Not every registered agent serves the same type of client. The oldest and largest registered agents — CT Corporation (founded 1892) and CSC Lawyers Incorporating Service (part of Corporation Service Company, founded 1899) — built their businesses serving Fortune 500 corporations. Registered Agents Inc (founded 2008) took a different approach: they built their business around small businesses, LLCs, and privacy-conscious entrepreneurs. Understanding this difference matters for process servers, litigation teams, and business owners.
The Corporate Giants
CT Corporation is a subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch multinational information services company. CT represents an estimated 750,000+ entities in California alone, including virtually every Fortune 500 company. Their Sacramento office at 555 Capitol Mall is a downtown office tower with building security and paid parking.
CSC Lawyers Incorporating Service is part of Corporation Service Company, a private conglomerate that has acquired multiple smaller registered agent brands over the years. CSC represents another 750,000+ California entities, particularly large corporations, public companies, and multi-state enterprises. Their Sacramento office at 2710 Gateway Oaks Drive is in a suburban office complex near I-80.
Both CT Corporation and CSC focus primarily on corporate clients with complex multi-state compliance needs. Their fee structures (typically $150-300+ per year per entity), service models (relationship-based account management), and brand positioning (century-old, trusted, corporate) are built for Fortune 500 legal departments and corporate counsel.
Registered Agents Inc’s Different Approach
Registered Agents Inc was founded in 2008 — more than a century after CT and CSC. The company was built from the ground up to serve the modern small business landscape: LLCs forming online, solo entrepreneurs creating businesses from their laptops, real estate investors forming holding companies for individual properties, and digital-first startups.
This led to fundamentally different positioning:
Price. RAI’s basic service starts at $49 per year. CT and CSC typically start at $150+ with aggressive upselling. For an LLC owner comparing options, the price difference is meaningful.
Privacy focus. RAI emphasizes that they don’t sell client data to third parties. They market their service to business owners who want to keep their home addresses off public records.
Online-first. RAI was built with digital workflows, online portals, and self-service tools. CT and CSC have online portals too, but their service models are built around account managers and traditional paper processes.
Smaller client profile. RAI’s client base is dominated by LLCs, startups, small professional firms, and solo entrepreneurs. Their staff are trained for the volume, variety, and simpler needs of these clients rather than the complex multi-jurisdictional demands of Fortune 500 legal teams.
What This Means for Process Servers
For process servers and litigation teams, the client profile differences translate to different service patterns:
Types of cases. Serving a defendant at CT Corporation usually means serving a Fortune 500 company in commercial litigation, class actions, or regulatory matters. Serving at RAI usually means serving an LLC in a contract dispute, landlord-tenant matter, small claims case, or real estate case. The case complexity and document types differ.
Volume per entity. Each Fortune 500 company served at CT may generate many service events per year (large companies get sued often). LLCs served at RAI usually generate fewer service events per entity, but there are many more entities.
Office experience. CT and CSC offices are corporate environments with receptionists trained for frequent process server visits. RAI’s midtown office is smaller and more casual, reflecting its small business client base. Both accept service professionally; the vibe is just different.
Which One Will You Encounter More?
If you do litigation work for large corporate clients suing other large corporations, you’ll mostly encounter CT and CSC. If you do family law, landlord-tenant, small claims, collections, or consumer litigation, you’ll increasingly encounter Registered Agents Inc and other small-business-focused registered agents. The registered agent landscape is no longer dominated only by the century-old corporate giants — the LLC boom has created space for a new generation of registered agents.
Where to Serve Them in Sacramento
• CT Corporation: 555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1150 (downtown)
• CSC Lawyers: 2710 Gateway Oaks Drive, Suite 150N (Gateway Oaks)
• Registered Agents Inc: 1401 21st Street, Suite R (midtown)
All three are within the Sacramento metro area, but they are in distinctly different parts of the city. Plan your routes accordingly.
