Answer:
Answer by Dana Turner:
Contact your County Clerk's Office for a sample. While you're at it, ask for samples of all of the documents, markings and fee structures that your County Clerk's Office may issue that will likely be used in conjunction with the institution's business, such as:
- "Conforming copy" stamp;
- "Confirmed" or "Certified copy" stamp;
- Cost for the first page and the separate costs foe each succeeding page; and
- DBA (fictitious name) application.
Answer:
Answer by Mary Beth Guard:
In some states, such as my own, there are no legal requirements for filings by a sole proprietorship. Thus, unlike with corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships, you can't go to a state or county official and obtain "official" filed documents relating to the sole proprietorship. In such a case, one thing you can do is require the customer to sign a document, sworn under oath before a notary, attesting to the fact that they are operating a sole proprietorship under this name and that all funds to be deposited into the account are funds to which the sole proprietorship is entitled. Will it stop fraud? Not completely. Liars lie. On the other hand, it's one more weapon to add to your customer verification arsenal, along with asking for a business card, looking for a phone listing, inquiring about the nature of the business, making sure the customer doesn't have a "real" job working for a business with a similar name from which they may be stealing checks, etc.
I've created a primitive Affidavit of Sole Proprietorship (pdf document). Perhaps we can get some discussion going on Bankers' Threads with suggestions for beefing it up.
First published on BankersOnline.com 5/06/02
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