SD UCC search showing inconsistent results - anyone else having issues?

Good point about the DBA names. I hadn't thought about checking those separately. Do you usually run searches on all the variations you can think of?

Absolutely. I'll usually do at least 4-5 different name variations, especially for LLCs where the punctuation can vary. Better to overdo it than miss something critical.

This is why I always pull the corporate records first to see exactly how they filed their name officially, then work from there with variations.

That's exactly what I'm worried about! Did you end up finding a systematic way to catch all the variations?

Honestly it was a lot of manual searching with different combinations. Time consuming but necessary. I've been looking for a better way to automate this kind of comprehensive search.

Have you tried using wildcard searches? Some systems support partial matching which can help catch variations.

That sounds like exactly what I need. Does it work with different state systems or just specific ones?

It works by analyzing the documents you upload rather than connecting to specific state systems, so it should work regardless of which state you're dealing with. You just upload the PDFs and it does the cross-checking automatically.

Interesting. I've been doing all this manually and it's such a pain. How accurate is the name matching?

Pretty accurate in my experience. It caught variations I never would have thought to look for, including some where there were minor spelling differences in the original filings.

Tell me about it. I deal with multi-state transactions all the time and each system has its own weird rules about punctuation, abbreviations, entity types, etc.

Right? And don't get me started on the states that still have paper filing options mixed in with electronic ones. Such a mess.

Smart approach. I was probably being too specific in my initial searches.

Yeah, cast a wide net first then filter. You can always eliminate obvious false positives but you can't add back what you never found.

This is good advice. I do something similar where I start broad then get more targeted.

Good point. I should probably pull the full filing history for any matches I find to see if there are related documents.

Exactly. And pay attention to continuation filings - those can sometimes be filed under slightly different name variations than the original UCC-1.

That's the second mention of that tool. Sounds like it might be worth checking out for this deal.

Yeah, especially for larger transactions where you can't afford to miss anything. The automated cross-checking saves so much time compared to trying to think of every possible name variation manually.

That's a really good point. This target company does have a few related entities so I should probably search those too.

Definitely. Corporate structures can make UCC searches way more complicated than they need to be.

This is why I always request a corporate organizational chart early in the due diligence process. Helps map out all the entities you need to search.

I was thinking about that as a backup option. Do you have any recommendations for reliable search services?

I've had good luck with a few different services. Usually run around $200-500 depending on the complexity and how many states you need covered.

Professional search services are definitely worth it for larger deals. They know all the tricks for catching variations and have experience with each state's system quirks.

Better to be paranoid than surprised later! Name variations are definitely something to take seriously.

Yeah, especially after reading about all these cases where people missed filings due to punctuation differences. Going to start being more systematic about it.

Thanks for the follow-up! Sounds like it's worth trying for this deal. Did it handle the document analysis pretty quickly?

Yeah, pretty fast. Just uploaded the PDFs and got the analysis back within a few minutes. Much faster than trying to manually think through every possible name variation.