Applying for a Kentucky certificate of authority without a service

Print the formation record or the home-state status page. You need three things from it: the exact legal name with its ending, the formation date, and the duration if one is stated. Copy them into a worksheet rather than retyping from memory, because a name that differs by one word from the home record is a common cause of trouble. A home status printout also supports the certification you will make in item 10.

The agent needs a street office in Kentucky and has to be either a state resident or an authorized entity, never the applicant itself. Ask for a written acceptance, signed on the application or attached to it, and for the signer's title if an entity is acting. Also hand over a contact person's name, address and phone number, which the statute expects.

Begin on the application page and choose the entity type. Then work down the statements in the order of the paper form: the names, the jurisdiction and dates, the principal office mailing address, the Kentucky registered office and agent, and the representatives. The form's boxes for professional corporations, LLLPs, manager-managed LLCs and vapor retailers need ticking only where they apply. The Form FBE page explains each item.

Once the application is on file, the entity turns up in the Secretary of State's organization search. Print its filing from there and carry it to the clerk in the county of the registered office. The clerk bills $33 for 5 pages or fewer, plus $3 for each page beyond that.

Put three entries in a calendar. One marks the opening of the first report window, January 1 after the year the certificate issues, and the next marks June 30, when it closes. The window then recurs. The third entry is a yearly check that an agent is still in place, since a gap of sixty days hands the state a revocation ground.

• An agent who agreed by phone but never signed anything.
• A registered office that is a PO box.
• A name typed without the ending the home record carries.
• Skipping item 8, so that no representatives appear.
• An LLLP box ticked by mistake on an ordinary limited partnership.
• Forgetting the clerk copy and the annual report diary.

Handling is normally same-day for everything except annual reports, though the state's FAQ allows for up to three business days. Authority begins at the moment the filing is accepted, because the document is effective at its date and time of filing. An entity already at work in Kentucky adds to the penalty with every earlier day, so an adequate agent now beats a perfect one later.

If the entity has several people to sign, a professional corporation representation to make, or an agent who needs chasing, a service saves the back and forth. We prepare Form FBE, gather the acceptance and file, for $199 plus the state fee.

$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.