Have you finally decided to quit your job and start your own business?
You’ll soon find that the process can be hectic as you create your own company structure. One of the biggest challenges that you’ll come across is whether you should become your own process agent.
A process agent is a representative who has to collect mail on behalf of the company. In many cases, the process agent has to respond to any legal notifications that the company might receive.
Here’s what you need to know about becoming a process agent:
What a Process Agent Does
When a court issues a legal notification to a business, it gets sent directly to the process agent. The process agent is often the best person to receive such documents as the owner of the business will be busy with other tasks.
The process agent can contact the court to respond as needed. They can set up negotiations, arbitrations, and adjudications.
The process agent, however, doesn’t need any legal expertise to take on this role. They only need to be responsible enough to check the mail on a regular basis. As a result, it’s not ideal to hire a person who travels often to become a process agent.
You can check out this page for further details on what a process agent’s responsibilities are.
Can I Be My Own Process Agent?
Any entrepreneur can choose to become their own process agent. They can also assign this role to an employee or a third-party person or service.
However, as a general rule, this isn’t advised for most companies. Let’s look at the requirements for a process agent.
You’ll need to have a physical address as a process agent. A virtual address or a post office box, or a professional mailbox service doesn’t suffice. The address for the process agent gets made public by your jurisdiction’s company registry.
As a result, many freelancers hesitate to become their own process agent. Many freelancers operate from their homes and don’t want this information to be made public.
If you travel often, you can expect to get into further legal trouble if you don’t respond to a legal notice promptly. That’s why it’s often easier to delegate this responsibility to another person or to a process agent service.
Process agents are also required to keep regular business hours. This means that if you need to get in touch with your process agent, you can do so without worrying if they’re available.
Find a Process Agent
Now you know that you can become your own process agent but that it’s not always advantageous.
A process agent has to collect mail on behalf of the company. A processing agent also has to respond to legal notices on the company’s behalf.
Any entrepreneur can choose to become a process agent. However, this isn’t advised as it can interfere with your other business operations. It also requires you to publish your business address online. It’s often easier to outsource this responsibility to a process agent service.
You can find more information on starting a business on our blog!
