Is this Annual Report Notice Official?

LuAnn Peterson, SBWCP | 08.18.25

If your company receives a notice in the mail to file an annual report, review it closely as it may be a third-party solicitation. Sometimes these mailings include a QR Code which leads to a third-party website. Responding to such a notice could lead to incurring unnecessary fees paid to that third-party solicitor.

The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (WDFI) used to send postcards in the mail as the notice of annual report filing, so if you are accustomed to getting notices by postcard, you may mistake a mailing as being from WDFI. WDFI now sends annual report notices only by email to the email address on record for the registered agent. If WDFI doesn’t have an email address for the registered agent or if the email address on record bounces back undeliverable, they do NOT follow up by sending a notice in the mail to the registered agent mailing address. So, it is important to keep your registered agent information on file with WDFI current, including a valid email address that allows emails from WDFI. 

Registered agent information can be updated with WDFI on your annual report. You can also update it anytime if you have proper authority from your company and the company is in good standing by filing a Statement of Change (Form 13). The filing fee for the Statement of Change filed online is $10 or, if mailing in a hard copy, $25, which can include an optional added expedited fee of $25.

WDFI emails annual report notices for Wisconsin entities at the beginning of the quarter your entity was registered with WDFI. However, notices for foreign entities are all sent and due in the first quarter regardless of when registered with WDFI. If you have not received your notice within those periods, the registered agent should check their email spam filter. However, you do not need the annual report notice from WDFI to be able to file the annual report. 

For additional information about when your report is due or whether you need the notice to file, please see our articles, Do I need an Annual Report Notice to File My Annual Report with Wisconsin DFI?, and, Wisconsin Annual Report Filing Reminder for Corporations and LLCs.

For more information regarding third-party solicitations, see our article, Why am I Getting Notices After Creating My Wisconsin LLC?.