To find out who owns a business in Florida, start with Sunbiz.org, the free public database run by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Corporations. A search there will show you the officers and directors of a corporation or the manager of an LLC in about two minutes. The catch: state law only requires limited disclosure, so the people actually listed may not be the true owners at all.
Start With a Sunbiz Search
Sunbiz.org is the official index of business entities registered in Florida. From the search records page you can look up a business by entity name, officer or registered agent name, federal employer identification number, document number, street address, or zip code.1Florida Department of State. Search Records – Division of Corporations Fictitious names (the “doing business as” names some companies operate under) have their own separate search that works by either the DBA or the owner’s name.2Florida Department of State. Florida Fictitious Name Registration
Spelling counts. The system matches exact or near-exact characters, so a small typo can return no results. If you’re not sure of the exact legal name, try a partial name or search by street address instead. Basic searches are free.
What the Detail Page Shows
Clicking the correct result opens the “Detail by Entity Name” page for that business. Near the top you’ll see the entity’s current status (active, inactive, or dissolved), its principal address, its mailing address, and the name and address of its registered agent. Below that, in the officers or managers section, you’ll see the names on the most recent annual report.
Scroll to the bottom for the filing history. Those links open scanned PDFs of the original articles of incorporation or organization, along with every annual report on file. Older filings often list initial directors or organizers who no longer appear on the current record, so if you’re trying to trace who controlled a company during a particular year, this is where to look.
What the Title Codes Mean
Sunbiz uses abbreviations next to each person’s name to show their role. For corporations, “P” is President, “S” is Secretary, “D” is Director, “V” is Vice President, and “T” is Treasurer.3Florida Department of State. Title Abbreviations These are the people legally responsible for running the corporation, but they aren’t necessarily its shareholders.
For LLCs, “MGR” is Manager and “AMBR” is Authorized Member.3Florida Department of State. Title Abbreviations Members are generally the owners of an LLC; managers run day-to-day operations and may or may not be owners themselves.
Don’t confuse any of these with the registered agent, which is just the person or company designated to accept legal documents like lawsuits on the business’s behalf.4Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Code 607 – Registered Office and Registered Agent Owners often serve as their own registered agent, but it can just as easily be a lawyer or a commercial service.
Why the Real Owner May Not Be Listed
This is where most searches hit a wall. Florida’s annual report for LLCs only requires the name of “at least one person who has the authority to manage the company.”5Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Code 605 – Annual Report A four-member LLC can legally list just one manager on Sunbiz, and the other three members can stay entirely out of public view. LLCs do have to keep an internal list of all members, but that list isn’t filed with the state.
Corporations have the same problem in a different form. The officers and directors on Sunbiz run the company, but shareholders (the actual owners) aren’t required to appear on any public state filing. A Florida corporation can be wholly owned by someone whose name never appears in the Division of Corporations database.
Things get harder when the business is owned by another company. If Sunbiz shows the manager as, say, “ABC Holdings LLC,” you can search that parent, but if it was formed in another state like Delaware you’ll need to check that state’s records. Delaware’s free entity search only shows the entity name, formation date, and registered agent — not officers or owners.6Division of Corporations – Filing – Delaware Division of Corporations. General Information Name Search
One boundary worth knowing: the federal Corporate Transparency Act was supposed to build a beneficial ownership database at FinCEN, but that database was never public, and in March 2025 FinCEN issued an interim final rule exempting all domestic companies from the reporting requirement.7FinCEN.gov. FinCEN Removes Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for US Companies and US Persons For a Florida-formed LLC or corporation, there’s no federal shortcut to identify a hidden owner.
Search by a Person’s Name Instead
If you already have a name and want to find every business tied to that person, use the officer or registered agent search on Sunbiz. Enter the name in last-name-first format and the database returns every entity where that person appears as an officer, director, manager, member, or registered agent.8Florida Department of State. Search by Officer or Registered Agent Partial names work when you’re unsure of a middle initial.
This reverse lookup often reveals connections a name-based entity search won’t. Someone listed as registered agent on dozens of unrelated entities is probably a professional service. Someone showing up as manager on three LLCs and director on two corporations likely has a real ownership stake in at least some of them.
Where to Look When Sunbiz Isn’t Enough
Several other Florida sources can put names next to businesses that Sunbiz keeps quiet.
Licensed Industries
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses construction, real estate, restaurants, bars, and similar trades. A search at MyFloridaLicense.com will often show the “qualifying agent” for a licensed company, the person personally responsible for meeting professional licensing requirements.9MyFloridaLicense.com. Construction Industry In construction especially, that qualifying agent is often a principal or owner. The Florida Department of Financial Services runs its own licensee search for agents, agencies, adjusters, and bail bond companies,10Florida Department of Financial Services. Licensee Search plus separate records for funeral and cemetery services.11Florida Department of Financial Services. Funeral and Cemetery
Sole Proprietors and Small Local Businesses
Sole proprietorships and general partnerships often don’t register with the Division of Corporations at all. If the business operates under the owner’s own legal name and never filed a fictitious name, Sunbiz may have nothing. In that case, look up the local business tax receipt (sometimes still called an occupational license). Florida counties and cities require most businesses to pay an annual business tax, and those records typically include the owner’s name and business address. They’re usually available through the county tax collector’s website or the city’s public records portal, and you can generally search by business name, owner name, or address.
Court Records and Judgment Liens
The Florida Judgment Lien Registry on Sunbiz lets you search by debtor name to find judgment lien filings that tie a person or business to a court-ordered debt.12Department of State. Search Judgment Filing by Debtor Name It won’t identify an owner directly, but it can reveal individuals personally liable for a company’s debts, which sometimes confirms who’s really behind it. County civil dockets are another angle. Contract disputes and collection actions frequently name business owners individually, especially in small-company litigation. Most Florida county clerks post searchable dockets online.
Public Records Requests
Florida’s public records law, Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, gives you the right to request records from any state or local agency. If the information you need exists in a government file but isn’t online, submit a written request to the records custodian. The agency has to produce the records and can only charge actual copying costs, with no processing or handling fees added. If the records are off-site, the agency retrieves them at its own expense. This route is useful for non-digitized historical filings, older annual reports that predate Sunbiz’s online archives, or county records that haven’t been put online.
How Current Is the Information
Everything you see on Sunbiz is only as fresh as the business’s most recent filing. Florida corporations, LLCs, and limited partnerships must file an annual report between January 1 and May 1 each year; filing after May 1 triggers a $400 late fee for profit corporations, LLCs, and limited partnerships. If a business still hasn’t filed by the third Friday of September, it’s administratively dissolved at the close of business on the fourth Friday of September.13Florida Department of State. File Annual Report – Division of Corporations
For research purposes, that means an “inactive” or “dissolved” status is a signal that the officer and manager information on record could be years out of date. Check the filing dates in the filing history section. A business that filed its report earlier this year has current information. One whose last filing was several years ago probably doesn’t.