How to find the owner of an LLC
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Often you cannot, from the state register alone. Every state publishes the registered agent, most publish an organiser, and some publish officers. Members of an LLC — the actual owners — are frequently not public anywhere.
What the register does show
- Registered agent. Always published. Frequently a commercial service rather than a person connected to the business.
- Organiser or incorporator. Whoever filed the formation document. Often a lawyer or a formation service, not an owner.
- Officers, governors or managers. Published in some states and not others. Pennsylvania lists governors; many states list nobody.
- Principal address. Sometimes the owner’s, often the agent’s, occasionally a mail drop.
Why the agent is usually a dead end
Registered agent work is concentrated in a handful of companies. In Colorado, the five largest account for these registrations between them:
- Registered Agents Inc — 45,515 registrations
- Northwest Registered Agent — 34,745 registrations
- Corporation Service Company — 34,006 registrations
- CT Corporation System — 24,332 registrations
- ZenBusiness — 12,504 registrations
Finding one of those names on a record tells you the business used a service. It tells you nothing about ownership.
Where to look instead
- Annual reports. Where a state requires officers to be listed, the report is often more revealing than the formation document, and it is more current.
- Assumed name or DBA filings. Frequently held at county level and frequently name an individual.
- Professional and trade licences. Usually name a real person, because the licence attaches to a person.
- Court records and UCC filings. Name parties directly, and are public.
- Property records. If the entity holds real estate, the deed and the signatory are public.
- Federal contract data. Entities doing business with the federal government disclose ownership.
Why it is set up this way
The register exists so that a business can be served with legal documents and held to its filings. It was never designed as an ownership disclosure system. That is the source of both the privacy people value in an LLC and the frustration when they are trying to find out who they are dealing with.
Which office holds the records, by state
Ownership detail that is published at all is published by these offices. They will tell you what their state discloses.
| Jurisdiction | Business filings phone | Office hours | Official search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | (334) 242-5324 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | arc-sos.state.al.us |
| Alaska | (907) 269-8160 | 8:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. | commerce.alaska.gov |
| Arizona | (602) 542-3026 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | ecorp.azcc.gov |
| Arkansas | (501) 682-3409 | 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | sos.arkansas.gov |
| California | (916) 657-5448 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov |
| Colorado | (303) 894-2200 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | coloradosos.gov |
| Connecticut | (860) 509-6002 | 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | service.ct.gov |
| Delaware | (302) 739-3073 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | icis.corp.delaware.gov |
| District of Columbia | — | — | corponline.dcra.dc.gov |
| Florida | (850) 245-6052 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | search.sunbiz.org |
| Georgia | (404) 656-2817 | 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. | ecorp.sos.ga.gov |
| Hawaii | (844) 808-3222 | 7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | hbe.ehawaii.gov |
| Idaho | (208) 334-2301 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | sosbiz.idaho.gov |
| Illinois | (800) 252-8980 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | apps.ilsos.gov |
| Indiana | (317) 234-9768 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | bsd.sos.in.gov |
| Iowa | (515) 281-5204 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | sos.iowa.gov |
| Kansas | (785) 296-4564 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | kansas.gov |
| Kentucky | (502) 564-3490 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | sos.ky.gov |
| Louisiana | (225) 925-4704 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | coraweb.sos.la.gov |
| Maine | (207) 624-7752 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | apps1.web.maine.gov |
| Maryland | (410) 767-1330 | 8:30 A.M to 4:30 P.M. | egov.maryland.gov |
| Massachusetts | (617) 727-9640 | 8:45 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | corp.sec.state.ma.us |
| Michigan | (517) 241-6470 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | mibusinessregistry.lara.state.mi.us |
| Minnesota | (651) 296-2803 | 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us |
| Mississippi | (601) 359-1633 | 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. | corp.sos.ms.gov |
| Missouri | (573) 751-4153 | 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | bsd.sos.mo.gov |
| Montana | (406) 444-3665 | 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. | biz.sosmt.gov |
| Nebraska | (402) 471-4079 | 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. | nebraska.gov |
| Nevada | (775) 684-5708 | 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. | esos.nv.gov |
| New Hampshire | (603) 271-3246 | 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | quickstart.sos.nh.gov |
| New Jersey | (609) 292-9292 | 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. | njportal.com |
| New Mexico | (505) 827-3600 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | enterprise.sos.nm.gov |
| New York | (518) 473-2492 | 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. | apps.dos.ny.gov |
| North Carolina | (919) 814-5400 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | sosnc.gov |
| North Dakota | (701) 328-2900 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | firststop.sos.nd.gov |
| Ohio | (614) 466-3910 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | businesssearch.ohiosos.gov |
| Oklahoma | (405) 522-2520 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | sos.ok.gov |
| Oregon | (503) 986-2200 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | sos.oregon.gov |
| Pennsylvania | (717) 787-1057 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | file.dos.pa.gov |
| Rhode Island | (401) 222-3040 | 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | business.sos.ri.gov |
| South Carolina | (803) 734-2158 | 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | businessfilings.sc.gov |
| South Dakota | (605) 773-4845 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | sosenterprise.sd.gov |
| Tennessee | (615) 741-2286 | 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | tncab.tnsos.gov |
| Texas | (512) 463-5555 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | comptroller.texas.gov |
| Utah | (801) 530-4849 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | businessregistration.utah.gov |
| Vermont | (802) 828-2386 | 7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | bizfilings.vermont.gov |
| Virginia | (804) 371-9733 | 8:15 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | cis.scc.virginia.gov |
| Washington | (360) 725-0377 | 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. | ccfs.sos.wa.gov |
| West Virginia | (304) 558-8000 | 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | apps.sos.wv.gov |
| Wisconsin | (608) 261-7577 | 7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | apps.dfi.wi.gov |
| Wyoming | (307) 777-7311 | 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | wyobiz.wyo.gov |
Common questions
Are LLC owners public record?
Sometimes. Some states publish members or managers, many publish only the registered agent and an organiser, and a few publish almost nothing. What you can find depends entirely on which state the company was formed in.
Is the registered agent the owner?
Usually not. The agent is a service address, and a commercial agent may appear on thousands of records. Seeing one tells you nothing about who controls the business.
How do I find who owns a company anonymously formed?
Often you cannot from the register alone. Annual reports, court filings, licence records and property records sometimes name people the formation documents do not. Federal beneficial-ownership reporting is not a public database.
You can check a name against all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the search on our home page. Every result links back to the state office that holds the record.
Sources reviewed
The sources below were retrieved and confirmed in August 2026. Filing requirements and fees change with legislative sessions and agency rulemaking; check the state’s own page before acting on anything here. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.
- EntityFinder’s own copies of the state business registers, refreshed nightly from each state’s published open data.
- Official business entity search portals for all 51 jurisdictions, each retrieved and confirmed to resolve. The full list appears in the table above.
Related
More on finding and reading the record, and the registers behind it: