What a $49 Montana Registered Agent Actually Costs

Shelby and Sons is a private title company — not a government agency. We form Montana LLCs, act as your registered agent, and prepare and submit documents to the Montana MVD and Secretary of State on your behalf.

Every Montana LLC needs a registered agent, and if you’ve shopped for one you’ve seen the ads: $49 a year. $45. Even “$1.” Here’s the thing every experienced LLC owner eventually learns: the number in the name is almost never the number on the invoice. This guide walks through what the advertised price actually buys, what the add-ons cost — using the providers’ own published pricing — and the questions to ask before you hand any registered agent your business mail.

What a $49 Plan Actually Includes

Let’s be fair first: the $49 tier isn’t fake. At one well-known “$49” Montana registered agent, that price really does include a Montana street address and same-day scanning of legal documents — service of process and Secretary of State correspondence. If a lawsuit notice arrives, you’ll see it. That’s the core legal function, and it’s covered.

The catch is everything else. Your registered agent’s address is usually the address on file for your LLC — which means your LLC’s regular mail lands there too. Bank statements. Insurance documents. Vendor correspondence. And at the $49 tier, that mail is metered.

The Meter: $15 Per Envelope

From the same provider’s own pricing page: “any regular mail (such as bank statements) will cost an additional $15 to view.” Not to forward — to view. Mail addressed to you personally? Also “an additional $15 to access.”

Want out of the meter? Unlimited mail scanning is a separate subscription — “Just $99 a year, every year.” Need an original document physically mailed to you? That starts at $9 per item, and only if you’re already paying for the $99 scanning plan. A package? $15 plus postage, shipping, and handling. Annual report filing — the one compliance task every Montana LLC has — is another “$50 plus state fees.”

The Math That Matters

Here’s the arithmetic those pages don’t do for you:

For perspective: Northwest Registered Agent — the provider that built its reputation on flat pricing — charges $125 a year, all-in, and advertises that the price never goes up. The “$49” agent, used the way a real business uses one, costs more than the $125 agent. That’s the whole teaser-pricing model in one sentence.

It’s an Industry Pattern, Not One Company

Teaser pricing is how much of this industry works. ZenBusiness’s own pricing page advertises registered agent service at “$99 + state fees for the first year” — then “renews at $199/yr.” The first-year price exists to win the signup; the renewal price is the real price. One Montana service advertises “$1 to start” — and, to its credit, states plainly on the same page that the complete package totals $1,049. The dollar is a billing device, not a price.

Federal regulators have a name for the broader practice of advertising one number and charging another once fees stack up: junk fees, or “drip pricing” — and the FTC has been cracking down on it across industries. The registered agent business just hasn’t gotten its turn yet.

Why This Matters More Than the Money

Here’s the part most people get wrong: they stay with an agent they’ve outgrown because switching sounds like a hassle — or they try to file the agent change themselves. Be careful with that second one. A Montana designation has to match the agent’s official Secretary of State registration exactly, and a do-it-yourself filing that names the wrong party doesn’t always bounce — it can go through and quietly leave your LLC with a defective appointment nobody is actually watching. When you switch to us, we prepare and submit the change against our official registration, correctly, the first time. And the real risk was never the switch anyway. It’s what happens before you realize you need one: the compliance notice sitting behind a paywall you didn’t click, the annual report deadline that passed while you assumed someone was watching. A registered agent exists to catch documents that don’t wait. A pricing model that meters your visibility into your own mail works against the entire point of the service.

Five Questions to Ask Any Registered Agent

Before you pay anyone — including us — get answers to these in writing:

• Is ALL my mail included — legal and regular — or is scanning metered per document?
• What does year two cost? Is the renewal the same as the advertised price?
• Is annual report filing included, or an add-on?
• What does forwarding an original document cost?
• Is there a human I can call at a real office, or is support a ticket queue?

The No-Asterisks Alternative

Our Montana registered agent service is one flat price that’s the whole price: all mail handled — legal and regular — from a real office in Helena with real humans answering the phone. No per-envelope meter, no renewal surprise, no asterisks. It’s part of why clients who started with a budget agent end up with us: the cheapest registered agent is the one you never have to replace.

Ready to set up or switch? Start here or call us at 406-616-2776 — a person will pick up.

Pricing cited in this article was taken from the named providers’ public pricing pages on September 9, 2026, and archived for reference. Prices may change; check any provider’s current terms before purchasing.