​Who must file?

Illinois law requires that individuals conducting or transacting a business under any name other than the real names of the owners must file an Assumed Name Certificate with the County Clerk in the county in which the business is located. If the business will be incorporated, a corporation, or an LLC, file with the Illinois Secretary of State (217-782-7880), not the County Clerk. For retail tax information, call 217-524-4772.

What is the procedure?

  1. The Assumed Name Certificate must be completed with the name and physical street address (not P.O. Box) of the business, the type of product or service you're offering, and the names and home addresses of all owners/partners in the business. All business owners/partners must sign the form in front of a Notary Public. The application fee is $10.00. Notary service is available for $1.00. A copy of the application (which may be required by banks) is available for $1.00. The BUSINESS OWNER then files the paperwork with the Kane County Clerk with the appropriate fees. At that time the Assumed Name Publication Notice paperwork will be issued to the BUSINESS OWNER.
  2. The Assumed Name Publication Notice must be taken to a general circulation Kane County newspaper where the Publication Notice is published once a week for three consecutive weeks. The first of the three notices must be published within 15 days of the initial filing of the Assumed Name Certificate with the Clerk's office.
  3. After publishing, the newspaper completes the Publisher's Certificate and attaches a tear-sheet of the notice. The Publisher's Certificate must be received in the County Clerk's office in order for the filing requirements to be complete. It is the responsibility of the BUSINESS OWNER to be sure the Publisher's Certificate is returned to the County Clerk's office within 50 days from the date of filing.
  4. After receipt of the Publisher's Certificate, the BUSINESS OWNER will be given a Certificate of Ownership of Business. This will have completed all of the Assumed Name filing requirements.

*The Assumed Name Certificate and Assumed Name Publication Notice paperwork will be considered VOID if the first of the three notices is not published in the newspaper within 15 days of the initial filing of the Assumed Name Certificate. If the Publisher’s Certificate is not provided to the county within 50 days from the date of filing, then the process has to be completed again.

What if there are changes in the business information?

If there is any change in the address, name of owner(s) or address, it is necessary to file a Supplemental Assumed Name Certificate with the County Clerk's office, indicating the change. The filing fee for this is $5.00. Publication is again required with the change involves: adding owner(s) names to the business, closing the business, withdrawing owner(s) names when withdrawal involves 25% or more of the total ownership, or change of business address.

Most of these procedures can be accomplished by mail to the County Clerk's office. If you have any questions, please call the Clerk's office at 630-232-5950.

Forms

Assumed Name Certificate​

Publishing in a Kane County General Circulation Weekly Newspaper

... assumed name ad must be published in a general circulation newspaper that is in Kane County
... assumed name ad is published in the Legal Notice section of the newspaper
... ad is published in the paper one time per week for a total of three weeks
... after publication, the newspaper will return the Publisher's Certificate to the business owner or send it to the county clerk's office at the business owner's request
... it is the business owner's responsibility to send the Publisher's Certificate back to the Kane County Clerk's office
... once the Publisher's Certificate is received in this office, the Certificate of Ownership will be issued to the business owner and the Assumed Name business will be recorded with the County at that time.

Please note:
The County cannot register the business name until the Publisher's Certificate has been filled in and returned to this office no later than 50 days after the filing date of the Assumed Name application.