Maine requires at least one member, manager, or authorized person's name and address, disclosed on the annual report — not on the Certificate of Formation itself on its public LLC filing. Maine's Certificate of Formation is clean, but its annual report requires naming at least one member, manager, or authorized person every June 1 and is public — a Wyoming holding LLC has to occupy that field, and stay there each year, for privacy to hold. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$175
Certificate of Formation filing fee
1 name required
Annual report must name a member, manager, or authorized person
40–55 days
Standard filing processing time
§1573
Exclusive-remedy charging order, foreclosure barred outright
Maine splits its privacy picture cleanly in two. The $175 Certificate of Formation, filed under 31 M.R.S. § 1531, keeps members and managers off the public record entirely. The catch arrives every June 1: the annual report, under 31 M.R.S. § 1665, requires naming at least one member, manager, or authorized person, and that filing is public. A Wyoming holding LLC named in that one slot — and kept there every year — is what keeps a Maine structure private long-term. Maine doesn't need the Wyoming layer for asset protection the way weaker states do: 31 M.R.S. §1573 bars foreclosure of a charging-order lien outright, regardless of member count, one of the strongest such statutes anywhere. Plan around Maine's processing time as well — standard filings currently take 40 to 55 business days, dramatically slower than most states.
Maine's Certificate of Formation, under 31 M.R.S. § 1531, doesn't require member or manager names — the authorized person who signs it is the only name on the formation filing. But Maine's annual report, due every June 1 under 31 M.R.S. § 1665, requires the name and address of at least one member, manager, or authorized person, and that report is public. Maine's own formation filing looks private, but the very first annual report puts a name on the record unless that name belongs to a holding entity rather than an individual.
Because Maine's Certificate of Formation is clean but the annual report due every June 1 requires naming at least one member, manager, or authorized person, the way to keep an individual's name off Maine's public record is to name a Wyoming holding LLC in that one slot — and keep it there every year, since the disclosure renews annually rather than being a one-time formation fact. Unlike several states in this series, Maine doesn't need a Wyoming parent for asset protection: 31 M.R.S. § 1573 is one of the strongest charging-order statutes in the country, barring foreclosure outright regardless of member count. The case for a Wyoming holding company above a Maine LLC here is almost entirely about the recurring annual-report disclosure, not about fixing a weak charging-order statute.
Naming a Wyoming LLC on Maine's annual report keeps an individual's name off that public record, but it doesn't change federal law: beneficial owners of both entities must still be reported to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, which is not open to public search.
31 M.R.S. §1573 — exclusive remedy; foreclosure is barred outright regardless of member count — one of the strongest charging-order statutes in the country. Title 31, §1573 makes a charging order the judgment creditor's exclusive remedy and expressly states the lien 'may not be foreclosed upon under this chapter or any other law' — an absolute, unconditional bar with no distinction based on member count. That is meaningfully stronger than the many states (Illinois, Maryland, Kentucky) whose statutes permit foreclosure under some circumstances, and comparable to Wyoming's own protection.
Maine's annual report costs $85, due every June 1 (a fixed date, not an anniversary), and must name at least one member, manager, or authorized person — that name should be the Wyoming holding LLC, not an individual, if privacy matters. There is no Maine franchise tax on LLCs. Pass-through income is taxed to members at Maine's graduated rates up to 7.15%.
Note: This page corrects Maine's standard processing time: apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/me.ts lists '1 to 2 business days for online filings,' but Maine's own Secretary of State reports standard, non-expedited LLC filings currently taking 40–55 business days, and Maine does not offer instant online formation filing the way most states do — one of the slowest turnarounds in the country. Confirm the current queue length directly at maine.gov/sos/cec/corp before finalizing a formation timeline, since the exact figure fluctuates with the office's workload and some secondary sources cite shorter windows. Separately, confirm the annual report's exact disclosure scope (see dataDiscrepancyNote) before relying on the 'one name only' conclusion in a specific filing.
Note: apps/LLA/data/states/llc-search/me.ts describes Maine's annual report as requiring 'a list of all members, officers, directors, and/or shareholders, including their full names and physical addresses,' which reads as full-roster disclosure. apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/me.ts states the requirement more narrowly for LLCs: the report needs only the name and address of at least one member, manager, or authorized person (31 M.R.S. § 1665) — not the full membership. A web search of Maine annual report filing guidance corroborates the narrower, anonymous-llc account for LLCs specifically. Both sources agree Maine discloses at least one name publicly, so this isn't a true-vs-false reversal like the CO/IL/KS/KY cases — but the scope difference matters for structuring advice, since it determines whether only one name (easily a Wyoming holding LLC) needs to go on the report, or whether every member's name would otherwise be exposed. This page follows the narrower, corroborated 'at least one' framing.
Not on the Certificate of Formation, which only names the authorized person who signs it. But Maine's annual report, due every June 1 under 31 M.R.S. § 1665, requires the name and address of at least one member, manager, or authorized person, and that report is public.
Name a Wyoming holding LLC as the member listed on the annual report, and keep it there every June 1 going forward — the disclosure happens on the recurring report, not on the Certificate of Formation, so the privacy structure has to be maintained every year.
Standard, non-expedited processing currently takes 40 to 55 business days — one of the slowest turnarounds in the country, and Maine doesn't offer instant online filing the way most states do. Expedited processing is available for an additional fee if your timeline is tight.
Bottom line: Maine's Certificate of Formation is clean, but the annual report names at least one member or manager every June 1 — a Wyoming holding LLC in that slot, renewed annually, is what keeps a Maine structure private.