Alabama Asset Search Services

Where the Records Sit

1. Judge of probate, all 67 counties: The recording office for real estate: conveyances are recorded with the judge of probate (35-4-50) in the county where the property lies, together with mortgages, certificates of judgment, tax liens and lis pendens (35-4-62). Searched under the subject, the spouse and every known entity.
2. Certificates of judgment and notices of levy: Judgment liens and sheriff’s levies on land both show up in the probate office (6-9-210, 35-4-132), so each county’s index shows existing creditor claims as well as title.
3. Circuit court clerks: Civil judgments and the special docket for judgments from other states (6-9-232).
4. Secretary of State: Corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships with officers, members, managers and registered agents. UCC financing statements are filed there, except fixture filings, timber and as-extracted collateral, which go to the probate office (7-9A-501).
5. Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division: The office that issues titles and keeps vehicle records; requested under a DPPA permissible purpose.
6. Federal court: Three districts, Northern, Middle and Southern (28 U.S.C. 81). PACER shows federal suits, bankruptcies and federal judgments.
7. Probate court files: Wills, letters of administration and estate settlements (12-13-1), useful when an heir or a decedent is the subject.
8. Coast Guard, FAA and other states: Documented vessels, registered aircraft, and property and entities elsewhere under the same names.

Equitable Division in Divorce

The marital estate is divided equitably (Ala. Code 30-2-51(b)(1)), not as community property. Property owned before the marriage, or received by inheritance or gift, is left out unless it or its income was used regularly for the common benefit of the spouses during the marriage (30-2-51(a)). Retirement benefits earned during the marriage are part of the estate, and the other spouse’s share is capped at 50% of the benefits considered (30-2-51(b)(2)).

One trap is specific to this state: a spouse’s interest in a qualified disposition trust is not marital property if, among other cases, the property went into the trust more than 30 days before the marriage began (19-3E-5(d)). The report therefore gives the recording date and grantor of every deed, trust conveyances included, under both spouses’ names; how each asset is classified is for counsel and the court.

Voidable Transactions Since 2019

The Alabama Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, ch. 8-9B, governs transfers made on or after January 1, 2019; the older Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, 8-9A-1 to 8-9A-12, still governs earlier transfers (8-9B-16). A transfer is voidable if made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud a creditor, or without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was left undercapitalized or insolvent (8-9B-5, 8-9B-6).

• Ten-year and six-year limits (8-9B-10): An actual-intent claim runs 10 years after a transfer of real property and 6 years after a transfer of personal property. Constructive-fraud claims by existing creditors have 4 years; by later creditors, 1 year; insider preferences, 1 year. The section has no discovery extension.
• Intent factors (8-9B-5(b)): Eleven listed factors include a transfer to an insider, keeping possession or control, concealment, and a transfer made after suit was threatened. They are factors, not presumptions.
• Insiders (8-9B-2): For an individual debtor: relatives, defined to include a spouse and kin within the third degree, partnerships where the debtor is a general partner, and corporations the debtor directs or controls.
• Transferees (8-9B-9): Judgment may run against the first transferee or a later one, except a good-faith transferee who took for value.
• Trust transfers (19-3E-5): A transfer into a qualified disposition trust can be attacked only under 8-9B-5 or 8-9B-6, and generally only within two years.
• In bankruptcy: A trustee can avoid transfers made within 2 years before the petition under 11 U.S.C. 548.
• What the search adds: The recording date, grantee and stated consideration of each deed and entity change, so counsel can see which transfers fall inside which window.

How the Search Runs

The subject, any spouse and every entity they control are run through the probate office index in each of the 67 counties, the circuit court dockets, Secretary of State entity and UCC records, and vehicle, vessel and aircraft registries, then through property, entity and court records in other states.

An analyst reviews each hit and writes it up with its record reference, such as the probate book and page or instrument number, the entity ID or the federal case number, so every item can be pulled and certified.