2. If your firm is a corporation or limited partnership, you need to register it with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) Corporations Section (608-261-7577), 345 W. Washington Ave., 3^rd floor, P.O. Box 7846, Madison WI 53707-7846.

3. If you plan to obtain credit for your business you are required to register you firm name under Wisconsin State Statute 134.17. There is a $1,000 fine or one year in jail for failure to do so.

4. For firm names to be registered in the Register of Deeds office, use the REGISTRATION OF FIRM NAMES form. The form may be printed from this web page. It must be completely filled out legibly, using black ink. Your signature must be notarized, so don’t sign until you are witnessed by a notary public.

5. Before filling out the form, check to make sure no one else in your county is using your desired firm name. Check the listings in the phone directory. Look in the county real estate index in the office. You should also check the DFI corporation names index at http://www.wdfi.org/corporations/crispix/

6. The fee for recording a firm name document is $11 and if there are additional pages, $2.00 for each additional page.

7. Your form must be filled out completely. Be sure to put your return address and document drafter on the form. Mail it to the Register of Deeds, along with a check for the recording fee. A list of office addresses is available on the home page of this web site.