Notices reach a real person
A current agent and address mean you learn about a lawsuit or a state notice from us, not from a default judgment.
Business
Good standing is a habit, not an event
The routine filings nobody puts in a calendar — Statement of Information, agent for service of process, city licence, DBA — held and filed by us so the entity stays current.
Almost nobody loses good standing on purpose. What happens is that the Statement of Information notice goes to an address the owner moved out of two years ago, the city licence renewal arrives during tax season, and the agent for service of process is a friend who has since changed jobs. None of it is urgent until the day a lender, a landlord or a general contractor pulls the entity record and finds it suspended.
We hold these filings so they do not depend on anyone remembering. The Statement of Information — LLC-12 for an LLC, SI-550 for a stock corporation — is filed within its window and diarised for the next one. The city licence, the fictitious business name and any out-of-state registration sit on the same calendar. It is unglamorous work and it is exactly what keeps the entity usable.
Scope
What’s included
Statement of Information
LLC-12 or SI-550 prepared and filed — first within 90 days of registering, then on the entity’s own cycle: annually for corporations, every two years for LLCs.
Agent for service of process
A stable California street address on the public record, so legal notices reach you instead of an old address or a former colleague.
City business licence
Azusa, Covina, West Covina, Glendora, Duarte and the surrounding cities each license separately — applied for and renewed where you actually operate.
Fictitious business name (DBA)
Filed with the county, published in a newspaper of general circulation as California requires, and renewed before it lapses.
Foreign qualification
Registering an out-of-state LLC or corporation to do business in California, and California entities registering elsewhere.
Good-standing watch
Entity status checked against the Secretary of State record, with anything drifting toward suspension caught while it is still cheap.
Outcome
Why it matters
Contracts and credit stay open
Lenders, landlords and general contractors check entity status. Active is a yes; suspended stops the conversation.
No penalty for a five-minute form
The Statement of Information takes minutes and carries a penalty when it is late. That is an entirely avoidable cost.
Process
How it works
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Records check
We pull the Secretary of State record and compare it to reality — addresses, officers, members, agent and status.
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Bring it current
Any overdue Statement of Information, licence or DBA filed now, with penalties addressed where they were assessed.
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Take over the calendar
Every renewal date recorded and held by us, with the reminder coming to you well before the deadline.
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File and confirm
Each filing made and the confirmation stored in your portal, so there is proof rather than a memory.
Suited to
Who this is for
- LLCs and corporations that keep missing the Statement of Information
- Owners using a home address they no longer want public
- Out-of-state companies starting to operate in California
- Businesses trading under a name different from the legal one
- Contractors who need active status to bid or renew a licence
FAQ
Questions
The first one is due within 90 days of registering with the Secretary of State. After that, a stock corporation files SI-550 every year and an LLC files LLC-12 every two years, in the filing period tied to the month the entity was originally registered. Late filing triggers a penalty and, left long enough, suspension — which is a far bigger problem than the form itself.
You can, if you have a physical California street address — a PO box is not accepted — and you are there during business hours. The trade-off is that the address becomes public and a process server may turn up at it. Many owners prefer a commercial agent for that reason alone, particularly when the business runs out of a home.
Usually, yes. Doing business in California generally requires registering here as a foreign entity regardless of where the company was formed — and once registered, the California filing and franchise tax obligations apply. Operating here without registering does not avoid them; it adds penalties and can block you from bringing a lawsuit in a California court. We look at where the work actually happens and register accordingly.
Often needed alongside this
Other services
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Business Formation & Entity Selection
The structure you choose in week one decides what you pay in tax for years. We pick it with the numbers in front of us, then file everything that has to be filed.
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California Franchise Tax Compliance
The $800 minimum, the LLC fee, the vouchers that are easy to forget and the returns they attach to — tracked, paid on schedule, and put right when they were not.
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Entity Conversion & Dissolution
Moving from one structure to another, or closing one down for good — done in the order California and the IRS expect, so nothing keeps billing you afterwards.
Let’s find out what you should actually be paying.
Thirty minutes with an Enrolled Agent, at no charge. Bring last year’s return and we will tell you plainly what we would do differently — and what it would cost.