How to Customize CLASInfo Pro's Knowledge Center

The workplace has become complicated. There is always something new you need to remember from a policy, website or frequently used form. The "My Knowledge" section of CLASInfo Pro™'s Knowledge Center is free, secure and yours! Unlike paper notes, you can save links to websites, PDF documents, information from our general knowledge center or any other information that is important to you.

Regardless of what information you need to remember, you can create your personal knowledge center that is secure and can only be accessed by you. To further personalize the system, you can organize the information into folders or as a single list of pages - the choice is yours.

To learn more about the My Knowledge section, including how to add information, attend our free online class, "What the Knowledge Center Has For You - 15 Minute Tour." This class in offered on Tuesday, October 2, at 2:00 PDT, or on Thursday, October 11, at 9:30 PDT. To register, just contact Varsik Karapetyan at Varsik@clasinfo.com, or call us at 1.800.952.5696.

If you'd like to explore on your own, just follow these steps:

1. Log in to CLASInfo Pro™.

2. Click the Knowledge Center button.

3. Click the My Knowledge tab.

4. Open the About My Knowledge folder and select the article, "Introduction to My Knowledge."

You can read all about the My Knowledge section here. And as always, you can contact us if you need help or have questions.

New Ways to Save Time With UCC eZFILE®

As of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, UCC eZFILE® will have two new features designed to make our system even easier to use:

Filing Defaults

You will now be able to set many of the fields in your UCC filings to automatically contain your default information, saving you time and eliminating possible errors. Just go to your "My Information" tab in UCC eZFILE® and fill out the fields. Then when you open new filings, these fields will already be filled in.

The one exception is the collateral description field. This will only automatically fill in for UCC-1 filings, because UCC-3 filings rarely need to restate the collateral from the original filing.

Collateral Descriptions

Tired of wasting time trying to calculate how much of your collateral description will fit on one page? UCC eZFILE® now figures it out for you. Just paste the full description into the field, and the system automatically creates additional pages as necessary.

If you need to have your description start on the second page instead of the first one, that's fine too. You can paste it in the field on the second page, and UCC eZFILE® will calculate whether or not you need a third page. The system can perform these calculations for up to five pages.

Questions? Please post a comment below, or contact us at 1.800.952.5696. You can also email Kathy Culver at Kathy@clasinfo.com or Amanda Martinez at Amanda@clasinfo.com.

Intellectual Property Services and Products

If you deal with Company Formations, Name Changes or Assumed Names, you need to know about trademark, copyright and patent ownership searches. These services help you determine whether a name being used is clear (not in use by another entity). Without this knowledge, you risk investing time and money in branding, marketing and distributing a product, only later to receive a cease and desist letter.

Additionally, if you're involved in Mergers and Acquisitions these searches should be included in your due diligence process. They are part of establishing full discovery of all the assets and liabilities being acquired and help you to determine which brands the acquirer will be responsible for after acquisition.

These services include:

• U.S. Comprehensive searches;
• Trademark Ownership searches;
• Copyright Ownership searches; and
• Patent Ownership searches.

CLAS is now a preferred provider of these Corsearch products and services. If you'd like to learn more, please contact us by emailing Christy@clasinfo.com or by calling us at 1.800.952.5696.

Rewards for Referrals Program

We have a winner...

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Referral drawing. The winner of the Flip Video Camera is Stacey Kil, in Buena Park, California. Congratulations, Stacey!

...and you could be next!

Due to the excellent response, we've decided to hold another drawing. This time the prize will be an Amazon Kindle.* If you have colleagues you think would benefit from the quality of service CLAS provides, please let them know about us!

To enter, call or email Varsik Karapetyan at Varsik@clasinfo.com through the end of September to let us know which colleagues you'd like us to contact. Or if you prefer, you can have your colleagues contact or call us directly at 1.800.952.5696 and mention that you referred them.

Either way, for each referral we receive from you, we'll add your name to our drawing.

The winner of the Amazon Kindle* will be announced in our next newsletter. Thank you all again for your support.

Would you like an additional chance to win? "Like" our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/CLASINFO, and we'll enter your name again in our drawing!

*Kindle is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. Kindle devices are given away on behalf of CLAS Information Services. Amazon is not a sponsor of this event.

Experience You Can Count On

MEET OUR SENIORS; Top row, from left: Judi Leaird, Senior Service Representative (15+ years), Sandi Larsen, Service Department Manager (20+ years), Judy Culver, Compliance Manager (15+ years), Frances Williams, Operations Support (20+ years). Bottom row, from left: Dena Weaver, Senior Service Representative (15+ years), Jeanna Allen, Accounting Manager / Human Resources (15+ years), Christy McCullough, Director of Operations (20+ years), Kathy Culver, Director of Client Relations (20+ years).

A common refrain within this industry is the concern that there is significant turnover in staff and little long-term expertise at service companies. Clients call and are either greeted by voice mail systems or they talk to service people who have little industry experience.

Your engagement with CLAS will begin with a human answering your call and will continue with a referral to another who can answer or research most any industry question. We have made it a priority over our 32-year history to train our own people and then to create a work environment that makes them want to stay. Our group of senior employees who have been with us for more than 15 years maintain that standard and use their expertise to train our newer employees. The average tenure of a CLAS employee exceeds 10 years.

Do You Need A Compliance Checkup?

Did you know that failure to file your business entity's Annual Statement of Information reports with the Secretary of State can result in loss of your good standing resulting in:

• Penalties
• Loss of business name
• Voided contracts, and
• Inability to defend yourself in a lawsuit?

We can check the status and assist in recovering your good standing if needed. Contact us at Christy@clasinfo.com or call 1.800.952.5696 and ask for a "compliance checkup!"

Patriot Act Raises the Stakes On Complying with OFAC Regulations

U.S. Patriot Act Searches / OFAC Compliance

What is OFAC?

OFAC is an office within the U.S. Department of the Treasury that “administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals.”¹ While OFAC has been involved in sanctions programs since the War of 1812, Congress’s passing of the U.S. Patriot Act in the aftermath of the events of 9/11 has led to an increase in OFAC’s operations to curb terrorism. OFAC’s efforts include:

Sanctions Programs

There are three types of sanctions programs – comprehensive, limited and targeted. According to the OFAC 2012 Financial Symposium:

·         Comprehensive programs are those such as with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. With a comprehensive program, generally all activities are prohibited.

·         Limited sanctions, such as those with Burma, North Korea and involving conflict diamonds, allow certain activities. For example, exporting may be allowed, but not importing or investing. Each country or target may have different restrictions. Therefore, it is necessary to know which restrictions apply, and when.

·         Targeted sanctions mean an activity is on the sanctions list for a particular reason, such as narcotics trafficking or Somalian piracy.²

Licensing

All sanctions programs have exceptions of some sort and these exceptions may be handled through a license. An example may be General License 11, which allows for the transfer of services by non-governmental organizations. Another license may allow for the export of food to sanctioned nations (such as Iran or Sudan), although the countries themselves may be under a comprehensive program.²

The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List)

OFAC maintains a listing of restricted parties called the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List). Names are added to and removed from this list continually.² Failure to understand and properly comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC’s) requirements in this area can lead to results as mild as a cautionary letter or as severe as civil or criminal penalties.

Who needs to be OFAC compliant?

If your company deals in the transfer of funds, you must practice due diligence when dealing with clients in order to comply with OFAC requirements. This also applies if your company assists with the formation of corporate entities. This means that you or your service company needs to understand the OFAC Sanctions Programs (comprehensive, limited and targeted) and be aware of the SDN List.

What can you do to be OFAC compliant?

We have found that people/entities who neglect their responsibilities are usually penalized more harshly than those who have written internal processes but who somehow have a target slip through their process.

Once a violation is recognized, information is gathered and the violator should be prepared to answer such questions as why the target was missed and what happened. In determining an action to be taken against the violator, such items as whether it was a willful or reckless violation, the violator was aware of the conduct when approving the transaction, a compliance program was in place or not, cooperation with OFAC occurred during the investigation, etc. are taken into account. Actions can include a no action letter, a cautionary letter, a finding of a violation (civil or criminal penalties may be assessed) or a settlement.²

OFAC’S current focus is wire transfers. All wire transfers need to be screened. According to the OFAC 2012 Financial Symposium:

Particular risk occurs if the recipient of the transfer has overseas branches or subsidiaries, if the transfer came from a high-risk bank, the type of product offered for sale, how much internal quality control is in place and if the recipient has had a high number of OFAC incidents in the past. Ways to mitigate risk include keeping and using an updated SDN List, reporting incidents of missed identification, significant recordkeeping, and due diligence, including having tailored, written policies and procedures in place.²

CLAS has processes you can utilize to track your compliance attempts. Contact a CLAS Service Representative by emailing Christy@clasinfo.com, or by calling 800.952.5696. CLAS Information Services can be found online at www.clasinfo.com.

Sources:

1.  http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/offices/Pages/Office-of-Foreign-Assets-Control.aspx

2.  http://www.nprragac.org/2012/06/21/ofac-2012-financial-symposium/