The Wells Fargo beneficial ownership form is a certification that identifies the real people who own or control your business, and you must complete it before the bank will fully open or continue servicing a business account. For every individual who owns 25% or more of your entity, plus one person with management responsibility, you provide a name, date of birth, residential address, and either a Social Security number or passport details. One authorized person signs the certification, and you return it to Wells Fargo through the channel they specify.
The requirement comes from the federal Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Rule at 31 CFR 1010.230, which tells banks to look past a company name and find out who is actually behind it.
Does Your Business Have to File It
If your business is a “legal entity customer” — a corporation, LLC, limited partnership, business trust, or partnership created by a state filing — expect to complete the form when you open a new Wells Fargo account or when the bank asks for updated information on an existing one. The common sense test: did someone file formation paperwork with a secretary of state or equivalent office? If yes, the form applies.
Several categories are exempt. The ones you are most likely to encounter:
- Sole proprietorships, because the owner and the business are legally the same person.
- Publicly traded companies, whose ownership is already disclosed through SEC filings.
- Banks, credit unions, and broker-dealers.
- Insurance companies and state-licensed insurance producers.
- Government entities at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels.
- Nonprofits, which skip the ownership portion but still must identify a control person.
Other exempt categories include registered investment companies, public utilities, pooled investment vehicles, and some subsidiaries of exempt entities. If you believe your organization qualifies for an exemption, tell the Wells Fargo representative handling your account. You may still need to indicate which exemption applies rather than skipping the form entirely.
What to Gather Before You Start
Pull together the following for every individual you will list — each owner at or above 25%, plus the control person:
- Full legal name, exactly as it appears on their government-issued ID.
- Date of birth.
- Residential street address. P.O. boxes do not count.
- Social Security number for U.S. citizens and residents.
- Passport number and issuing country for non-U.S. persons without an SSN.
You will also need the entity’s legal name, EIN, formation state, and principal business address. Keep your formation documents and operating agreement or bylaws nearby so you can confirm ownership percentages without guessing.
The Two Groups of People You Must Identify
The form works through two independent tests. Read both before deciding whom to list.
Owners at 25% or More
List every individual who holds at least 25% of the equity in your entity, whether they hold it directly or through another company or trust. Four owners at 25% each accounts for all of the equity, so the form has room for up to four names in this section. If no single person meets the threshold, you leave it blank. That is allowed.
One point that trips people up: when a trust owns 25% or more, you list the trustee as the beneficial owner, not the trust’s beneficiaries.
One Person With Management Control
Regardless of what you entered above, you must always name one individual with significant responsibility for managing the entity. That is usually a CEO, CFO, COO, president, treasurer, managing member, or general partner. The control person does not need to own any equity. If your control person is not among the four owners, you will have five individuals on the form in total. If the control person is already listed as an owner, enter their information again in the control section.
Nonprofits do not have equity interests, so they skip the ownership section entirely but still name a control person, typically an executive director, president, or equivalent leader.
Filling Out the Form Section by Section
Wells Fargo may use the standard FinCEN certification (OMB Control No. 1506-0070), titled “Certification Regarding Beneficial Owners of Legal Entity Customers,” or its own version collecting the same data. Either way the structure is the same.
Account Opener and Entity Information
At the top, enter the entity’s full legal name, EIN or tax ID, formation state or country, and principal business address. Then provide the name, title, and contact information of the person completing the form. That person will sign at the end.
Section I: Owners
For each owner at 25% or more, enter their legal name, date of birth, residential address, SSN (or passport number and issuing country), and the nature and percentage of their ownership. Up to four entries.
Section II: Control Person
Enter the same identifying details for the one individual with management authority, and write their actual title — CEO, managing member, general partner, or whatever accurately describes their role — so the bank understands the nature of their control.
Signing the Certification
The person opening the account signs a statement that the information is true and correct to the best of their knowledge. That signature carries legal weight. Knowingly providing false information to a financial institution can be charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1014, which authorizes fines up to $1,000,000, imprisonment up to 30 years, or both.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1014 – Loan and Credit Applications Generally; Renewals and Discounts; Crop Insurance Those are maximums reserved for willful fraud, not honest mistakes, but the exposure is reason enough to double-check every field before signing.
Submitting the Form to Wells Fargo
You can usually return the signed form through one of three channels:
- Online, by uploading the signed document through Wells Fargo’s secure document center inside your digital banking profile.
- In person, by handing it to a representative at your local branch.
- By mail, to the processing address your Wells Fargo relationship manager provides. There is no single public mailing address, so confirm the right one before you send anything.
After the form arrives, the bank’s compliance team verifies the names, including screening against the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list.2U.S. Department of the Treasury. Sanctions List Search Expect confirmation of receipt within a few business days. If something does not match — a name spelled differently than in government records, or an address the bank cannot verify — Wells Fargo will contact you. Respond quickly, because unresolved discrepancies can hold up wire transfers or restrict other account features.
When to Send an Updated Form
Beneficial ownership information is not a one-time filing. The CDD Rule requires banks to keep customer information current on a risk-based basis.3Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Information on Complying with the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Final Rule Notify Wells Fargo and submit an updated form when:
- An owner buys or sells enough equity to cross the 25% line.
- The person with management control changes.
- A listed individual’s name, address, or identification number changes.
Wells Fargo may also contact you during periodic account reviews to confirm the information on file. Treat those requests like the original filing: gather the current details and return the updated form promptly.
This Form Is Not the Same as a FinCEN BOI Report
A lot of business owners confuse the Wells Fargo form with the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report under the Corporate Transparency Act. They are separate requirements. The Wells Fargo form goes to the bank. BOI reports were intended to go directly to FinCEN’s database.
As of March 2025, FinCEN narrowed BOI reporting so that entities created in the United States, and their U.S.-person beneficial owners, are exempt from filing BOI reports with FinCEN; only foreign entities registered to do business in a U.S. state or tribal jurisdiction must still file.4FinCEN.gov. Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting That change does not affect what Wells Fargo asks for. The bank’s CDD obligation is a separate regulation, and domestic companies still provide beneficial ownership information to open and maintain their accounts.
What the 2026 FinCEN Relief Order May Change
On February 13, 2026, FinCEN issued an order (FIN-2026-R001) granting covered financial institutions relief from the requirement to identify and verify beneficial owners at each new account opening, and said it is updating its CDD Rule FAQs to reflect the change.3Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Information on Complying with the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Final Rule How Wells Fargo adjusts its intake process under the order is still emerging. If you are opening a business account in 2026, ask your Wells Fargo representative whether the beneficial ownership certification is still required for your situation or whether the bank’s procedure has changed under the new relief.