Missouri Asset Search Services

Recorders, Circuit Clerks and State Filings

1. Recorders of deeds: Every county has a recorder of deeds (RSMo 59.010), but in some counties the circuit clerk holds that office ex officio (59.005(10)), so the search goes to whichever office keeps the land index. Deeds, deeds of trust, notices of levy and lis pendens (527.260) are read under the subject, spouse and entity names.
2. Circuit clerks’ judgment records: Judgments are liens by force of law in the county of the court, and transcripts from other counties are entered in the circuit clerk’s judgment record (511.440), so the judgment index is read in each county where the debtor holds land, not only the recorder’s index.
3. City of St. Louis: The City is not part of any county. Statutes address the clerk of a city not within a county (511.440) and the recorder of deeds of the city or county (513.085), so the City’s offices are searched separately from St. Louis County’s.
4. Secretary of State: Corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships with officers, members, managers and registered agents. UCC financing statements are filed with the Secretary of State, while fixture filings go to the county office where mortgages are recorded (400.9-501).
5. Vehicle titles: Requested under a DPPA permissible purpose.
6. Federal court: Two federal districts: the Eastern District sits at St. Louis, Hannibal and Cape Girardeau, and the Western at Kansas City, Joplin, St. Joseph, Jefferson City and Springfield (28 U.S.C. 105). PACER shows federal suits, bankruptcies and federal judgments.
7. Coast Guard and FAA registries: Documented vessels and registered aircraft, which no recorder’s index shows.
8. Other states: The same names run through property, entity and judgment records nationwide.

Marital and Nonmarital Property

This is not a community property state. In a dissolution or legal separation the court sets apart each spouse’s nonmarital property, then divides marital property and debts in proportions it deems just after weighing economic circumstances, each spouse’s contribution including homemaking, conduct during the marriage and custody arrangements (RSMo 452.330.1).

Property acquired by either spouse after the wedding is presumed marital however it is titled, unless it came by gift or inheritance, was exchanged for premarital property, or was excluded by written agreement (452.330.2, 452.330.3). Because the acquisition date decides the starting presumption, the report dates every deed and entity filing under both spouses’ names. Characterization is for counsel and the court.

Fraudulent Transfers Under the UFTA

The state still uses the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, RSMo 428.005 to 428.059; it has not moved to the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act. A transfer is fraudulent if made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud, or without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was insolvent or left with unreasonably small assets (428.024, 428.029).

• Time limits (428.049): An actual-intent claim must be brought within 4 years of the transfer or, if later, 1 year after it was or could reasonably have been discovered. A constructive-fraud claim has 4 years; an insider-preference claim, 1 year.
• Intent factors (428.024): The court may weigh eleven factors, among them a transfer to an insider, retained possession or control, concealment, and a suit pending or threatened before the transfer. An insider transfer is a factor, not a presumption.
• Insiders (428.009): For an individual debtor, insiders include relatives (which covers a spouse and in-laws within the third degree) and corporations the debtor directs, officers or controls.
• Entireties property (428.009): Land held by spouses as tenants by the entirety is not an “asset” under the act to the extent a creditor of only one spouse cannot reach it, which matters when a debtor retitles land jointly with a spouse.
• Transferees and remedies (428.039, 428.044): A creditor may obtain avoidance, attachment, an injunction or a receiver, and judgment may run against the first transferee or a later one other than a good-faith purchaser for value.
• 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 every deed and entity change, set against the date the debt arose.

How a Search Runs

The subject, any spouse and each entity linked to them in Secretary of State filings are run through the recorder and circuit clerk indexes of every county and the City of St. Louis, then through vehicle, vessel, aircraft and federal court records, and finally through property and entity records in other states.

An analyst verifies each hit and writes it up with the record behind it, such as the book and page or document number, the entity charter number or the PACER case number, so counsel can order certified copies.