How to Find the Owner of an LLC

What the state record shows

An LLC’s public record holds whatever the state asked for when the company was formed, plus whatever it asks for on the annual report. States differ a lot here. Some ask for the names and addresses of the managers, or of each member if there are no managers. Others ask for a mailing address and a registered agent and stop there.

So your first move is to open the company’s record on the state registry and read it properly. Look for a section with a name like “Officer/Manager”, “Managers”, “Principals”, “Company Officials” or “Governors”. If it’s there, you probably have your answer. If it isn’t, try the other routes below.

Our state guides say where owner information sits in each state’s portal, or that it isn’t there. Start with the state business search index.

States that list members or managers

Here are the larger states that publish at least a manager’s name. Each state guide covers the rest under “Owners, managers and officers”:

State	Where it appears	What you see
California	The latest Statement of Information (Form LLC-12)	The managers, or each member if there are no managers, plus the CEO if there is one
Texas	The Public Information Report filed with the franchise tax report	Officers, managers or members, shown in the Comptroller’s lookup
Florida	The officer and manager section of the Sunbiz record, updated on each annual report	Names, addresses and titles
Illinois	The File Detail Report	Managers’ names and addresses
Pennsylvania	The annual report (required since 2025)	At least one governor, which for an LLC means a manager or a member with management rights
North Carolina	Company officials on the record	Officials’ names, and a Company Officials search that finds every company listing a given person
Utah	The entity’s details	The principals, also searchable by name

Two cautions. First, a manager isn’t always an owner. A management company or a hired manager can be listed. Second, the list can be out of date. It only changes when the company files, so someone who left two years ago may still show up.

When the state is silent

Delaware, New York and Ohio don’t collect LLC member or manager names. Michigan only collects them for professional LLCs. For a regular LLC in those states, the record gives you a registered agent (or, in New York, an address for legal papers) and not much else.

Places an owner’s name turns up anyway:

1. The formation document. Someone signs the Articles or Certificate. Often it’s the owner or their lawyer. In Ohio, for instance, the Articles are signed by an authorized member, manager or representative. Download it from the state record if the state offers images.
2. Other public filings. DBA registrations, professional licenses, liquor licenses and contractor licenses are usually public and often name a person. Our DBA search guide covers those.
3. Property records. If the LLC owns real estate, the deed and mortgage at the county recorder show who signed for it.
4. UCC filings. A lender that took a security interest in the LLC’s assets filed a UCC-1 with the state. The debtor is the LLC, but the filing sometimes lists a person as a co-debtor. See the UCC search guide.
5. Court records. Lawsuits involving the LLC often name the people behind it. Federal cases are on PACER, and state cases are on the court’s own site.
6. Business credit reports. Commercial credit bureaus list principals they’ve collected. They aren’t always accurate, but they’re a start.
7. The company’s own website and LinkedIn. Obvious, and often enough.

If you need the owner for a legal reason, serving the registered agent is the proper step, and you don’t need the owner’s name to do it.

The registered agent

Every state publishes the registered agent. If the agent is a person at the company’s address, that’s often the owner or someone close to them. If it’s a commercial service (Northwest, Registered Agents Inc., CT Corporation, CSC), the owner has chosen to keep their own name and address off the record, and the agent won’t give it out. Privacy is one of the main reasons people pay for an agent. We cover that in the registered agent guide.

The BOI rule

The Corporate Transparency Act required most LLCs to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN starting in 2024. Two things to know. First, that information was never public. It went to FinCEN, not to a public database. Second, U.S. companies don’t have to report it anymore. In March 2025 FinCEN issued an interim final rule exempting every entity created in the United States, and in August 2026 it issued a final rule making the exemption permanent. The reporting rule now applies only to certain foreign companies registered to do business here.