Direct Incorporation LLC Service Review
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Northwest Registered Agent LLC Service Review
Read the Northwest Registered Agent LLC service review below or choose ZenBusiness today.
Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes
Since getting its start in 1998, Northwest Registered Agent has carved out a name for itself as a no-nonsense company providing online LLC formations and registered agent services nationwide. This Northwest Registered Agent LLC service review discusses all the details and should help you decide whether you’d like to use their services.
About Northwest Registered Agent
Northwest opened for business in 1998. Since then, they’ve helped around 2 million customers.
Overall, Northwest isn’t one of the industry giants, but they’re not a small mom-and-pop operation either. They’ve found a niche as a quality midsize service provider.
A fun fact about Northwest is that they were the first major nationwide registered agent service provider that locally scans every document they receive on your behalf. Some competitors only scan the government-issued forms they’re legally required to scan.
Pros and Cons of Northwest
Pros of Northwest Registered Agent
✔ Northwest Registered Agent keeps their customer support in-house with a team of professionally trained corporate guides. Every time we’ve called with questions about complicated state rules or forming an LLC, they’ve been able to answer our questions.
✔ They’re one of just a few LLC services that include a full year of registered agent service upon formation.
✔ As part of their company guidelines, Northwest Registered Agent won’t sell your information to other companies. They also run their own servers and write their own code. In short, they take your security and privacy seriously.
Cons of Northwest Registered Agent
✖ It’s possible to get a cheaper LLC filing service, especially considering that Northwest charges $225. For example, by hiring us at ZenBusiness, you can form an LLC for free (just pay your state’s fee).
Northwest Registered Agent LLC Pricing
With Northwest Registered Agent, customers have one filing option. If you’d like to examine the way they advertise this service, feel free to check out their website for all the details.
LLC Filing ($225 + State Fee)
➢ Name Availability Search: They will search your state’s official business database to make certain that your desired LLC name is still available and hasn’t already been claimed by another individual or business entity.
➢ Preparation and Filing of Your Articles of Organization: This document outlines your basic company information so that your state can officially form your new LLC. Northwest Registered Agent will prepare this document on your behalf, then file it with your state of formation.
➢ One Year of Registered Agent Service: Every LLC in the U.S. is required to designate a registered agent. The registered agent is in charge of receiving service of process and important legal documents on behalf of your LLC, then forwarding them to you. Northwest will serve as your registered agent for one year, after which you can renew your service for $125 per year, although you’re under no obligation to do so.
ZenBusiness LLC Packages
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Top Features
We do everything needed to file your application with the state and make your business official. Standard LLC Filing
We’ll file your paperwork quickly and accurately. If there are any errors with your filing, our team will do what’s needed to make it right. 100% Accuracy Guarantee
Keeps you compliant with all state-required annual report and amendment filings to maintain LLC protections and avoid fines. Worry-Free Compliance
This essential document is like the constitution for your business. Operating Agreement
Our fastest service puts you to the front of our line of filings. Our Fastest Filing Speed
Our team will secure your EIN from the IRS so you can open a business bank account, hire employees, and pay taxes. EIN
Includes over 25 templates for contracts, service agreements, waivers, and more. Business Documents
Get online with a website builder tool optimized for traffic and customers. Business Website Builder
Build and protect your brand by registering a private domain name that matches your business name. Domain Name with Privacy
Stay organized and give your business more credibility with a business email. Business Email Address
File in 2 to 3 weeks **
1 year free, then $199/yr*
+$99
+$79
+$99
+$99
+$15/mo
+$35/yr
+$25/yr
*SPECIAL OFFER – Get Starter for $0 plus state fees. Includes one optional free year of Worry-Free Compliance that renews at $199/yr.
**These filing times are averages and include our processing times and Secretary of State turnaround times which vary by state.
Deep Dive: Northwest LLC Formation Review
Overall Pricing and Value
For $225 (plus state fee), you can form your LLC and receive a year of their registered agent service. Once the first year is up, they’ll continue serving as your registered agent for $125 per year until you opt out.
Track Record
Northwest was founded in 1998 out of Spokane, Washington. They’ve found a niche in being a medium-sized business and boast a motto of “We’re Just Not Annoying.” Their primary goal is to simplify business formation and registered agent services while being transparent with their customers.
Since its founding, Northwest has helped form around 2 million businesses. They share on their site that they’re currently working with upwards of 200 new LLCs and corporations each day. While there aren’t too many reviews online for the company (around 800), most of the ones we found were positive and aligned with the mission and values promised by Northwest.
Customer Support
Northwest offers phone and email support. You can fill out a form on their site to send an email. While it took nearly 24 hours to receive an email back, the response was detailed, and the rep went beyond simply answering our question and checking off an email response.
We also called them. The representative who answered the phone took the time to ask for details so that he could give us the most accurate answer. Whereas some competitors in this industry outsource their customer support to large, anonymous call centers, we appreciate Northwest’s commitment to providing personalized customer service.
Ease of Placing an Order
The point of using an incorporation service is to save time and make the formation process as simple as possible. With some online LLC services, it can still feel like you’re basically filing on your own. But with Northwest, the process is quick and easy.
The application process with Northwest is streamlined and easy to follow. You simply enter your personal and business details and pay for the order.
Overall Turnaround Time
When you select your state from the dropdown menu of the application, an estimated turnaround time will display on the screen. Depending on your state, these could vary quite a bit ― in some states, their turnarounds are as quick as just a couple of business days, but in others, you’ll need to wait several weeks. Most states have expedited service available for an additional fee, so you’ll see two turnaround times on the order form.
Is Northwest Registered Agent right for you?
At the end of the day, there are more factors working in Northwest Registered Agent’s favor than there are working against them. They offer strong overall value and customer support.
Of course, they won’t be the perfect choice for every entrepreneur forming an LLC, so to wrap things up, here are a couple of scenarios where you perhaps should or shouldn’t use Northwest Registered Agent for LLC services.
✔ When to Use Northwest Registered Agent
If you’re looking for personalized customer support and registered agent service, Northwest Registered Agent is an option for you.
✖ When NOT to Use Northwest Registered Agent
Some of their competitors can offer similar features for much lower prices. For instance, while Northwest charges $225, we’ll form your LLC for free. There are also some services that have a higher volume of positive customer feedback than Northwest has. If these are priorities for you, you might want to look elsewhere.
Start your LLC with ZenBusiness
Pricing starts at just $0 + state fee
Frequently Asked Questions About Northwest Registered Agent
Northwest Registered Agent opened for business in 1998. Since then, they’ve become one of the most popular national LLC formation services, as they form hundreds of new business entities each week.
Seeing as they’ve been around for decades and they’ve served a high volume of customers, we were a bit surprised to see that Northwest only has about 800 reviews available online. Still, the majority of them are positive.
Northwest Registered Agent is a solid company in the business services industry. If you’d like to do some more research and read comparative reviews of Northwest, here are our most popular:
Northwest Registered Agent will refund your money if you request a refund within 60 days ― minus $25. However, they do say on their website, “We form hundreds of LLCs every day, and each filing is backed by our 100% error-free guarantee. Although extremely rare, in the 20 years we’ve been in business, we’ve learned that mistakes do happen. Should an error occur, we’ll file every amendment required to make sure your company information is accurate (at no cost to you).”
You do always have this option, and there are quite a few entrepreneurs who do choose to form their own LLCs. This process can take time because each state has its own rules and regulations regarding how LLCs are formed and maintained.
On the other end of the spectrum, some entrepreneurs choose to hire a lawyer to form their new businesses, but this is usually much more costly than using an online incorporation service.
Each state has a way to reserve a business name before forming your entity itself. In general, this is only necessary if you aren’t yet ready to enter the formation process.
If you’re ready to start your business, there’s no reason to reserve your name before forming your LLC. We will note that certain states (like Alabama) require you to reserve a name before you form your business.
Yes, there is no requirement that you be present in the U.S. while starting an LLC. In fact, you don’t need to be a U.S. citizen or resident to form an LLC either, as foreign nationals are allowed to own and operate LLCs just like U.S. citizens are.
Northwest plays a sort of middle ground with state-specific requirements. Using the New York publication requirement as an example, they don’t offer to handle this step for you, but they do offer significant assistance with it.
When you hire Northwest to form a New York LLC, you can use their registered agent address in Albany as either your “address for service of process” or your “principal office.” Then, follow their step-by-step instructions to publish your LLC info in area newspapers.
Interested in a company that will handle this process for you? Take a look at our New York publication service.
You can contact Northwest via phone by calling 509-768-2249. Instead of posting a general contact email address on their website, they provide a support inquiry form on the “Contact Us” page that you can fill out to start the email support process.
In our opinion, Northwest keeps the upsells to a minimum. Quite a few of their competitors, especially LegalZoom, place a considerable amount of pressure on you to buy expensive add-on features that drive your total cost way up — but Northwest doesn’t bother us in this regard.
Northwest’s processing times vary depending on your state of LLC filing, but in general, they’re pretty fast. If you need to speed up your formation turnaround time, you can upgrade to their expedited service which can reduce your processing time from weeks down to just a few days in some states.
Aside from forming your business entity, Northwest’s core services include registered agent service, annual reports, mail forwarding, and virtual office services. They can also help you with foreign registrations, international business formations, IRS registrations, S corporation tax elections, operating agreements, and business licensing.
This is a tough question to answer without knowing the specific needs of your unique business. We personally enjoy getting an EIN included with our LLC formation, even if it means spending extra to add it on or to upgrade to a higher level of incorporation service.
The convenience of not having to get one ourselves through the IRS is worth it for us, and we like to have our Articles of Organization and EIN confirmation in the same place. However, we would understand if you’d rather save some money and acquire your own EIN from the IRS directly.
Northwest has personalized customer support, which is a noteworthy advantage for them, especially compared to some competitors that outsource their support to massive call centers. Their biggest disadvantage is their pricing. It can be difficult to justify spending $225 for Northwest when some competitors (like us at ZenBusiness) offer LLC services for free.
Yes. Northwest offers registered agent service for $125 per year. They also offer annual report service, which is available for $100 plus state fee.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
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