How long does it take to change a registered agent in Maryland?

SDAT's own instructions state that regular document processing time is 4 to 6 weeks, and that an expedited request will be handled within 7 business days. Documents filed online are treated as expedited and are also processed within 7 business days. SDAT publishes no faster tier for this filing. The change is not effective when you send it. Under Maryland law it takes effect when the Department accepts the statement for record, so allow for the full window before relying on the new agent to receive service of process.

What does it cost to change a registered agent in Maryland?

$25. SDAT's fee schedule states the fee to file a notice of change of principal office, resident agent, or resident agent's address is $25.00 per limited liability company. Expedited handling adds $50. There is no fee for a resident agent to resign. If you hire a commercial resident agent service, its own annual charge is separate from the state fee.

Can I be my own registered agent in Maryland?

Yes. SDAT's instructions say a resident agent must be either a Maryland citizen who lives in Maryland or an active Maryland corporation. The agent's address cannot be a P.O. box, and the agent should be available there during business hours. The practical cost is privacy and presence: the address is a public record in SDAT's business entity search, and you must be there to accept service of process. Missing a summons is how a default judgment happens.

Will changing my registered agent affect my LLC's good standing?

No. Filing the change correctly has no effect on good standing. What does threaten it is different. Under Maryland law the Department may forfeit an LLC's right to do business for unpaid taxes or for failure to file the Annual Report, not for a lapsed resident agent. There is no automatic administrative dissolution triggered by an agent vacancy, and no 30-day deadline to appoint a replacement. The statute's one clock is this: if your agent resigns and the LLC has not appointed a successor, the resignation takes effect 10 days after it is filed. If your LLC has already been forfeited, the route back is the "Articles or Certificate of Reinstatement for an LLC, LLP, or LP", which costs $100 plus $50 to expedite.

Can I file the registered agent change online or must I mail it?

Either. Paper filing is accepted and the current SDAT form is a printable document whose own instructions give the mailing address. Online through Maryland Business Express is the faster route because SDAT treats online filings as expedited and processes them within 7 business days, against 4 to 6 weeks for regular paper handling. Mail to 700 East Pratt Street, Suite 2700, Baltimore, MD 21202, or deliver in person to 123 Market Place. The fee is $25 either way.

How to Change Your Registered Agent in Maryland

Complete guide to updating your LLC's resident agent with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Maryland's statutes call it a resident agent, not a registered agent, and the two mean the same thing.

By Edmond Hui · Last updated: October 2026

Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Get registered agent service from NorthwestRegistered agent service is $125/yr. The included first year applies only when you form a new LLC with them ($39 plus your state's filing fee), so it does not apply to an LLC you already have. Registered agent customers are enrolled by default in annual report filing at $100 plus state fees, charged automatically to your saved payment method and cancellable any time.

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Step diagram for changing an LLC's registered agent in Maryland, showing the 5 filing steps required by the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. — The 5 steps to change your registered agent in Maryland. Source: Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation.

How to File

1
Download the SDAT resolution form
Maryland has no numbered form for this. SDAT publishes a document titled "Resolution to Change Principal Office or Resident Agent" (rev. 8/2024) on its forms index at dat.maryland.gov/Pages/sdatforms.aspx. Do not use Articles of Amendment: those amend your Articles of Organization, cost $100, and are a different filing.
2
Complete it with the new agent's Maryland address
Enter your LLC's name and SDAT Department ID, then the new resident agent's name and Maryland street address. The address must be a physical location in Maryland, not a P.O. box.
3
Have the new agent sign it
Maryland law requires a statement signed by a person authorized to act for the LLC, and SDAT's instructions say the new resident agent must also sign it. The form's consent line is where the new agent agrees to the designation.
4
File it with the $25 fee
SDAT's fee schedule states the fee to file a notice of change of principal office, resident agent, or resident agent's address is $25.00. There is no fee for a resident agent to resign. Add $50 for expedited handling. Mail to 700 East Pratt Street, Suite 2700, Baltimore, MD 21202, deliver in person to 123 Market Place, or file online through Maryland Business Express.
5
Update your internal records
The change takes effect when the Department accepts the statement for record, not on the day you send it. Once SDAT posts it, update your operating agreement and tell your bank, insurers and vendors.

Need the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation?

Go directly to the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation website.

File with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation →

When Should You Change Your Registered Agent?

Your current registered agent is moving out of Maryland or closing their business
You're switching to a professional registered agent service for better reliability
Your registered agent is no longer responsive or providing adequate service
You need to update from a personal address to a business address for privacy

Hiring a service is optional. You can name yourself or another individual with a street address in Maryland, and the FAQ below gives Maryland's own rule.

Registered agent services for Maryland LLCs, by renewal price

Affiliate disclosure: Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom pay us a commission if you sign up through our link, at no extra cost to you. We list only the registered agent services we have an affiliate relationship with, so this is not a survey of the whole market.

This table is not scored. The four are listed cheapest annual renewal first, and the rows below it say which one fits which situation. The scored ranking, and the formula behind it, is on the formation services review, which orders them on three-year cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.

Service	With formation, year 1	Annual renewal	BBB	Trustpilot	Privacy
Northwest Registered Agent	Included with $39 formation	$125/yr	A	4.1/5 (297)	Says it does not sell your information; runs its own servers
Bizee	Free year one (some visitors are being shown shorter free periods, so confirm at checkout)	$149/yr	C (unaccredited)	4.8/5 (26,100+)	No data-sharing commitment
ZenBusiness	$99, not included in any plan	$199/yr	A	4.8/5 (32,500+)	Partial
LegalZoom	Not included, $249 extra	$249/yr	A+	4.6/5 (32,900+)	Partial

Note: Bizee holds a C rating from the BBB and is not accredited. BBB's profile carries a live alert describing a pattern of complaints about unexpected charges, difficulty canceling and filing delays, and Bizee has posted a response to it. We flag this so you can make an informed choice.

Prices are each provider's standard published rates; year-one pricing applies when you form your LLC through the same service. BBB and Trustpilot figures as recorded September 15, 2026, not re-checked since, and both sources update continuously. These are the dates the figures were last written to our dataset, which is the most we can show: they are not verification dates. See how we evaluate these companies in our full formation services review →

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state publishes about filing deadlines, fees, and the consequences of missing them, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you what your own company owes: the date turns on when and where you formed, states change these rules between our reviews, and in several states an entity-level tax falls due in a year when no report does. Confirm your own dates with the filing office named on this page before you rely on one here, because missing a deadline can cost the company its good standing or, in many states, its existence.

Read this guide for another state:

Frequently Asked Questions

: SDAT's own instructions state that regular document processing time is 4 to 6 weeks, and that an expedited request will be handled within 7 business days. Documents filed online are treated as expedited and are also processed within 7 business days. SDAT publishes no faster tier for this filing. The change is not effective when you send it. Under Maryland law it takes effect when the Department accepts the statement for record, so allow for the full window before relying on the new agent to receive service of process.
: $25. SDAT's fee schedule states the fee to file a notice of change of principal office, resident agent, or resident agent's address is $25.00 per limited liability company. Expedited handling adds $50. There is no fee for a resident agent to resign. If you hire a commercial resident agent service, its own annual charge is separate from the state fee.
: Yes. SDAT's instructions say a resident agent must be either a Maryland citizen who lives in Maryland or an active Maryland corporation. The agent's address cannot be a P.O. box, and the agent should be available there during business hours. The practical cost is privacy and presence: the address is a public record in SDAT's business entity search, and you must be there to accept service of process. Missing a summons is how a default judgment happens.
: No. Filing the change correctly has no effect on good standing. What does threaten it is different. Under Maryland law the Department may forfeit an LLC's right to do business for unpaid taxes or for failure to file the Annual Report, not for a lapsed resident agent. There is no automatic administrative dissolution triggered by an agent vacancy, and no 30-day deadline to appoint a replacement. The statute's one clock is this: if your agent resigns and the LLC has not appointed a successor, the resignation takes effect 10 days after it is filed. If your LLC has already been forfeited, the route back is the "Articles or Certificate of Reinstatement for an LLC, LLP, or LP", which costs $100 plus $50 to expedite.
: Either. Paper filing is accepted and the current SDAT form is a printable document whose own instructions give the mailing address. Online through Maryland Business Express is the faster route because SDAT treats online filings as expedited and processes them within 7 business days, against 4 to 6 weeks for regular paper handling. Mail to 700 East Pratt Street, Suite 2700, Baltimore, MD 21202, or deliver in person to 123 Market Place. The fee is $25 either way.

Sources

8 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Maryland sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.

Maryland statute: Md. Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-210(b) (change of resident agent; effective date)
Maryland statute: Md. Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-210(d)(2) (agent resignation)
Maryland statute: Md. Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-911 (forfeiture)
SDAT: Resolution to Change Principal Office or Resident Agent, instructions (Rev. 8/2024): $25 fee, $50 expedite, processing times, mailing address
dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Pages/default.aspxMaryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation: business entity filings
mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtp&section=11-101&enactments=falseMaryland statute: Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtp&section=14-704&enactments=falseMaryland statute: Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
egov.maryland.gov/BusinessExpressMaryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation: file the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return

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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.

How we check facts

How to File

Download the SDAT resolution form

Complete it with the new agent's Maryland address

Have the new agent sign it

File it with the $25 fee

Update your internal records