Risk Management Blog

One of the most common areas of confusion relating to public records searching has to do with the costs incurred for search requests, particularly those requests that a customer places with a private service company. The fees associated with this type of research are varied and an invoice may use terminology that is unfamiliar to those with infrequent searching needs. Herein, we offer some guidelines for what types of fees you can expect… >> READ MORE

Lenders gather information from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive profile of an applicant’s existing financial obligations and gauge their ability to repay debts. By the time the lender is ready to initiate public records searches on a prospect, they often already have an idea of what they expect to find based on applicant disclosures and credit report information etc. However, it is uncommon for a lender to provide this information… >> READ MORE

We’re back at it with more UCC terminology and definitions! Last week, we discussed the difference between “active” and “effective” UCC filings, and this week we’re moving on to the definitions of “lapsed” and “purged” filings. Lapsed UCC filing: The filing has passed its effective period and no continuation has been filed. Purged UCC filing: The filing has been removed from the index and is no longer searchable… >> READ MORE

What is Pre-filing? In a traditional funding cycle, a lender will order lien searches on potential borrowers at the start of a new deal. Based on the results of those searches (and other measures of creditworthiness) the lender decides whether to fund the applicant. If the lender elects to advance funds, the lender will file a UCC Financing Statement to perfect their security interest and secure a priority position to collect should the… >> READ MORE

A UCC report will look different and may contain slightly different information depending on where the search was performed and by whom. As a result, it can be challenging to make sense of a UCC search report if you are unfamiliar with how to “read” it. Knowing that an accurate interpretation of the UCC data that is reported to you is critical to the success of your business, we offer the following tips for how to read a UCC search report. Review… >> READ MORE

Do you have questions about how your perfected security interest will be affected by a federal tax lien? Are you at risk to losing priority in regard to after-acquired collateral in the event a federal tax lien is filed against your debtor? Attorney Bennett Cohen of Illinois law firm Cohen, Salk & Huvard, P.C., gets asked questions like this all the time, and has taken the time to write some answers regarding federal tax liens. You may… >> READ MORE

UCC Secured Party Representative Service provides protection for secured lenders by using a representative’s name (instead of their own) in the Secured Party box on UCC Financing Statements. Under Revised Article 9, UCC Section 9-502(a)(2), a financing statement must provide the name of the secured party or representative of the secured party. The Secured Party Representative Service key aspect is that the code allows “a representative”… >> READ MORE

When Revised Article 9 (RA9) went into effect back in 2001, it dramatically streamlined the UCC filing process. Prior to RA9, the filing location for UCC Financing Statements was based on the location of the collateral, not the location of the debtor as it is today. As a result, creditors routinely had to file multiple UCC Financing Statements in order to perfect their security interest. There were even so-called dual-filing states that… >> READ MORE

There are secured creditors and unsecured creditors. But what is the difference between secured creditors and unsecured creditors? Secured Creditors Secured Creditors are creditors that hold a lien on its debtor’s property, whether that property is real property or personal property. The lien gives the secured creditor an interest in its debtor’s property that provides for the property to be sold to satisfy the debt in cases of default.… >> READ MORE

Over the last few years, there has been a proliferation of scams that promise to eliminate debts, repair your credit score, or protect your home from foreclosure. Here at First Corporate Solutions, we have been fielding a lot of calls recently regarding one scam, in particular, the Redemption Process. This week, we thought we would take to the blog to offer some words of caution regarding the Redemption Process. Redemption Process holds… >> READ MORE