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In this section we publish the responses to questions of general interest that we receive. If you would like to submit a question, you may click on Ask a Question and submit it for an answer -- free of charge. We reserve the right to edit and alter all questions so as to make them suitable for display on this forum. Although only selected questions of broad interest appear on this page, we attempt to answer all questions by E-Mail. We will not respond to any question that does not include an E-mail address, nor will we respond to any question that in our opinion, could be offensive to anyone, or which violates our standards of ethical or professional behavior. If your question is published, neither your name nor your E-Mail address will appear on this web site. Our responses are for general enlightenment and should never be construed as professional advise that applies to a specific situation.

How can I find hidden assets?

What can I do about employee disloyalty?

Do I need a lawyer or an investigator?

Has he ever been married?

How can locate a birth-parent?

What will it cost to find bank accounts?

Do I really need a lawyer?

Can I use an Internet search to find hidden real-estate?

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Question: How can you find hidden assets in the form of property or real-estate? Is it do-able? My ex and his current wife own a business in her name. He runs the business and works there full time. He brags to people in our religious community of his prosperity. He lies and tells the court that he hurt his back and cannot work - he is disabled. Since I have a steady pay, the court continues to ask me for my salary. He is in his early 50's. I am in my late 40's. My son is 20 and a full time student.

Kaplan responds:

I'm going to break your question down into two parts:

"How can you find hidden assets in the form of property or real-estate? Is it do-able?"

In most cases it can be done. However, don't waste your money on a cut rate computer database search. Certainly, you will want to access reliable computer databases for a start. But, that is just the beginning...

Let me digress for a moment to the phrase reliable computer databases. One of the biggest mistakes lay investigators make is to assume that the words computerized database = reliable database or even worse, Internet data = reliable data.

Professional investigators, work with these things every day and have the benefit of informal exchanges between colleagues. Some PIs go so far as to maintain a "burn list". Any source, including computerized databases, that makes it to this list, because they provided bad information, will never be used again. A PI has too much to lose by dealing casually with data purveyors and information brokers. Often, PIs will "vet" sources with known information to test the reliability and accuracy of information that is provided.

No public record database is 100% reliable. The reason is simple. It takes time to input data into the database. For example, if I were to sell my house today, it could days or even weeks for the database to show that event. Until that time, the information pertaining to the ownership of my house, would be wrong. Most databases do not reveal the age of their data. They want the user to assume that it is hot off the presses. If you entered a database and a caveat at the top said, "Caution this database was last brought up to date 2 years ago.", you might be reluctant to use it, in fact, you might not use it at all! So they say nothing and use the public perception that computerized database = reliable database, to market their sometimes very stale inventory.

Recently a lawyer retained us to provide investigative support for a case she planned to litigate. As part of her briefing to us, she provided us with a list of five properties in Clark County, Nevada that the SUBJECT of our investigation owned. During our preliminary work-up on this case we searched for Clark County real estate owed by our SUBJECT. We found that there were currently only two parcels owned by SUBJECT rather than the five she told us about. The other three had at one time been owned by our SUBJECT, but had been sold more than two years ago. We compared notes. We knew at we had gotten our data directly from the Clark County Assessor, with whose database we were "on-line". Our lawyer friend maintained that she too was on-line with the Clark County Assessor. On closer examination, she noted that she got "on-line" through a widely used, highly regarded data gateway called Westlaw. So although she was on-line with Westlaw, she was not really on-line with the current Clark County Assessor database. Although she believed she was accessing the best available data, at least a part of what she had accessed was over two years old!

Even government owned public computer database records are subject to gross errors. We know of one State of Nevada database of over one million records that had the "city" spelled wrong more than 18% of the time! That means that the odds were almost one in five that you would get a wrong answer if you happened to use the name of the city in your search criteria!

The moral of the story is to use computerized databases, but use them with caution and try not to put complete reliance in them.

Getting back to your search for real estate related assets... Obviously, he can hold real estate in all sorts of different names and in any county in the country. That equates to a lot of preliminary searching and screening using computerized databases.

What you really want to determine is his equity and any beneficial interest that he might have in real estate. (If he is named as the Beneficiary on a Deed of Trust or Mortgage, that could be worth real money, even though he owns no real estate!)

Learning that he owns a piece of real estate worth $10 million does you no good if that property is mortgaged up to the hilt and he has no equity in it.

Let's look at one possible scenario. He owns a piece of real estate in his own name, but he has no equity in it because it is mortgaged. That could be a legitimate mortgage or it could be a subterfuge to make the court think that he has no assets. It is the type of investigative problem that requires a trip to the Recorder's Office or Clerks Office where the property is located, by a PI who knows and understands real estate documents -- many do not.

Just because your PI is a retired detective from the local police department is no guarantee that he or she is qualified to run the search you need. Since real estate records are at the heart of your search, getting the right PI is critical. For a nominal fee, we will assist you in the screening process.

You said something else that has me intrigued:

"He runs the business and works there full time. He brags to people in our religious community of his prosperity. He lies and tells the court that he hurt his back and cannot work - he is disabled."

It seems to me that one thing that has to be done is to expose his lies about not being able to work. I would give this top priority over any asset search. I suspect that you may not have a lawyer, because I find it unimaginable that a competent attorney would not want to retain a PI and provide the court with proof that your ex is working full time and making money doing it! If you have a lawyer, talk with him or her about this. If you have tried to "save money" and represent yourself, you may already have done irreparable damage, but talk to a lawyer and find out.

Question: I have been married 37yrs and separated (not legally) about 15yrs. He has hidden assets and a comment was made "she will never find everything its hidden", I am now considering divorce and need to find out if this is true. He also has a mistress who uses his last name in signing checks and business needs, etc. and she was heard as saying in 7 years I'll be his common law wife, could I be divorced and not know it? And is it legal for her to be using his last name on legal documents if we are not divorced? Sorry, I asked to many questions, I have so many questions. Thank you for your time and consideration in reading my questions, it is greatly appreciated.

Kaplan responds:

Thank you for your inquiries. I don't know how much help we can be, but let me try to address your questions in reverse order, saving the most important question for last.

< And is it legal for her to be using his last name on legal documents if we are not divorced?>

Sorry, that's a legal question. We are not lawyers and as a consequence are not qualified to give you an answer.

I'm not able to comment on the legality of such things, but I have seen both divorces and annulments that were known only to one spouse.

This is a question that we can answer! Finding hidden assets has always been a difficult investigative task, but the US Congress is, as we write this, in the process of helping your husband hide your assets beyond your reach forever! Read on, to learn how the inmates have taken over the asylum and how the Congress has betrayed you!

I am referring to the "Financial Services Modernization Act", House Bill 10 & Senate Bill 900. These bills make it a federal crime to use a pretext to obtain information from a bank. "Pretexting" is a type of white lie that has historically been used to get banks and brokerage houses to tell PIs how much money people like your husband have socked away. In the past, PIs reported such information to victims like yourself, or to their lawyers. That gave you and your lawyer a shot at getting your rightful share of the assets that you have worked and sacrificed for all of your life.

If this bill becomes law, your husband and his mistress will vacation in Tahiti or some other exotic place while you and other law abiding, hard working people like you, won't see a dime! Your greedy and unscrupulous husband is only partially to blame. The biggest blame should be placed on the Congress of the United States of America, who in the name of "privacy" has set out to protect the crooks and deadbeats!

I'm sorry to report that from your perspective the situation is indeed grave! Both House Bill 10 and Senate Bill 900 have passed their respective bodies and are awaiting consolidation by a Joint Conference Committee. They will then be sent to President Clinton for his signature. It is outrageous to note that Senate Bill 900 does not even permit pretexting by investigators trying to hunt down the assets of dead beat moms and dads so that children can receive the child support to which they are legally and morally entitled! What a sad day we've come to in America... I'm sorry, but this utterly immoral legislation is enough to make me puke!

You cannot expect any private investigator to risk going to jail searching for the assets your cheating husband has rat-holed! So, as a practical matter, you won't see a dime if this bill becomes law! At this point, your only hope is for President Clinton to veto this bill and for Congress to sustain that veto.

I urge you to get on the phone today -- and get your friends and relatives to get on the phone today -- call your Congressman and both of your Senators and call the White house or e-mail all of them. Start here with an e-Mail to The President. Remember, it's called the "Financial Services Modernization Act", House Bill 10 and Senate Bill 900. Let them know how seriously you view this situation. Let them know what they are about to do to you! You've got everything to lose if you do nothing! Do it today, before it is too late!

Question: Need to find all current bank accts of an individual and her live in companion in and around Putnam Co., Carroll Co., Smith Co. and would like to have an est. cost of such an investigation and how it would be done.

Kaplan responds:

Dear Carole,

You are not the only one to ask about bank accounts. If you haven't already done so, go to How can I find hidden assets? which appears elsewhere on this page. Once there you will see my comments about the very unjust, "Financial Services Modernization Act". They could just as easily have called it the "Screw Carole Bill". I am not sure, but I think it is still in a joint Senate-House Conference -- so there may still be hope if you scream loud enough to your Senator and Congressman. I urge you to try!

As you can see our "honest" Congressmen and Senators have given aid and comfort to the con-artists and the dead beats. The techniques that could have gotten you the information you need at a reasonable price are about to be made into felonies by those who you elected to represent you. Accordingly, I doubt if you will find a PI on the Internet who will accept your case.

There were a few "specialists" that many PIs hired to do such work. One PI in NY was just fined $500,000 under a NY law similar to the Financial Services Modernization Act. A broker of such information in Colorado is currently fighting a multimillion dollar lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission for getting such information for a client and he was arrested under a Colorado law that made what was always a commonplace investigative technique, into a felony. Other specialists have folded their tents and gone out of business.

We appear to be witnessing a well organized attack by the privacy advocates and their hand-maidens the Congress of the United States and the various state legislatures. It is distressing that our elected officials, operating in an arena and within a system where corruption is the rule rather than the exception, get to pass laws that protect the corrupt!

I would be lying if I said that such information is now locked up tighter than Fort Knox and can't be gotten at any price. There is more than one way to skin a cat! It would be insane for me to go into more detail here. If I were faced with your investigative problem, I would hire a local PI who lives and works in the same town as the SUBJECT of your inquiry. You may want to select that PI from the Intelnet Group. Just click on this URL http://www.LasVegasPI.com/PIs_Who_I_Trust.htm

Call us at 702-453-4500 for a FREE Consultation E-Mail - Investigations@LasVegasPI.com