Asset Investigation: What It Finds and How It Works

The three names are often used for the same job, and the difference, where one is drawn, is depth and starting point.

• A basic asset search returns a list: the parcels, vehicles and companies that come up under a name.
• An investigation of assets treats that list as a starting point. Each item is tied back to the office that holds the record, name variations and related companies are checked, and the liens, judgments and lawsuits against each asset are set beside it, so the reader can see what is actually reachable.
• A hidden asset search begins from a suspicion that property was moved, retitled or parked in an entity or trust, and follows those transfers. That work has its own guide: searching for hidden and transferred assets.

If the question is simply what the public record shows on a name, our page on what an asset search shows walks through a sample result.

The $195 Asset Profile Report covers 8 kinds of record across all 50 states. They are real estate with assessed values, mortgages and liens; vehicles; watercraft; aircraft; business ownership interests; UCC filings; judgment and tax liens; and civil litigation and bankruptcy history. Analyst notes highlight what matters, and a free analyst consultation covers next steps.

The liabilities column matters as much as the assets. A house with two recorded mortgages and a judgment lien may hold little a new creditor can reach, and a company with a blanket UCC filing may already have pledged its equipment and receivables to a lender.

No public record lists bank balances, and 15 U.S.C. 6821 makes it a violation to get a bank customer's information through false statements to the bank or the customer. Our reports never include account numbers or balances. A creditor reaches accounts after judgment, through discovery and levy procedures set by the court.

The Federal Trade Commission describes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act as requiring financial institutions to explain their information-sharing practices and to safeguard sensitive data. Section 6821(b) goes a step further: asking another person to obtain the information, knowing they will use those false pretenses, is itself a violation. For the court route that reaches accounts, see how creditors find bank accounts.

There are 5 common situations: collecting a judgment, deciding whether a lawsuit is worth filing, divorce, settling an estate, and checking a business counterpart. In each one the question is the same: what is recorded in this name, and how much of it is already spoken for by someone else.

• Judgment recovery. A creditor holding a court judgment needs property to levy or lien. See asset searches for judgment collection and the post-judgment asset search.
• Before suing. A plaintiff checks whether a defendant has enough recorded assets to make a win collectible. The pre-litigation asset search is built for that check.
• Divorce. One spouse checks the other's financial disclosures against the record. See the divorce asset search.
• Probate. Executors and heirs build an inventory of what the estate holds, the job of the probate estate asset search.
• Due diligence. A buyer, lender or partner checks a person or company before a transaction. See the due diligence asset search.

No single office keeps a list of what someone owns. Each kind of asset is registered in a different place, and a thorough search reads all of them under every version of the name.

The vessel row carries a federal rule worth reading. Under 46 CFR 67.1, a Certificate of Documentation serves as evidence of a vessel's nationality and permits it to be subject to preferred mortgages, and 46 U.S.C. 31321 requires bills of sale and mortgages on a documented vessel to be filed with the Secretary.

To run the registries yourself, our guide on how to find someone's assets covers each one, and the net worth guide shows how the assets and recorded debts add up.

1. Pick the report. The $195 Asset Profile Report is available to anyone for any purpose, with no certification or creditor status required. Creditors and fraud prevention users can choose the $295 Creditor-Status Profile, and anyone who needs the equity behind each asset can choose the $595 Individual/Entity Asset Equity Analysis.
2. Tell us who. Give the name of the person or business. For the $595 analysis, the order form also asks whether it is a person or a business, any known addresses or other names, the purpose of your matter and any deadline.
3. The record is assembled. Analysts search county, state and federal records for each category the report covers, and write analyst notes that highlight the findings.
4. You receive the report in 1 to 5 days, depending on complexity and county, with a free analyst consultation on the $195 and $295 reports to talk through findings and next steps. The person you search is never contacted.

Every report is a records examination. It documents what the public record shows and is not legal advice; decisions about liens, levies and discovery belong to you and your attorney.

The $295 Creditor-Status Profile is for a requester who certifies that they are owed money by the subject, in any amount, or need the information to prevent or detect fraud. That covers attorneys with active cases, judgment creditors, collection agencies and fraud investigation professionals. It adds expanded search scope and certified-access databases, mortgage positions, equity estimates and deed history, and property transfer analysis aimed at suspicious conveyances.

The permissible-purpose idea comes from the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681b(a)(3)(A), a consumer reporting agency may furnish a report to a person it has reason to believe will use it in connection with a credit transaction involving the consumer, including the review or collection of the consumer's account.

It is the same records work done after a judgment, with 1 goal: finding property the creditor can legally reach. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a)(1), a money judgment is enforced by a writ of execution, following the procedure of the state where the court sits, so the report becomes the map for each levy.

Rule 69(a)(2) lets a judgment creditor obtain discovery from any person, including the judgment debtor, in aid of the judgment or execution. That is the route to information no public record shows, such as account records, using the discovery tools of the federal rules or of the state. The text of Rule 69 is short and worth reading. Our guides cover the two main tools: the writ of execution and the debtor examination.

• It will not show bank or brokerage balances or account numbers. Those are reached by court process after judgment.
• It will not find what was never recorded. Cash, private loans between people and most household property are not filed with any government office.
• It will not freeze, seize or lien anything. Only a court order, a writ or a recorded lien does that.
• It is not legal advice, and the $595 analysis is a records examination, not title insurance and not an opinion on marketability.
• It will not contact the person. The work is done from records only, and the subject is never told.

Sources opened for this page on October 26, 2026: 15 U.S.C. 6821 on obtaining customer information by false pretenses; the Federal Trade Commission Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act page; 15 U.S.C. 1681b; Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69; PACER; the FAA aircraft registry inquiry page; 46 U.S.C. 31321; and 46 CFR part 67. More on the firm is on the about U.S. Asset Records page.

Published October 26, 2026 by U.S. Asset Records. Prices and delivery times on this page are current as of that date. This page explains public records and public law; it is not legal advice.

Asset Investigation Questions

Find Out What Is on Record Before You Act

The $195 Asset Profile Report lists real property, vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, business interests, UCC filings, liens, judgments and court records across all 50 states, delivered in 1 to 5 days. Creditors with a certified purpose can choose the $295 Creditor-Status Profile.