ASSET INVESTIGATIONS – PREVIOUSLY OWNED PROPERTIES
Most private investigators who work on asset investigations would agree that these investigations can be both challenging and extremely interesting. In addition, they are extremely valuable for your attorney clients when making legal decisions. That said, attorneys need to understand the total “asset picture.”
One area often overlooked is previously owned properties. By identifying properties previously owned by the target, an investigator can uncover a plethora of information about the target and their overall financial picture. This data can provide:
- Profit and loss from previous real estate sales.
- Contribute to estimating available cash.
- Identify how the target holds their assets.
- Identify where the target banks and/or has lines of credit.
- Identity of trusts, trustees, and beneficiaries.
- Identify liens and judgements.
- Collateral
- Identity of spouses and/or business associates.
- Identity of businesses owned.
This list is endless.
There are lots of resources for obtaining various information about the prior properties. Data aggregators (one of my favorites is IDI), county recorders, county assessor offices, MVD records, First American, open-source research, etc. All it takes is a little creativity.
Some months ago, I was working on an asset investigation where an individual had been killed in a vehicle accident. The defendant carried very little insurance. On the surface, the target lived in a very modest apartment, drove an average vehicle with a car loan, and worked a blue-collar job. Upon digging in, I found that the target had previously been involved in the sale of five homes. These homes were part of an inheritance that the target had recently received, and he immediately sold them. The estimated profit from the sales was in the millions. So, although the target lived an average life, he had recently received millions of dollars. Armed with this information, the plaintiff’s legal counsel was able to negotiate a large settlement that superseded what the max insurance payout would have been had an asset investigation not been done.