WHY CONDUCT AN ASSET SEARCH?

Before You Start - Investigate

Before you set out on your search, you need to know how to go about locating assets through public records. First, you'll need the subject's name and address. In some counties, just the individual's name is enough to proceed. You need to find out if the person in question is truly "who" and "what" she or he claims to be. What does the person own? The best way to get answers to pertinent questions like these is to gather intelligence.

Find out where your subject lives and works. A pretext telephone call will often work. Deadbeats were once able to hide from the courts, but that's changed. Hard-to-find people who don't want to pay have become better and better at not leaving a paper trail. If they're good at hiding assets, they'll put everything in their sister's name or their mother's name, or in the name of somebody they think they can trust, making ownership very difficult to prove. An assets search should include a county civil search if deed transfers are suspected.

New Business Venture

If you are contemplating an investment in a new venture, or are considering taking on an investor, thinking about a merger, consider conducting a thorough background and assets search.

Divorce

Before filing for divorce, and to ensure an equitable settlement, learn exactly what property and possessions are owned by which parties.

Child Support

Most state child support enforcement agencies do not have the resources to track down parents who evade their support obligations. An assets search can aid in collecting child support owed to you. You can then turn discovered information over to the child support enforcement agency, which will collect the money for you. Wages are considered assets and can be garnished. How to Investigate connects you to every state agency responsible for collecting child support.

Judgment Battle

You've won a judgment, and naturally, you want to collect the court-ordered sum. This is just the beginning of the collection process. The losing party rarely writes a check at the courthouse. The judicial system can only enforce a judgment and is not much help in collecting it. The judgment is good initially for ten years, and can be revived so that it endures indefinitely. This can be done through post-judgment questions directed to the debtor, or interviews of the debtor conducted under oath.

Before You Sue

Conduct an assets search before suing to ascertain what assets and income your subject has, and to make sure the assets will be available should you win a judgment. Do this assets search before taking possession of an asset - such as an automobile or a boat - with a lien against it, as you may be liable for the lien. If the person doesn't have anything, why waste your time and money in court? If you're not going to collect, why bother to go through the hassle of a court conflict to get a judgment?? Plus, you could lose on a technicality! Find out what you can attach and make stick, uncontested, once you have obtained the judgment.

WHAT ARE ASSETS?

Everything you own is an asset: stocks, bonds, houses, boats, money in banks, that new car with no lien on it. Your bedroom set, your living room furniture - all are assets. Personal assets are either "personal property" or "real property."? Real property assets include houses, condo's, lots, apartment buildings, or other commercial properties.

Tangible Personal Property

These are things like vehicles, equipment, inventory, phone systems, computers, bank accounts, stocks, bonds, paid-up insurance policies - items of value a person buys or comes into possession of by one means or another. Except for personal property that must be licensed, like vehicles and boats and airplanes, "ownership" of an item is usually determined by "possession." Proof of ownership may be a sales receipt, a canceled check or a bill of sale. Most everyone agrees: possession, especially long-term possession, is nine-tenths of the law.

Intangible Personal Property

Items such as patents, royalty agreements, promissory notes, contracts, accounts receivable, wages, or other income are considered Intangible Personal Property.

Real Property
Locate real estate and you may have something to attach. If your subject, the owner, has a homestead exemption on the house, you're not going to be able to touch it. However, if he owns the lot next door, or if he owns an apartment building, you can lay claim to those.

LOCATING ASSETS

Asset location has long been a valued resource for lenders, creditors, investors, and government entities. The largest creditor in the United States is the Internal Revenue Service. IRS auditors, field agents and CID agents locate assets to satisfy levies, liens, tax fraud and tax evasion matters. So does the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Small Business Administration, student loan authorities, bankruptcy trustees, and various states' departments of revenue.

Seasoned, professional skip-tracers start their investigation by compiling data about the subject's identity, relatives, employment, etc., while profiling the subject's financial status and character. This initial searching may also turn up loan or mortgage data.

National Death Index

First, check the death records to determine when he or she died and details of the death. If an estate was filed, it was likely filed where the individual passed away. Go to the county court house. Determine whether an estate was filed. If there is a will, it will be on file if the person requested his or her will be filed at the courthouse.

Income/Wages

Learn about a person's income - another asset. Wages can be attached or garnished. Whether filing for divorce, to collect on a judgment or collecting child support, first learn exactly what property and possessions are owned. Judgments are not just a debt, they are a court order to pay and they carry all the powers of the court order, but a judgment is just a piece of paper until money is collected. The court will not collect the money for you.

Employer

If you need to know the place of employment, do what the pros do: Get up early in the morning, park down the street from where the subject resides and follow the subject to work. Note: Don't do this if the subject knows you or your vehicle. Get an unknown friend with an unknown vehicle to get details.

To verify employment, one might say to the subject's employer, "He's buying a car from me. I want to verify employment and the amount of money he makes." Or, "Does she get paid weekly or biweekly?" (You need to know when the paychecks are issued if you intend to garnish wages.) "Does she stand a chance for any bonuses?" Or, "How long has she been on the job?" Employers love to talk, especially if they think they are talking to a peerÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œ another employer. Try: "Is advancement likely?" Or, "Is she going to be promoted?"

Unearned Income

Income is not only what a person earns; there's unearned income, too, which is not earned through a paycheck but from rental incomes, dividends, and interest from stock ownership.

Subpoena Business Records

If you have to go the subpoena route, and the subject's employer is known, serve a Business Record Subpoena, and obtain a copy of payroll checks the subject has cashed. The subject's account number and name of the bank will be on the back of the check.

CHECK PUBLIC RECORDS

Records of millions of filings, real property transactions, and new business ventures are available for your inspection at city and county courthouses and at repositories in state capitals. This is public information; the records are open to everyone. You need to know how to get what you need and where to get what you need. Herein lies the challenge.

Local Level Search - It's almost always best to start your search at the local level: the city or county where the filing took place. These records will most often provide valuable search data: real property records, corporation records, UCC filings, court records, motor vehicle information, divorce proceedings records, community property settlement records, and probate records. With these records you may discover a wealth of financial information: names and account numbers of bonds and checking and savings accounts; brokers; stock ownership; and credit card account data. Often you can discover addresses of and descriptions of real property and license number, make, and model of vehicles.

Jurisdictions

Forty-three-hundred US public jurisdictions store records of interest to people attempting to locate assets. Most of these jurisdictions are counties. Each jurisdiction has its own set of rules.

Begin your search by delving into these records sources:

Real Property Records - Assessors Office - County Court House
Court Records - Bankruptcy, liens and Judgments - County Court House
Business Licensing - County Court House
Corporation Records - Secretary of State's Office
UCC filings - Secretary of State's Office
Motor vehicle information - State DMV
Divorce proceedings records - State Vital Statistics
Probate records - State Probate Records

Links to: Courts and State Records

Real Estate

Real property is the most valuable and best-documented of all assets. Records are kept at the county recorder's office or the registrar of deeds office. Real property recordings are indexed by owner's name and usually crossed-indexed by property address. Documentation includes property jurisdictions, location, deeds of trust, liens, property address, owners, sellers, attorneys, mortgage lender, and title company.

The true value of the property is rarely determined by doc stamps, tax assessment, or listed mortgage. If a person owns real estate - more than just his or her primary domicile - check county records to see if quit claim deeds have been filed. Perhaps the property was signed over to another person. County records contain complete details of property transfers. Relatives and in-laws usually are the beneficiaries. Ascertain the wife's maiden name, if possible, before starting records searches.

County Assessor

Call the county assessor's office to learn the assessed value of a property. Remember, the assessed value is only one indication of a property's actual worth.

Motor Vehicle Information

Most states' Department of Motor Vehicles will provide vehicle ownership information for a fee. Check by the subject's name and by the name of any companies connected with the subject.

Water Vessel Registrations

Boats can be attached by the court, providing you can establish ownership, proven by title, which is public record. The Natural Resources department or division in each state will have information on boats and water vessels owned by individuals and companies.

Aircraft

The FAA will have information on an individual or a company that owns aircraft.

Business Connections: Corporations, Partnerships, LLC

Under most state laws, people can have certain property that is exempt from being seized for debts; however, corporations have no such exempt property. If a business incorporates, a record of that corporation's birth is on file with a state agency, usually the Secretary of State's office in the corporation's home state. Certain states will furnish information about directors, officers, and the principals of a corporation, but most limit the information to what has been furnished by the people who formed the corporation.

Note:
1. Many states' Secretary of State's corporation division do not require or verify identification of applicants for new corporations.
2. The law says each person is limited to one SSN. Discovery of multiple SSN's is fairly common in asset searches, especially among the well-to-do.

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Filings

The Uniform Commercial Code is a notification system. The law requires the filing of a financing statement containing certain information whenever a financial transaction takes place that involves personal property used for collateral for a loan or lease. You will find much useful information contained in UCC filings, all of which should be considered from several perspectives for clues and leads to further information.

Each year, more than eight million Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings are completed. Four million parcels of real property change hands or are put up for collateral. Millions of pieces of commercial real estate are swapped or sold. More than a half million new corporations start up.

Begin your search in the county where the subject resides. UCC filing records are indexed by the name of the debtor. Both the debtor and the secured parties are listed in UCC filings. Useful information can be gathered and made a part of your intelligence base. An accurate description of the collateral being put up as security for the loan or lease must be furnished.

Names of other debtors, as well as individuals or businesses that may have guaranteed the debt, may be listed in UCC filings. Banks, leasing companies, and other individuals who backed the enterprise are excellent sources of information. When queried, these debtors or companies might divulge valuable information. Their involvement with the subject may suggest other arrangements or other assets: a pattern of business activity. Stockholders involved in the venture will be specified. Partners or family members and friends who backed the deal may be mentioned. A spouse or ex-spouse may be listed. The debtor likely maintains an account with the bank backing the deal.

UCC filings remain active for five years, unless continued. A UCC filing may include a copy of the loan application from the secured party or a copy of the check from the secured party to the debtor. Bank issues check to debtor. Debtor deposits check into his/her bank account. Debtor's bank account number is on back of check. Subpoena the secured party for a copy of this check. Look at the reverse side of the check. The subject may also deposit payroll checks, spouse's payroll checks, stock dividend checks, rental income checks, etc. . . . An ignorant debtor might withdraw funds to close an account in the form of a check, then deposit that check in a new account, often in the same bank. A check provides a document trail and often includes the name and account number of the bank where the debtor deposited the check. Subpoena the target bank for loan applications and/or financial statements of the subject for any checks the bank issued to the subject.

LOCATING BANK ACCOUNTS

The easiest asset to attach is a bank account. Does the person who owes you money have an account at a particular bank? There is no central database that maintains bank account records for everybody in the country. Locating bank account information was the most controversial area in the asset search industry before 1999, when new banking regulations were signed into law. Before then, various techniques were employed to uncover bank account information, including obtaining credit reports, forming collection networks, and using information subpoenas and pretext calls. With the new law, pretexts may not be employed to obtain banking or financial account information. Consequently, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain information about a bank customer. If accounts are located, the court will enforce the provisions of your judgment. Bank accounts with a matching SSN or Federal Tax ID Number (FEIN) can be frozen. (When opening an account, the bank will require your SSN or FEIN. If it is an interest-bearing account the bank will forward a tax form to the IRS.)

Many Americans have more than one bank account, insurance policy, brokerage account, and safety deposit box. An individual's tax return can be a good source of information about bank accounts, limited partnerships, and investments paying dividends or interest. You can get the information you need with a subpoena. Without a subpoena. you may learn nothing. Ask for all the records: bank applications, mortgage details, etc.

HIDING ASSETS

Begin your search for hidden assets with a basic background check to ascertain if any aliases or multiple social security numbers are being reported to the consumer bureaus. Identify relatives and business associations. In a much-publicized case involving three individuals, their wives and a multi-million-dollar defaulted loan, many bank accounts were discovered, including several with names and SSN's not belonging to any of the subjects.

Hidden assets are mainly of the liquid variety: bank accounts, stocks and bonds, and mutual funds. A hidden asset is one asset that is moved or transferred intentionally to defraud, hinder, or delay a creditor. Less frequently, the subject will attempt to move assets out of the reach of creditors or litigants. Hidden Assets are mainly transferred to a spouse, friend or a business entity.

Hidden assets can also include real property and vehicles. When facing a lawsuit and judgment, people often attempt to hide expensive toys and bank accounts by transferring ownership and title to property to someone else.

The most common hiding places for assets are under aliases, with relatives, friends, and partners, and in home mortgages, universal life insurance, savings bonds, annuities, travelers checks, cashiers checks, safety deposit boxes, dissolved corporations, stockbroker accounts, mortgage and credit card pay-downs, collectibles, antiques, offshore accounts, foreign accounts, overpayments to the IRS, sweetheart lawsuits, cars, yachts, aircraft, and jewelry . . .

Hiding Assets Under Someone Else's Name

Most assets, from cash to real property, are moved over to the spouse, child or other relatives. For most asset search firms, fraudulent conveyance of real estate is easier to track than cash transactions. Real estate transactions identifying the buyer or seller can be found using online services or by searching records at the county assayer's office or the registries of deeds office. A fraudulent conveyance of real estate might be picked up as a transaction involving the subject as seller and the subject's mate as buyer. The date of the transfer might prove to be suspiciously close to the date of a loan default, or bankruptcy filing.

Note: Were assets moved to relatives, to the wife's maiden name, or to in-laws? Ascertain the mate's maiden name, if not already known. Start with marital records at the county courthouse where the marriage took place.

A transfer of assets to loved ones, whether outright or in trust, carries major risks: Wealthy people who give vast sums of money to a spouse and children may find themselves without assets, without a spouse, and with unsympathetic children.

Trusts

The most sophisticated asset-hiding schemes involve transfers to living trusts or offshore trust accounts. Assets that are transferred deliberately to avoid payment to creditors, litigants or other parties are generally called "preferential" or "fraudulent" transfers. If these transfers occur in anticipation of or shortly before or during litigation or bankruptcy, they are reversible in most states.

People who hold substantial assets and are exposed to litigation and creditor risks may attempt to protect their wealth by making generous gifts to a trust like the Multi-Generation Trust (MGT). MGT grantors assign spouses and children as beneficiaries.

Hiding Real Estate in Real Estate Trusts

The majority of real estate trusts are created for legitimate reasons. However, as with hiding cash, some individuals use these trusts to hide real estate to conceal assets. They place property in trusts while acting as trustees of those trusts. Or they place property in real estate trusts with their spouses, children or friends as trustees. They have a beneficial interest in trusts without acting as trustees.

Real Estate Trust Records

These trusts are not a good method of hiding real estate in some states. Records of deeds, mortgages, declarations of trust and other real estate documents are maintained at registries of deeds in towns or counties throughout the USA. Records are cross-referenced from the real estate trust names to the names of the individual trustees in more than half of these registries. A check of the records at most registries of deeds will generally reveal property owned by a subject as trustee just as such a search would reveal property owned by the subject individually (or jointly with a wife, partner, etc.). The same is true of real estate ownership records at town assessors' offices as most assessors' offices cross-reference information.

Another method of concealing assets in real estate trusts involves "trust" on the part of the individual concealing the assets. An individual can finance the purchase of property by a real estate trust with a spouse, child or friend as trustee. The individual would then have to trust the other party or parties to funnel money back in his or her direction. Since the individual would not be a trustee in the trust, the trust and trust property would not be cross-referenced to his or her name at the registry of deeds. Proving that the assets belong to the individual would be difficult at best.

In some states, real estate trusts offer a very effective method for hiding assets. One may hold an interest in a trust but not be a trustee. The trust can be set up so that one individual holds 100 percent of the interest in the trust. If the individual is not a trustee, the trust and trust property will not be cross-referenced to that individual's name. Rarely will a registry of deeds cross-reference beneficial interests to individual names. In many states, trusts are not required to reveal the names of individuals holding beneficial interests. The trust documents may be recorded in the registry of deeds with no list of beneficial interests. In this way, tying individuals to property can become very difficult.

Hiding Under a Corporate Umbrella

Limited partnerships offer essentially the same opportunities for concealing real estate assets as real estate trusts. Also, as with trusts, many registries of deeds cross-reference information to individual partners' names when those partners sign the real estate documents.

The agent is the person listed to receive service and may be an attorney who has no connection with the owners of the corporation. You'll be told the dates of incorporation and the dates of any amendments, such as name changes. Some states list the address of the registered agent. Any information you are able to acquire from corporation applications and associated records may be useful. Discussions with business partners and corporate associates may shed light on the bigger picture. Write or call the corporate headquarters to request an annual report or financial statement. You might ask that your name be added to the mailing list of those who are to receive corporate reports.

Hiding Personal Property

Frequently, asset searches discover personal property of significant value. One has several options if hiding personal property like automobiles, boats, aircraft, jewelry or art. While state and federal agencies keep records of auto, boat and aircraft registrations, the amount of information contained in those records varies significantly. State records may enable asset search firms to identify the make, model and year of autos, boats and other vehicles in a subject's name. Records are limited to property presently registered to a subject. Records of transactions - changes in ownership involving autos, boats or aircraft - are not generally available. Tracking and proving fraudulent conveyance of personal property is much more difficult than locating real estate.

Hiding Assets in Exempt Plans

People with litigation risk sometimes invest in assets which are exempt from creditors' claims. Plans that qualify include pension, profit sharing, 401(k) and Keogh plans.

Hiding Assets as Gifts

Investments in exempt assets, giving gifts and fraudulent conveyances are commonly used as a means to hide assets.

LEGAL TOOLS

Writ of Execution

This a common judicial order directing the enforcement of a judgment. The writ instructs the sheriff or constable to seize the Debtor's non-exempt property, sell the property at auction, and deliver the proceeds to you.

Turnover Order

Orders Debtor to turn all non-exempt property over to the judgment holder. This remedy allows a judgment holder to spread a wide net to catch all available assets when the Debtor's property cannot readily be attached or seized by the ordinary legal process. This remedy is usually used when no other means to satisfy the judgment are available, but it does not require that a judgment holder exercise all other post-judgment remedies before seeking the order.

Blanket Levy

This technique involves serving a Writ of Execution and a Bank Levy on every bank in the area. This procedure assumes that Debtor banks within a few miles' radius of home or work.

Debtor's Examination

At this proceeding you can demand that the debtor tell you where his or her bank account is. The unfortunate effect of this procedure is that the Debtor will take money out of the account before you can get to it. If you locate a bank account with even a few dollars in it - or one that has been closed - get microfilmed or database records, which the bank retains.

State Sales Tax Permits

Clue: An application for Sales Tax permit requires you to list your bank account.

ASSET SEARCH SERVICES

Database Information Providers
Online database Information Providers have experience with the intricacies of accessing public records and can conduct all or part of your asset search, saving you the time and trouble of a paper document search. Ask about areas of coverage, techniques, fees, and methods of payment. I

Order an Asset Search. Experienced database search specialists will immediately go to work for you, to quickly return real, meaningful results. See our Sample Report
?

Investigative Professionals Background Checks

Our expert researchers tap connections to a far-reaching network of massive databases containing more than four billion records to run background checks and criminal records reports. Experienced database search specialists will immediately go to work for you, to quickly return real, meaningful results. Search results are regularly returned within hours. See Assets Searches and ALL Background Checks