Risk Management Blog

On Friday, March 26th, the Delaware Secretary of State will be holding an employee recognition lunch. If you’re wondering how this affects you, some of the filing cutoff times will change since the night staff will be working earlier hours that day. Cutoff for half-hour and one-hour service will be 6pm, and cutoff for two-hour service will be 5pm. All other cutoff times will remain unchanged, and DCIS will be available for normal processing… >> READ MORE

In order to perfect their security interest, secured parties should file  their financing statements swiftly, on the correct debtor names and in the appropriate filing office. A diligent secured party’s efforts, however, do not end once the filing office acknowledges acceptance of their financing statement. Experienced filers know that at that point they need to initiate a post filing verification search, more commonly known as a “search… >> READ MORE

2/12/2010 Update: First Corporate Solutions' Delaware Branch Office is open today and businesses are back to normal. Due to severe snowstorm in Delaware, First Corporate Solutions' Delaware Branch Office is closed today (2/11/2010).  Please contact our California office at 800.406.1577 or at www.ficoso.com if you have any questions. From our Delaware Branch Staff: For those of us located in the Mid-Atlantic Region, this… >> READ MORE

Since the uniform commercial code isn’t exactly applied uniformly throughout all the states, and due to the high volume of searching the state of Delaware, service companies get a lot of questions from people wondering what words are dropped when they do a Delaware UCC search with the Secretary of State. Thankfully, the Secretary of State’s office publishes a list to identify the words they ignore when performing UCC searches, also known… >> READ MORE

Given the uncertainty of today’s economy, businesses across the nation are looking for meaningful ways to reduce spending. Lenders however, should be cautious where they make cuts and think twice before cutting too deeply from their due diligence budgets. Now more than ever, lenders need to have a clear picture of a prospect’s financial solvency before making their funding decision. It is advisable to let your legal and risk management… >> READ MORE

While everyone is in the midst of the holiday chaos, we’d like to throw out a friendly reminder that Delaware annual reports and annual franchise taxes for corporations are due on 3/1/2010 for 2009. ALL corporations incorporated in the State of Delaware are required to file an annual report, and all but exempt domestic corporations are required to pay taxes. The annual report filing has been raised to $50.00 this year, with minimum… >> READ MORE

Because of an addition to the Delaware General Corporation Law, the Delaware Secretary of State is asking that all non-stock corporations filed with the SOS complete an amendment filing in an attempt to set the exempt records straight, as well as ensure that all non-stock corporations are charged the correct Annual Report filing fee come tax time. The addition signed into law by the 145th General Assembly and the Governor is as follows: Amend… >> READ MORE

As of October 30th, 2009, Massachusetts has approved new regulations pertaining to Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies. Copies of these regulations can be found here: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/COR/ One of the perks: in the past, if you were merging a MA LLC and a MC Corp., you had to provide both a filing for the Corp as well as a filing for the LLC; according to the new regulations, now you only have to submit one filing… >> READ MORE

If you need to search for anything at the county level in Delaware, you only have three counties from which to choose: New Castle (northernmost), Kent (middle), and Sussex (southernmost). The Bankruptcy Court and U.S. District Court are located in the county seat of Wilmington, which is in New Castle County. Below is a handy guide for figuring out what’s located where at the county level: Recorder of Deeds: UCC/fixture filings,… >> READ MORE

Until the last couple of years, the annual report was not required to be filed in order for a corporation to remain in good standing with the Delaware Secretary of State. Now is a different story, however, and it’s changed the renewal-for-void process a bit. If your corporation went void on 3/1/09 or later, you’ll be required to pay all tax, penalties, and interest PLUS file ALL annual reports which were due at the time your corporation… >> READ MORE