The Expert Podcast

So you've hired an investigative agency, or you're considering hiring an agency to do some type of research for you. Maybe it's an asset search, maybe it's illegal activity research, maybe it's investigating a person's background—whatever the case is, you're going to eventually get a report from that agency, if it's a legitimate agency. That report normally would be 14 to 20 pages of results. If it's an asset search, it'll have bank accounts, real estate, vehicles, maybe even corporate assets. Whatever assets were found, hidden or otherwise, will be listed in the report.

So what do you do with this? Well, the first thing to do is expect to be surprised. You may find that there are assets that you didn't know about that this person has, that were hidden from you. Maybe they put a bank account at a bank that you didn't know about, maybe they registered a vehicle in a co-owner name along with theirs, or maybe they purchased real estate for the benefit of another person. So, expect to be surprised.

Also, expect that maybe you'll be surprised the other way. Maybe some things that you thought were happening aren't happening. Maybe they're hiding assets, but not as much as you thought. So, first of all, set aside your preconceived notions and just look at the report, take it for what it is.

Then, what you want to do is make sure that the agency who did your report is going to go through it with you. At our firm, Active Intel, we want the client to receive that report and review it, usually for 24 to 48 hours. We want you to look at it, make some notes, write down some questions, and then we'll arrange a private one-on-one video consultation to go through it with you line by line to explain anything that's there. You can ask questions. The reason we want you to look at it and sit on it for a couple of days is so all the questions bubble up that you may be thinking about.

The investigator or the team that worked on your report will sit there on the call with you. You want to make sure you do that because there may be some stuff on there that you're not familiar with that you want to delve more into.

Then, what you want to do as the next action is think about how you're going to use it. If you're involved with litigation in a court case, you want to make sure that you use it properly. You don't want to introduce it to the other side in a way that might tip them off to you recovering assets. You want to get with your legal team, if you have an attorney, to know how to use it. Maybe you want to present it as discovery to the other side, maybe you want to make it part of a deposition, or maybe you want to introduce it as evidence at trial.

Either way, you want to decide how you're going to use it or maybe not at all. Maybe you're not going to introduce it to the other side, if it's allowed not to do that, but get good legal advice on how to use this information to give you a better result in whatever dispute, conflict, or court case you're involved in.

If you're using this only for your own benefit, make sure that you safeguard the privacy of it. This information may have some very confidential details on it, and you don't want it released or out there in a way that could result in someone else experiencing a confidentiality breach. So, you want to safeguard it very well.

A good investigative report is extremely valuable, whether it's assets, criminal records, court records, lawsuits, employment records, insurance records—it could have a number of pieces of information that could be very beneficial to you in making decisions, taking actions, or prevailing in your conflict.

If you found this video helpful, be sure to click on other videos on our channel to see if there's further information that could give you more insight into resolving your particular situation.