The Anatomy of an Asset Investigation

Private Investigators are called upon to conduct an asset investigation for a variety of reasons including ongoing litigation, divorce matters, leverage during the course of negotiations or to see if a case is worth filing. More often than not, private investigators do not have the legal authority to access information such as bank accounts or investment accounts and must use alternative (and often creative) means to identify assets. 

There are variety of methods and sources that an investigator can utilize to conduct a comprehensive asset investigation to legally uncover asset information through open sources and public records.

We will delve into the details and methodology behind conducting a detailed asset investigation, why you may need an asset investigation, some traditional places to find assets (real property, boats, planes), as well as the non-traditional (the garbage?) and some of the ways to find hidden assets.

Among the topics in this series include:

• 10 Reasons Why You Might Need to Locate Assets
• How to Find Assets: 13 Public Record Sources to Find Assets
• The Other Side of Identifying Assets – How Much do they Owe?
• Six Ways to Locate Hidden Assets That You May Not Have Thought to Use

Other Asset Investigation Sources:

• Hidden Asset Search: 5 Not-So-Obvious Sources
• Should you Sue? Conducting a Pre-Litigation Asset Search