How to Serve BFI (Business Filings Incorporated) in California

BFI is what the agent line says when a company was formed through BizFilings. The window is the one everyone knows in Glendale. The trap is assuming the account is still active.

Business Filings Incorporated is the registered-agent entity behind BizFilings, Wolters Kluwer's online formation service for small businesses. Wolters Kluwer's own service-of-process page lists its California office as 330 N Brand Blvd, Glendale 91203, which is the Suite 700 counter it shares with CT Corporation System, NRAI, Vcorp Agent Services and Corpdirect. Weekday intake window 7:00am to 1:00pm; one drop; service complete on delivery. If you have read the CT Corporation guide, the mechanics are identical. What is different about BFI is the kind of defendant that designates it.

Who designates BFI

BizFilings sells formation packages to founders who set up a corporation or LLC online and bundle a registered agent with it. That makes BFI designations skew toward small, owner-operated companies: the contractor, the online retailer, the single-location service business. It is the same profile as the LegalZoom-formed LLCs in the US Corporation Agents guide, with one difference: the BFI address is the Glendale corridor rather than 500 N Brand.

Small-company defendants bring small-company problems. The entity may be suspended by the Franchise Tax Board, the owner may have stopped paying the agent, or the company may have moved its agent to the owner's home address and never told anyone. None of that is visible from the caption. It is all visible on bizfile.

The lapsed-account question

Wolters Kluwer's BizFilings page carries a line worth reading closely: an address on that page may be used only where the company holds an active registered-agent account for that state. In practice the Suite 700 counter accepts what is presented for entities it represents. Where the account has lapsed, expect the counter to say the company is not a customer and decline. That is not a failed serve; it is information. The agent designation on the Secretary of State record controls until it is changed, so the next moves are the ones the statute lays out: the officers listed in Code of Civil Procedure section 416.10, and if the corporation cannot be served by any of those, a court order under Corporations Code section 1702 directing service on the Secretary of State. A suspended entity can still be served; suspension does not undo the designation.

The section 1505 roster

BFI is a corporation acting as an agent, so Corporations Code section 1505 requires a certificate on file naming the employees authorized to accept service. Delivery to a person on that current roster at the designated office is personal service under section 416.10. On our BFI serves we verify the accepting employee against the roster, record name and title on the proof, and photograph the delivery with a GPS and time stamp. The roster is shared across the Wolters Kluwer agents at the window; the entity name on the proof is what must match the registration.

What every BFI drop includes

We pull the defendant's record on bizfile the day of dispatch and carry the agent's exact registry name into the field. We arrive at Suite 700 inside the weekday window with one copy set per defendant; the counter logs the case and an authorized employee on the agent's roster accepts. Service is personal and complete on delivery under Code of Civil Procedure section 416.10: no prior attempts, since attempt counts belong to substituted service on individuals, and no 10-day mailing tail. Our proof names the agent entity exactly as bizfile spells it and the accepting employee by name and title, on the right form for your case, with a GPS- and time-stamped photo of the delivery.

The 1:00pm close is the agent's business practice, not law, and it is firm. We run the Glendale registered-agent corridor from about ten minutes away and plan arrivals before 12:30pm, which is why corridor drops carry a next-business-day guarantee: documents in today are at the counter inside tomorrow's window.

Angel City Legal is a registered process server, not a law firm. This article describes California service procedure for general information; it is not legal advice about your case. Angel City Legal is not affiliated with Wolters Kluwer or any registered agent.