Assets are often important in many different legal battles. For example, if you’re working in collections, you need to perform a thorough asset investigation on an individual so you know what you can collect from. If you’re thinking about going into business with someone or you’re handling contract disputes, performing an asset search will show you if a person has any judgments or liens on their current assets for business due diligence. Or, you may need to uncover assets for legal research.

Regardless of why you need it, comprehensive asset investigation can be extremely important and incredibly useful. Here’s how a thorough asset check in a public and private records database can help you in various legal situations.

Asset search companies and services make collections easier

An important part of collections is conducting an asset search to understand more about someone’s assets, like personal property, to determine the best strategy for collection. If you’re legally allowed to collect on an aircraft, for example, you may need to learn more about that aircraft before you can begin. That may include information about the aircraft’s specs, as well as information about the name and address of the person to whom it’s registered. Whatever type of assets you’re collecting on, large or small, a people search engine can help you do it faster and more efficiently.

• Collection agencies need to get a large amount information about people’s assets in a very short amount of time to determine how to best collect from an individual.
• If you don’t have much information about an asset, you need to have a method of obtaining that information so you can make informed decisions.
• An asset search in public and private records search engine can give you the detailed information you need for collections.

Fulfill your due diligence in investigations with asset search software

In a business, you have certain requirements that you need to meet if you want to keep yourself and your customers safe. Doing your due diligence is an important part of these requirements. Businesses and financial services need to make sure they’re investing in, hiring, and doing business with safe individuals. Whether it’s legally mandated or just for risk management, it’s important that you know your business partners are being upfront about their situation. To be safe, you may need to search their assets with a corporate asset search. 

• Due diligence including a company asset search describes the processes you use to shield yourself from potential legal troubles in the future.
• Part of due diligence is verifying the information that people who work with you give to you and your organization.
• With a public and private records database, you’re able to get that information, like comprehensive asset records, from a reputable source.

Use an asset search to perform a skip trace and find someone’s current and past locations

One of the more complex tasks that licensed investigators do is skip tracing. If you’re trying to track down the alleged perpetrator of a crime or you want to find someone who’s running away from their debts, you may use skip tracing procedures to find that individual. One efficient method of skip tracing is using addresses assigned to someone’s assets. A quality public and private records search engine can help you skip trace assets and even do batch skip tracing if you need to track down large amounts of assets quickly.

• Uncovering someone’s location is one of the most important parts of many investigations.
• Tracking down people who are on the run may require alternative methods other than just a traditional person search by address. 
• The right skip tracing software provides you with alternative skip tracing methods, like asset search, to help you get the information you need to track down and uncover more about a difficult-to-find individual.

How do you do an asset search?

The easiest way to do this is to conduct an online asset search instead of a painstaking individual search. Some assets are searchable through county clerk offices, depending on where they are. Big city county clerks will have much better records than a small rural town. In both cases you may be limited in what you can find. But you may not find everything you need. 

There are “free” or low-cost search companies available, but may give you the same publicly available information, including some that’s outdated. This can stall skip tracing and many types of investigations. If you’re planning to use this information in court for a legal or any collections activity, it must be current. Utilizing a database with both public and private asset information can reveal much more than just limited public asset records.

An asset search can uncover a multitude of available assets, including:

• Bank, brokerage and retirement accounts
• Business associations and relationships
• Business assets
• Trust funds
• Credit cards
• Financial records
• Benefits
• Intellectual property such as trademarks and copyrights
• Sources of income
• Properties and real estate
• Safe deposit boxes
• Vehicles: cars, boats, and planes

When developing your process of how to do an asset search, consider the purpose for the information. For instance, if a debtor claims they have no assets for you to attach, an asset search can uncover the truth about what they own. If they used to own assets but transferred them to a spouse, child or other relative, it may be possible to determine when that transfer took place.

Not all of this information may be readily or publicly available. Using both public and private records offers more current information that you can access otherwise. Tracers has access to millions of records at your fingertips.

Comprehensive, easy asset search online

Uncovering details about assets can be difficult — that’s why so many people, from law enforcement to government agencies, use Tracers for their searches. With Tracers, you can get in-depth information about someone’s assets with an asset check, including information that isn’t even available through most public records. And with multiple methods of searching, like batch processing and API, Tracers makes it easy for you to perform asset searches on the people you’re trying to learn more about so you can get the maximum amount of information with a minimum amount of effort.

More information

What is an asset search?

An asset search, also known as an asset analysis or asset investigation, is performed by searching public and private records to confirm information such as the asset owner, the history of the asset, business due diligence, or someone’s current and past location.

Who can do an asset search?

An asset search can be performed by anyone who has access to a public records or a public and private records search engine. Attorneys, private investigators, business consultants, government agencies, and law enforcement are all examples of people who can do an asset search.

What does an asset search reveal?

An assets search can reveal a wide variety of information. An asset location search can expose someone’s hidden assets through a property or asset report. An asset search service can also reveal someone’s current and past locations. One method of skip tracing is using the addresses assigned to someone that can be revealed with an asset search. An asset search can even show if someone has any judgments or liens on their current assets.