A Free First Year, Then a Number Nobody Prints

Read the byline first, because it bears on how you weigh this one. ME Registered Agent.org wrote this page and sells Maine registered agent service. The thesis is simple: a rate printed in public is worth more to a buyer than a rate held back. The company making that argument prints its rate in public, which is either a conflict of interest or an illustration depending on your mood.

The Free Year Is Not a Trick

Attach the agent role to an Inc Authority formation order and its first twelve months arrive at zero cost. Our hunt for the fine print that usually shadows an offer like that, a setup charge, a term shorter than advertised, a clawback triggered by cancelling early, turned up none of it stated. Zero appears to mean zero for that first year, and to a business inside its first twelve months, that is worth having.

Year Two Has No Posted Price

What is missing is the renewal. In July 2026 we read the Inc Authority home page, the pricing and premium package pages, and the frequently asked questions, hunting specifically for the year-two agent rate. The figure is not on any of them. The pattern this market follows suggests it surfaces at the order form, or from a sales representative on a call.

Guessing at it is not something we will do, and you should be wary of any comparison that does. The structural point holds without a number anyway. Your entity carries the agent line as a permanent cost for as long as it exists, so the renewal is the price that actually matters, and withholding it means the comparison cannot be completed at the exact moment you are trying to complete it.

Maine Prints Its Prices on the Paper

A useful contrast is available here, and it is not merely rhetorical. Maine tells you what things cost before you commit to them. The annual report fee is $85 and the deadline is June 1. The change of agent form carries its fee schedule right in the header. Even the optional expedite tiers are posted, $50 for next day and $100 for same day. The state's whole approach is that a filer should be able to read the cost in advance.

We copy that approach because it is the correct one. Year one is $99, every year after is $99, and both figures sit on the pricing page before you order anything. Inside the price: service of process scanned the same business day it arrives at our Maine office, an email when that happens, portal access to your document history, our address rather than yours on the public agent line, and a reminder before June 1.

We are not the cheapest and will not pretend to be, since BetterLegal publishes $90. What we hold is a spot among the lowest published flat rates in this state, with both years legible right now, which is the specific comparison this page is about.

Filing the Change While the Free Year Is Still Running

The two sides here are lopsided in a useful way. The Inc Authority renewal carries an unknown price on an unknown date. The Maine exit carries a known price of $35 on any date you choose.

That filing is Form CLK/RA 3, mailed with payment to the Division of Corporations, UCC and Commissions, the Secretary of State's business filing unit. Note the two fees printed on the form and take the for-profit one at $35; the smaller figure beside it is the nonprofit corporation rate and does not belong to an LLC. Nothing about the filing is seasonal, so a Tuesday inside your free year works exactly as well as a Tuesday after it.

Maine's interest in the sequence is continuity, not your billing arrangements. 5 M.R.S. § 102 defines the role around who is available to receive process, and that definition does not tolerate an empty chair between providers. So: appoint the successor, mail the form, confirm the state record, and close the Inc Authority account after all of that. Done in that order, an invoice nobody ever quoted you gets no opportunity to arrive. Our change of agent instructions carry the details.

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