Financial Asset Investigations (Part One)
Right now it’s a good idea to know what someone is worth if you’re getting involved with them in one way or another (business partnership, romantic relationship, and so on). The Internet makes that so much easier than before.
Okay now, ground rule: it’s illegal to pretend you’re somebody else so you can find out how much money they have in the bank or in a brokerage account.
On to the real thing now. You’ll need a full name and date of birth, at the minimum. If you also have an address and social security number, then you’re off to a pretty good start. You can find dates of birth and addresses at your local county courthouse, from criminal and civil records, as well as voter’s registration records. You can also check professional directories if the person you’ve investigating is a semi-public figure like a doctor or lawyer. White Pages (in print or online) should not be neglected.
After identifying your subject, begin by checking basic sources to collect easy-to-get information. For that, use the people finder websites, they’re all over the internet. Usually you’ll get some basic information for free (name, previous cities they’ve lived in, names and ages of known relatives), and for a fee you’ll receive much more detailed information like a history of addresses, property ownership, home values, bankruptcies, judgments, and so on)
If you’re looking for assets, you should know there are two types: real assets and financial assets. Real assets are basically real estate, are usually public records, and are thus easy to trace. Financial assets are a lot harder to track and can’t typically be accessed without a signed release from the asset holder or a court subpoena, unless the subject has been involved in a court case like a divorce or bankruptcy. In this case, all this information is public records. So you should check civil records in all counties you know that your subject has lived, to see if you get lucky and find a court case where they’ve been involved.