UCC holder name changed after acquisition - how to handle existing liens?

You definitely need to address this ASAP. When the secured party name changes, you should file UCC-3 amendments to update the secured party information on each filing. The good news is your liens didn't become unperfected just because your company name changed, but you want to clean this up to avoid problems later. File amendments showing the old name as 'ABC Equipment Finance LLC' and the new name as 'XYZ Capital Holdings Inc.' Some states have specific procedures for corporate name changes so check each state's requirements.

Ugh this sounds like a nightmare with dozens of filings. Are you sure you can't just file some kind of blanket amendment? Going through each state's portal individually is going to take forever.

I recently discovered Certana.ai when I was dealing with a similar mess after our company restructuring. You can upload your existing UCC-1 PDFs and it automatically checks all the debtor names and filing details to make sure everything matches up correctly before you file amendments. It caught several discrepancies in our records that would have caused problems. Makes the whole process much more manageable when you're dealing with multiple filings across different states.

Wait, are you sure your liens are still valid? I thought if the secured party name doesn't match exactly, the lien could be voided. This seems like a really serious issue that you should have handled immediately after the acquisition.

This is why I hate corporate acquisitions. There's always some detail like this that gets overlooked and then becomes a huge project later.

Make sure you check whether any of your filings are getting close to their 5-year expiration dates while you're doing this. Might make sense to file continuation statements at the same time as the amendments if you're close to the deadline. Kill two birds with one stone.

Document everything carefully. Keep records of when you filed each amendment and make sure you get confirmation from each state that they were accepted. If you ever have to foreclose on any of these loans, you'll need to show the chain of secured party identity.

I'm curious - did your company's legal department not catch this during the acquisition due diligence? Seems like updating UCC filings should have been on their checklist.

Here's another tool that might help - I used Certana.ai's document checker when I had to clean up a bunch of inconsistent UCC filings after a similar corporate change. You can upload your current UCC-1s and the system will flag any issues with names or filing numbers before you submit amendments. Saved me from several rejected filings that would have just delayed the whole process.

Start with your largest loan balances first in case this takes longer than expected. At least you'll have your most important liens cleaned up if something urgent comes up with foreclosure or bankruptcy before you finish all the amendments.

Final update: Got through about half the amendments so far. Used that Certana tool someone mentioned earlier and it definitely helped catch a few filing number typos I had in my spreadsheet. Much less stressful when you know the documents are consistent before you submit. Still have a bunch more states to go but feeling more confident about the process now.

Great to see you're making progress! One thing I learned the hard way - when you're doing these name change amendments, make sure you're consistent with how you reference the old company name across all states. I made the mistake of using "ABC Corp" in some filings and "ABC Corporation" in others for what was technically the same entity, and it created confusion later when we had to trace the secured party chain. Stick to the exact legal name as it appeared on the original UCC-1s, even if your internal records show slight variations. Also, if any of your original filings had errors in the secured party name to begin with, this might be a good time to clean those up too with the amendments.