Before Alabama became a state, the Secretary of State’s Office already existed. The Secretary of State was chosen by the legislature until 1868, but since then, they have been elected by the general public. The Secretary of State is required by state law to perform more than 1,000 separate tasks, almost all of which entails processing and storing public records. The Great Seal of Alabama must be affixed to numerous papers for them to be considered official. The Office of the Secretary of State keeps certain documents that essentially fall into four categories: executive, legislative, elections, and business. The agency makes substantial use of computers and information technology to keep up with the demand from the general public for access to these records. One of the first in the US to successfully store and retrieve the records on an optical disk was the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office. Businesses can now access almost all records online.
Business Services Division
The Secretary of State, of Business Services, is responsible for managing all business-related duties, such as registering new businesses and filing commercial liens. Business Entities and the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) are the two categories into which business services are divided. Employees of Business Entities hold onto the names of organizations that incorporate to conduct business in Alabama. Staff members typically receive roughly 300 requests each day for information from the state’s 200,000 company filings. More than 220,000 financing statements that have been submitted by lawyers and banking institutions are kept on file by the UCC Section.
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
A comprehensive body of legislation called the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) regulates all business dealings in the US. It is a uniformly applied state statute, not a federal one. As a result, commercial ties are more secure, which fosters corporate expansion and boosts the American economy. The UCC has been referred to as the foundation of American trade for this reason. At the state level, the Uniform Commercial Code Division runs a filing and retrieval center for UCC financing statements. A UCC-1 form along with the necessary fees must be sent to the UCC Division by a secured party who wants to perfect a security interest in the collateral. An exclusive file number is assigned to each document submitted to the UCC Division. The filing of financial statements is done alphabetically and numerically following federal and state law. A UCC-3 form is submitted with a reference to the original file number if a secured party wants to discontinue the financing statement, prolong it, release some of the collateral, assign a new secured party, or change it. A UCC-5 form is submitted to add information to the index and a UCC-11 to make requests for information on UCC filings.
Business entities
Records of domestic and international entities that are authorized to conduct business in Alabama are kept in the Business Entity Division, which serves as a depository for those records. The entities served by the division include: profit corporations, non-profit corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, registered limited liability partnerships, and limited liability limited partnerships. Currently, the 12-employee-staffed Business Entity Division receives about 500 inquiries per day for information on its 250,000 filings.
Business Search
You can discover comprehensive details about a specific corporation, company, or business in the state of Alabama using Business Search. The search can be conducted using the directors’ names, registered agents’ addresses, mailing addresses, and the purposes of the corporation.
Contact information
UCC Division: Voice: 334-353-0203
Business Entities: Voice: 334-242-5324
Physical address
770 Washington Avenue, Suite 580
Montgomery, AL 36104
Mailing address
PO Box 5616
Montgomery, AL 36103-5616
Official website
https://www.sos.alabama.gov/business-services
