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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?
Return to "Kaplan Responds" main page Go to "Ask a Question"
                      
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?"
bulletIn 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...
bulletLet 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.
bulletProfessional 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.
bulletNo 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.
bulletRecently 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!
bulletEven 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!
bulletThe moral of the story is to use computerized databases, but use them with caution and try not to put complete reliance in them.
bulletGetting 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.
bulletWhat 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!)
bulletLearning 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.
bulletLet'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.
bulletJust 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."

bulletIt 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:
bulletThank 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?>

bulletSorry, that's a legal question. We are not lawyers and as a consequence are not qualified to give you an answer.
<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?>
bulletI'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.
<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.>
  http://www.lasvegascomputerforensics.com/Asset%20Search.htm

                     

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.
              
http://www.lasvegascomputerforensics.com/Asset%20Search.htm
 
 
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