The Expert Podcast

So this question comes up quite a bit in our investigative division regarding asset searches: how many kinds of asset searches are there? Are there different types? Are there different scenarios for different searches? Certainly there are. In fact, there are some services that can be called an asset search that can cost you thirty, forty dollars. There are some asset search services that can cost you thousands of dollars. Which one do you want? Well, it depends on your use.

For example, if an attorney or a law firm is doing a large due diligence on a corporation with very complicated financial records and needs forensic accounting and analysis and historical data and historical documents, that could be thousands of dollars of investigative work.

On the other hand, if you need just a quick electronic snapshot of potential assets that doesn't have to be 100% accurate, you can do some online research and get something that is called an asset search for 50 or 60 dollars. It just depends upon how important it is to have the search be documented, to be performed by a licensed investigator, and to be admissible in court. That's going to be the most important things.

For example, there are 14 different types of assets: there's bank accounts, there's real estate, there's vehicles, there's corporate assets, intellectual property. Sometimes people don't want all of the asset search—only certain categories searched—which is fine as long as you know you're not getting a thorough complete asset search. You may only be getting one part of the asset class.

The reason why that's important is the source for asset records do not come from one place. The source for bank account records doesn't come from the same place as real estate. The source for vehicles doesn't come from the same place as corporate assets, right? So when you're doing an asset search, you have to search each location for those records.

For example, real estate records come from the County Recorder in the county where the real estate is located. If you go to the County Recorder to find real estate holdings for a person trying to hide assets, maybe they're doing a quit claim deed to somebody else's name, maybe they're putting titles for real estate in a third party or in a trust. You can find all that out at the County Recorder, but they're not going to have any information on bank accounts or vehicles or corporate separate assets, right? You have to do that research in another location.

Corporate assets, now you have to get records from the Secretary of State in the state where the business is located.

For, let's say, bank accounts, you're gonna have to search for Swift Code records, for check verification records, for OSINT records. Those will have the bank account records but they won't have real estate. So each section of asset types has records in a different location.

Now one of the other things is, should you get records from a third party? Meaning that there are some aggregators that are out there like LexisNexis or other databases that collect records from various sources and it's a one-stop shop. You put a name, you push a button, it pops up on the screen. Well, that is a possibility, but they're not 100%. They may not have all of the records. They may not have all of the bank accounts or all of the real estate. They may only have certain locations. Some states don't report to these electronic databases. Some states don't report maybe once a year. So anything newer might not be in there.

So if you're okay with having partial records, you can save a lot of money.

The other thing to keep in mind is for an asset search, every source for records you have access to as a civilian. A private investigator certainly has the expertise and experience to do this research and sometimes for convenience it's better to pay somebody else, but there's nothing a private investigator can do with more power or authority that you can't do yourself as a civilian consumer.

If you read about the instructions of doing an asset search, if you educate yourself on where the records are and you learn what the process is for extracting those records, you can do an asset search yourself and save a lot of money.

A typical investigator might spend 10 or 15 hours of labor doing a proper documented asset search from the direct sources, not from indirect but direct sources. If you're willing to put in the time, you could do that yourself and don't have to pay anybody anything.

You might have to pay some fees to get the documents. For example, the County Recorder might charge you five dollars for copies of deeds. The vehicle records might be twenty-five dollars for DMV. But by paying a couple very small fees for documents, you might be able to put together that search yourself and analyze it and do your own research if you want to save some money.

We have instructions for doing this in some of our other videos.

But getting back to the question of the video: how many types of asset searches are there? Well, there's really unlimited. Here's why: there are 14 different classes of assets. So there's any combination — I want class one, four, and eight. I want class two, seven, and twelve, right? So any combination is a different search.

Also, you can decide whether you want 100% documented paper results from the source or if you're okay with like third-party partial electronic records. And that throws a whole nother monkey wrench into the works where you might be okay with partial searching.

So carefully constructing your asset search to meet your needs — look, if you have a small judgment against a person and you don't need to spend a ton of money on an asset search, there may be ways to get some partial preliminary searching that at least can give you a rough idea of what you're dealing with without having to spend a lot of money.

So getting a good consultation with an investigator or a good kind of lay of the land of your particular scenario — why you need the asset search — that's the most important thing.

If you need it for court and have to be admissible, find out what the court is telling you you need for an asset search. You might need a class one asset search, right? You might need an abstracted document search. The court will tell you what you need if it's for court.

If it's for your own use, now you can decide. You don't have to rely on the requirements of a court. You can just do however you want to do it.

Determining what type of asset search you need for real estate, bank accounts, vehicles, corporate intellectual property is the first step in figuring out how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to take.