A Complimentary First Year, Followed by an Unpublished One

A single principle governs this comparison, and the disclosure precedes it. West Virginia Registered Agent.co sells a competing service at $99 per year and profits from any reader it persuades. Where Inc Authority has published a figure, that figure appears here. Where the company has published none, none is supplied on its behalf.

The First Year at No Charge

Purchase a formation package from Inc Authority and the initial year of agent service carries no charge. The July 2026 review looked for the conditions that ordinarily accompany an offer of that kind and found none of them stated: no activation charge, no abbreviated term, no penalty for early departure. A business in its opening months receives functioning agent coverage for nothing during the period when cash is scarcest. That is a real benefit, and it earns its place above the criticism rather than beneath it.

The Second Year, Unstated

A July 2026 examination covered three surfaces: the published package tiers, the questions-and-answers section, and the marketing material describing what the complimentary agent year includes. No renewal amount appears on any of them. When a recurring charge is missing from every published surface, the customary reading is that the number is being held back until a card is out or a call is underway.

Inserting a guessed amount would take one keystroke and would hollow out this entire section, so the space stays empty. The objection does not depend on knowing it. Agent service is a continuing obligation for the life of the entity, and the buyer is being asked to accept that obligation without having seen its price.

West Virginia Publishes Everything It Charges

The contrast with the state itself is instructive, because West Virginia prints every one of its numbers before a business owes any of them.

The annual report is $25, filed during a window running from January 1 to June 30, with July 1 as the due date. A report delivered late attracts a $50 penalty, bringing the total to $75. Sixty days beyond the due date, administrative dissolution becomes available to the state. The Articles of Organization cost $100. An agent change is recorded for $15.

The Secretary of State's 2026 schedule also carries a biennial option: $50 paid at once covers two years of annual reports. The saving is nothing, since two reports at $25 come to the same $50, but a second deadline disappears from the calendar, and for owners who would rather manage one date than two that is the entire point of the option. Every figure in this section was published in advance, which is precisely the standard the vendor comparison above fails to meet. Our own deadline monitoring is described on the annual report page.

Both of Our Figures, Already Printed

Both figures are on this page already. Ninety-nine dollars for the first year and ninety-nine for each one after, disclosed without a call to anybody. Included in it: a West Virginia address on the public filing rather than the owner's own, same-day scanning and email delivery of documents served, a dashboard open at any hour, and alerts before the report window closes. Checkout presents one item.

For accuracy: at $90 a year BetterLegal is priced below us, and no page on this site claims otherwise. Ninety-nine dollars sits among the lowest flat annual rates published for West Virginia service, and it is the same amount at every renewal.

Transferring the Agent Seat From Inc Authority in West Virginia

1. Select the replacement and confirm eligibility. West Virginia's list covers a resident individual, a corporation formed in the state, another limited liability company, and a business entity from elsewhere that is authorized to operate here.
2. Download Form AAO, the single application the state uses for agent, officer, and address changes across all entity types, and identify the entity type at item 1.
3. Enter the change of agent for service of process at item 4, together with the new registered office address in West Virginia.
4. Have the incoming agent execute the consent on the form. The provider being replaced signs nothing and is not consulted.
5. Submit it to the Business & Licensing Division together with the $15 fee, by post or electronically.
6. Check the state's business search to confirm the updated record, then close the Inc Authority account.

Step six sits last deliberately. A service that never sent an invoice also never prompts a review of itself, which is how a complimentary year turns quietly into the first billed year at a price that was never quoted. Filing the application does not need to be timed around anything except the expiry of that free term. No West Virginia entity goes unreachable during the transition, because the Secretary of State receives process on behalf of any company without a designated agent, but process arriving through that route arrives on the state's schedule and at whatever address the state holds. Keeping the designation current is how an owner keeps delivery on the channel they chose. The change of agent page explains the filing, and the contact page reaches us directly.

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