Vermont Registered Agent Resignation: A How-To Guide

Notifying the Vermont LLC

Before you can formally resign with the Secretary of State, you must send a notification to your LLC. Aside from being required by the state (11 V.S.A. § 4009), this can be beneficial to both you and your LLC. In doing so, you’ll give the company plenty of time to change its registered agent and avoid the penalties for not having one.

Plus, it will help you pass along your responsibilities sooner. Even after you resign, you will retain your agent duties for 31 days unless your LLC appoints a replacement sooner. If they have the time to line up your successor, you can transition out of your role more quickly.

Submitting Your Resignation

Notifying your LLC early is helpful, but notifying the Secretary of State is what puts your resignation in motion. On the S.O.S. Fees & Filings page, click “Limited Liability Companies” and then scroll down to find the “Agent Resignation.”

The Secretary of State prefers that you file online. However, if you need a paper application, you can request one. For either option, you’ll need to provide:

• The LLC name
• Your name, mailing address, and email address
• Whether or not the registered office is discontinued
• The name and address of the LLC representative to whom you sent notice
• Date
• Your signature

Whether you submit your resignation online or by mail, there is no filing fee. Online, your document will be submitted right away. If you requested and completed a paper form, mail it to:

Vermont Secretary of State
Corporations Division
128 State St.
Montpellier, VT 05633-1104

As mentioned above, your resignation won’t take effect until 31 days after it’s processed, or as soon as your LLC brings on your replacement, whichever comes sooner.

Handing off Your Responsibilities

When you put down your registered agent responsibilities, someone else has to pick them up, or your LLC will lose its good standing with the state. Help your LLC keep its momentum by carefully planning your transition.

This starts with finding a successor who’s ready to take over right away. Even a small gap in registered agent coverage can result in severe penalties. After you’ve resigned and served the requisite 31 days, you’ll be off the books. At that point, if your LLC still hasn’t changed its registered agent, it has 30 more days to do so. Any Vermont entity that goes more than 30 days without a valid registered agent will be terminated by the state.

The LLC can appoint any number of consenting individuals or entities as its registered agent, as long as they meet Vermont’s registered agent requirements, meaning they must:

• Be an individual or business entity residing in Vermont
• Have a physical Vermont address (P.O. boxes aren’t allowed)
• Have a mailing address in Vermont
• Be authorized to do business in the state, if a foreign entity
• Be available at the registered office address during regular business hours

LLCs are allowed to assign registered agent duties to individual members, but sometimes it’s easier and more efficient to outsource those duties to a professional service.

We recommend using a registered agent service, which can take over registered agent duties, freeing up more time for the LLC’s managers to focus on running the business.

Finishing Up

You do a lot for your Vermont LLC. You’re essentially the shield that protects it from fines, the filter that catches important documents, the conductor that keeps it on track with compliance.

Because you play such an important role, it’s crucial that you follow the resignation procedures exactly — and potentially provide a replacement agent for the business. Otherwise, you might find yourself and your LLC in hot water.

Follow this guide and you’ll be totally fine. Soon, you’ll be on to your next project, whether that’s starting a new business in Vermont or something completely different.

If you need a fresh start and would like to form a brand new LLC, there are plenty of services that can take care of this for you. ZenBusiness and Northwest are two very popular options.