Risk Management Blog

The simple purpose of UCC and lien searching is to minimize your lending risk by accurately informing your lending decisions. UCC and lien searching is not a black or white process, however; the quality of your search results plays a essential role in helping you to determine that risk. If for any reason your search results are inaccurate or incomplete, your effectiveness in mitigating your lending risk is diminished. Read on for tips to  help uncover hidden liens and those filed under critical name variations.

Online Searches

Online UCC and lien searching systems are a great tool for maximizing results. Proprietary search systems and even some state websites incorporate broad based searching features such as wildcard characters and truncated name searching that help reveal name variations. By using these features, searchers can draw similar names onto a single search report, for a single fee, and then review them in more detail to determine if they are items of interest.

See our previous blog post “Broad Based Name Searching? What is it? Why is it Important?” for more information on the power of broad based name searching in UCC and lien searching.

Manual/Offline Searches

Not all searches can be performed online; sometimes you will need to place your search request with a private service company who has access to the filing office records. Although the search is out of your hands in these situations, there are still ways you can maximize your results. One of the best ways to do this is to thoroughly vet your UCC and lien search provider before placing your request. Some service companies focus on name variations and maximizing results while others do not make this a priority. Make sure you communicate to your vendor that you are looking for similar names to be included in results.

Lastly, when ordering searches from a search company, be mindful of what special search instructions you include with your request. Asking a service company to limit results to a certain address, for example, will limit the scope of the results that are returned to you.

First Corporate Solutions is committed to uncovering name variations and locating involuntary and hidden liens in both our online search system and our manual search efforts. Contact us today for more information on search services: 800.406.1577 | info@ficoso.com

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