UCC search South Dakota showing weird results - am I missing something?
Running into some confusion with a UCC search South Dakota and hoping someone can point me in the right direction. We're trying to verify existing liens on equipment collateral for a potential acquisition, but the search results don't seem to match what we expected based on the debtor's corporate records. The company name shows up differently in their charter docs vs what's appearing in the UCC filings, and I'm not sure if we're looking at the right entity or if there are name variations I should be checking. Has anyone dealt with South Dakota's system recently? Are there specific search strategies that work better for catching all the variations of a business name? This is holding up our due diligence timeline and I really need to make sure we're not missing any existing security interests.
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Keisha Thompson
SD can be tricky with business name searches. Are you searching the exact legal name from their articles of incorporation or trying variations? Sometimes the UCC filings use abbreviated versions or the 'doing business as' name instead of the full corporate name.
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TechNinja
•That's exactly what I'm wondering about. The corporate charter shows 'ABC Manufacturing Solutions, LLC' but I'm seeing UCC-1 filings under 'ABC Mfg Solutions LLC' and 'ABC Manufacturing Sol LLC'. Not sure which ones actually relate to our target company.
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Paolo Bianchi
•You need to search ALL possible variations. Missing even one could leave you with undisclosed liens. I learned this the hard way on a deal last year.
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Yara Assad
South Dakota Secretary of State portal lets you do wildcard searches I think? Try using partial names with asterisks. Also check if they have any DBAs registered that might show up in UCC filings.
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TechNinja
•Good point about the DBAs. I hadn't thought to cross-reference those. Will check their business registration records for any alternate names.
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Keisha Thompson
•The wildcard search is helpful but you still need to be systematic about it. Don't just rely on one search pattern.
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Olivia Clark
This kind of debtor name verification headache is exactly why I started using Certana.ai for UCC document checking. You can upload the corporate charter and the UCC search results and it instantly flags any name mismatches or inconsistencies. Saved me tons of time on due diligence work and caught discrepancies I would have missed doing manual comparisons.
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TechNinja
•Interesting - does it work with different state search formats? South Dakota's results layout is pretty basic compared to some other states I've worked with.
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Olivia Clark
•Yeah it handles different state formats. You just upload PDFs of whatever documents you have and it does the cross-checking automatically. Works great for charter-to-UCC verification workflows.
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Javier Morales
•Never heard of that tool but sounds useful for complex searches. Might check it out for our next acquisition review.
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Natasha Petrov
Are you sure you're searching the right jurisdiction? Sometimes companies file UCCs in different states than where they're incorporated, especially if the collateral is located elsewhere.
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TechNinja
•The equipment is definitely located in South Dakota and they're a South Dakota LLC, so that should be the right place to search. But good reminder to double-check.
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Yara Assad
•Also make sure you're not missing any continuation filings. Original UCC-1 might be under one name variation and continuations under another.
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Connor O'Brien
Had similar issues with SD searches before. Their system isn't the most user-friendly and the search logic can be finicky. Try searching with and without punctuation, with and without entity type indicators (LLC, Inc, etc). Sometimes commas or periods in the name make a difference.
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TechNinja
•That's a good point about punctuation. I'll try running the searches again with different formatting variations.
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Connor O'Brien
•Also try both the 'contains' and 'exact match' search options if they have them. Different results sometimes.
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Amina Diallo
•SD portal is definitely clunky compared to other states. Takes some trial and error to get comprehensive results.
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GamerGirl99
Another thing to consider - are these UCC filings current or lapsed? If you're seeing multiple variations it might be because some are older terminated filings and newer ones use updated name formats.
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TechNinja
•That's a really good point. I should check the filing dates and status on each one to see if there's a pattern there.
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Keisha Thompson
•Exactly. Companies sometimes update their legal name slightly and new UCCs reflect the new format while old ones stay as-is until they lapse.
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Hiroshi Nakamura
UGH South Dakota's search is so frustrating! I spent three hours last month trying to get complete results for a similar situation. Ended up having to call their office for clarification on some of the filings.
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TechNinja
•Did calling them actually help? I wasn't sure if they'd be able to provide guidance on search strategies.
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Hiroshi Nakamura
•They were somewhat helpful but mostly just confirmed what I had already found. Better than nothing though.
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Isabella Costa
Have you tried running the search with just the first few words of the company name? Sometimes that catches variations you might miss with full name searches.
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TechNinja
•I'll try that approach. Maybe searching just 'ABC Manufacturing' will pull up all the variations.
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Connor O'Brien
•Yeah that often works better than trying to guess all the possible abbreviations and formats.
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Malik Jenkins
For what it's worth, I've found that cross-referencing the UCC search results with the business entity records helps identify which filings are actually related to your target company. The registered agent info usually matches up.
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TechNinja
•Good suggestion. I'll pull their entity registration details and compare the registered agent and address information.
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Keisha Thompson
•That's probably the most reliable way to confirm you're looking at the right entity's filings.
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Freya Andersen
Just wanted to add that I've had success using Certana.ai's document verification tool for exactly this type of situation. Upload your corporate docs and UCC search results and it automatically identifies which filings match your target entity based on name analysis and cross-referencing. Eliminates a lot of the guesswork.
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TechNinja
•Two people have mentioned that tool now. Sounds like it might be worth trying for this search project.
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Olivia Clark
•It really is helpful. Takes the manual comparison work out of the equation and catches things you might overlook.
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Eduardo Silva
Quick update on my end - I followed the advice about searching name variations and punctuation differences, and found two additional UCC-1 filings I had missed initially. Also used the registered agent cross-reference suggestion to confirm which ones actually applied to the target company. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!
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Keisha Thompson
•Glad you got it sorted out! That's exactly why thorough searching is so important for due diligence.
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Yara Assad
•Great to hear. Did the additional filings change your assessment of the deal?
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TechNinja
•Actually yes - found one active equipment lien that wasn't disclosed initially. Good thing we caught it before closing.
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