum of $30,000 for a bulk filing. The SDAT charter fee table we retrieved repeats $25 per entity and lists a $50 expedited column. The Business Express portal treats an online filing as expedited. We print the statute and the table. We do not invent a free online change.

The same LLC section is how an agent steps down. A resident agent may resign by filing a counterpart or photocopy of the signed resignation. Unless a later time is specified, the resignation is effective at the time it is filed if the company has appointed a successor, or 10 days after it is filed if the company has not. That is a 10-day clock. It is not Michigan’s 30th day. It is not Massachusetts’s 31st day. The Charter Filing FAQ says a missing resident agent is a reason the record can show Not in Good Standing, and that you can appoint a new agent on Business Express or on the Resolution form.

The Business Express change screen we retrieved also prints a 2018 cap. Effective October 1, 2018, you may not increase the number of resident agents unless the entity currently has no resident agent. If there is no resident agent, you may designate only one. A business that already has more than one may change or remove a name. It may not add another. That is portal copy. We did not retrieve a matching sentence in § 4A-210. We print the portal. We do not treat that cap as the statute.

2026 Form 1 is the yearly bill this page will not confuse with the agent line. Domestic and foreign LLCs pay $300. Stock corporations pay $300. Non-stock corporations are listed at -0-. Family farms are $100. The face of the form says Due April 15th. The SDAT business page, retrieved the same day, says all domestic and foreign business entities should file their 2026 reports, or request a 60-day extension, on or before April 15, 2026. If the extension is approved, the due date is Monday, June 15. Extension requests may only be submitted online. Failure to file can forfeit the Maryland charter or the right to do business in Maryland. MarylandSaves can waive the $300 fee if the exemption was awarded in time. Form 1 is the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return. If the business owns, leases, or uses personal property in Maryland with a total original cost of $20,000 or more, the personal-property sections come with that report. Those dollars and those sections are not the resident-agent job. Change the agent on the Resolution, not by hoping Form 1 rewrites the line.

The Secretary of State sits at 16 Francis Street, Annapolis, MD 21401. That office registers charities, commissions notaries, and takes trademark filings. The Secretary of State charity page says the State Department of Assessments and Taxation serves as the central repository of all required business filings that must be submitted to the State of Maryland, including Articles of Organization and the Annual Report due each year by April 15, and that SDAT is not part of the Secretary of State’s Office. A later fetch of some Secretary of State pages still pointed nonprofit filers to 301 West Preston Street. The live SDAT business page we retrieved says we are now located at 123 Market Place, Baltimore, MD 21202, and prints 700 E. Pratt St., Suite 2700, Baltimore, MD 21202-6377 as the Department line. Form 1 still mails to P.O. Box 17052, Baltimore, Maryland 21297-1052. The Articles of Organization form we retrieved still mails Charter Division filings to 700 East Pratt Street, Suite 2700. Drop boxes sit in the lobby at 123 Market Place. Same-day drop-box service is a $425 expedited fee plus the base fee. Those lines are SDAT. They are not a commercial resident-agent suite. Maryland does not post Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 windows. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210.

Confirm the live name and street on the Business Express entity search before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the resident office. 16 Francis Street is the Secretary of State, not SDAT. 123 Market Place and 700 East Pratt Street are SDAT, not a vendor suite. That search returned a live lookup form on retrieval.

Cited prices, retrieved September 12, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Maryland resident-agent price from the national card, except where we note a Maryland-page renewal line. We do not invent a renewal.

• Northwest Registered Agent: official page: “$125 Per Year.” Same price in year two on the national card. Five or more states is $100 a year per state. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the Maryland product page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price. The Maryland page we retrieved still opens with leftover Washington State copy. We do not treat that leftover paragraph as a Maryland price.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent. A bizee.com/llc/maryland-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. The live Maryland page is bizee.com/llc/maryland/registered-agent. That page names the $100 Articles of Organization online fee and the April 15 annual report. It does not print a Bizee Maryland-only resident-agent price. We do not invent one from a missing hyphenated URL.
• LegalZoom: official overview retrieved September 12, 2026: “Get registered agent services for $249/year.” Product card: $249/year. Footnote: auto-renews at the purchase rate; “The renewal rate is subject to change.” Retrieved from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. The Maryland registered-agent article, updated April 30, 2026 and retrieved the same day, does not print a different Maryland-only price. A legalzoom.com/articles/registered-agent-in-maryland URL returned 404 the same day. We do not invent a higher year-two number.
• ZenBusiness: official Maryland page: first-year and renewal dollars are the national card. The national page says $99 + state fees for the first year and renews at $199/yr, subject to change. The Maryland page, last updated August 31, 2026, talks about services from $100 to $300 a year as a market range. That range is not a ZenBusiness price. We keep the national card. A zenbusiness.com/maryland-registered-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day. The live Maryland page is /maryland-resident-agent/. The same national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not a Maryland statute. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the Maryland resident-agent page.

A change of resident agent is a separate SDAT filing. We cite Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210, Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 1-203, and the office’s $25 / $50 expedited split, not company blogs. The $300 Form 1 is still not the resident-agent job.

Who publishes a Maryland street

A city is not a resident office. We print only the streets the companies publish for resident-agent use. We do not invent the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Business Express entity search before you file. Headquarters is not the resident office. The Secretary of State’s Annapolis contacts are not vendor suites. SDAT’s Baltimore contacts are not vendor suites.

• Northwest. The Maryland product page says they scan everything from their office in Baltimore, MD. The office-locations page lists Baltimore, MD 21201, Baltimore County, and says they leave the street off this list. No street is published. The two city lines match. 21201 is the ZIP they printed. Baltimore County is the county they printed. Those city, ZIP, and county lines are vendor-claimed. We have not been to a Baltimore office.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no Maryland street. The live Maryland product page names no Maryland street. The hyphenated Maryland URL we tried returned 404 on September 12, 2026. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not a Maryland resident-agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish a Maryland street. The Maryland article, updated April 30, 2026, names a Rosedale-based resident-agent service and no street. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the resident-agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The Maryland resident-agent page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. It prints a Maryland Secretary of State contact at 16 Francis St., Annapolis, MD 21401, telephone 410-974-5521, office hours 8:30 to 4:30, certification hours 9:00 to 1:00, website sos.maryland.gov. That is a published street. It is the Secretary of State, not ZenBusiness, and not SDAT. The Secretary of State charity page says SDAT is not part of that office. We do not treat 16 Francis Street as their suite.

If you are your own resident agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial resident agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Baltimore, ZIP 21201, Baltimore County, on the office list, and Baltimore on the product page, and no street on either. LegalZoom’s Maryland article names Rosedale and no street. Bizee publishes no Maryland street. ZenBusiness publishes the Secretary of State’s Annapolis contacts. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use the Business Express entity search.

In-state office, the post-office ban, and the $300 Form 1

Maryland wants an in-state resident or a Maryland company, a principal office in this State, and someone who can take court papers. The Articles of Organization form says the agent’s address cannot be a P.O. Box. The statute’s address definition still says street and number, if any. The agent must consent in writing unless the Department waives the filing and the company certifies the consent. Change the agent on the Resolution to Change Principal Office or Resident Agent at $25, with a $50 expedited column on the paper table. Resignation is effective on filing if a successor is already named, or on the 10th day if not. The annual report is Form 1. For an LLC it is $300 and due April 15, with a 60-day online extension to June 15. That report is not the resident-agent job. Maryland does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Baltimore, ZIP 21201, Baltimore County. LegalZoom’s Maryland article names Rosedale. ZenBusiness publishes 16 Francis Street — the Secretary of State. Bizee names no Maryland street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

• Bizee: notifications by text and email; court papers mailed via FedEx with tracking; portal upload by employees. Contact-page support hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. Those are support hours, not resident-office hours.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The Maryland page adds local scans from Baltimore. The same page still carries leftover Washington State sentences at the top. Their mail-scanning extras are a different product. We do not grade those extras as a mailbox.
• LegalZoom: upload, email, and a postcard for urgent legal mail; they say they shred junk mail. The Maryland article adds digital scanning, storage, and text or email notifications from a Rosedale office. Junk-mail shredding is not the job we score.
• ZenBusiness: scan and upload to a dashboard; email; overnight the original for urgent legal notices. Their own FAQ says you cannot use the agent address as your business address. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits; that is their exclusion, not a Maryland statute. The Maryland page prints Secretary of State hours of 8:30 to 4:30. That is office copy for the Secretary of State, not Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210.

Home-address privacy

A commercial resident agent is how most Maryland owners keep a home off the agent line. SDAT still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing or Form 1. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. Confirm the live line on the Business Express entity search.

Scorecards

What this page does not do

• It does not rank mailbox networks or virtual offices.
• It does not publish combined star ratings or a fake 4.8.
• It does not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Md. Code, Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210.
• It does not treat the $300 Form 1 as the resident-agent job.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as a Maryland street.
• It does not treat 16 Francis Street, Annapolis, as a vendor suite. Those contacts are the Secretary of State.
• It does not treat 123 Market Place or 700 East Pratt Street as a vendor suite. Those contacts are SDAT.
• It does not invent a Maryland-only price a company did not print.
• It does not invent a LegalZoom Maryland street the article did not name.
• It does not treat a P.O. Box as the street because § 1-101(b) says “street and number, if any.” The Articles form still says cannot be a P.O. Box.
• It does not invent a ten-company commercial-agent bar. Maryland does not run that register.
• It does not treat registered agent as the live SDAT form name. Corps. & Ass’ns § 4A-210 and § 2-108 both use resident agent.
• It does not pretend the Secretary of State files Maryland resident-agent lines. The Secretary of State charity page says SDAT is not part of that office.
• It does not pick a winner between Northwest’s “an LLC may be its own resident agent” FAQ and the Business Express “cannot act as its own agent” screen.

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The corporation statute names a registered agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard.