Asset Search Services to Locate What You Can Collect
A judgment is only worth the assets you can reach. An asset search finds them — the bank accounts, real property, vehicles, wages, and business interests a debtor actually holds — so a paper judgment turns into a real recovery. The catch is that doing it right means doing it lawfully: financial information is protected, and a legitimate asset search relies on a permissible purpose and proper sources. People Locator Skip Tracing is a professional asset-location service run by people who work judgment enforcement every day. We locate and verify what is collectible, document it for court, and point your writs, levies, and garnishments where the money really is. Locating assets, lawfully, since 2004.
Quick Answer
An asset search locates the assets a person or business actually holds — bank and brokerage accounts, real property, vehicles, wages and employment, and business interests — so you can decide whether to pursue a claim and where to enforce a judgment. Done properly, it is fully legal: it relies on public records and authorized sources for a permissible purposeand observes the limits the FDCPA, GLBA, and DPPA place on this work. We will not run one out of curiosity. For judgment creditors, attorneys, and others with a legitimate need, we find what is collectible, verify it, and document it for court — so your enforcement dollars go where recovery is actually possible, not toward a judgment-proof debtor.
Watch: What an Asset Search Uncovers
Finding what is actually there to collect — lawfully.
Watch Overview
What an Asset Search Finds
The full financial picture — the visible holdings and the moved ones.
A comprehensive asset search covers the classes that matter for collection and litigation: financial accounts (bank, brokerage, investment, and retirement); real property (current ownership, financing, and recent sales or transfers); vehicles and other titled property; employment, wages, and business interests — including the shell corporations and special-purpose LLCs debtors use to hold assets at arm’s length; and the UCC filings, liens, and judgments that show who else has a claim and where you stand in line.
Just as important is what a good search catches that a casual one misses: fraudulent or pre-judgment transfers — the house quietly deeded to a relative, the account moved to a spouse, the company spun up to park money out of reach. Surfacing those transfers is often the difference between a judgment that collects and one that does not, and it is exactly the kind of work a trained investigator does that a database dump never will.
What a Debtor Asset Search Can Locate
The asset classes we cover — and how each one comes back.
| Asset class | Typically located |
|---|---|
| Real property | Yes — ownership, financing, transfers |
| Vehicles & titled property | Yes |
| Employment & wages | Yes |
| Business interests & entities | Yes — including LLCs and shells |
| UCC filings & liens | Yes |
| Recorded judgments | Yes |
| Bank & brokerage relationships | Institution, lawfully (not account numbers) |
| Retirement accounts | Existence and administrator sometimes; never the balance |
| Trust interests | Existence and role sometimes; never the holdings |
This is the heart of a debtor asset search: not merely confirming that a person exists, but mapping what they own across these classes so a judgment can be enforced against the right targets. Why one row says “yes” and another says “never the balance” is set by which record office holds the class and what that office is obliged to disclose, which the two sections below work through.
When You Need an Asset Search
The moments a clear financial picture changes your decision.
A Judgment to Collect
You won but can’t get paid
Deciding Whether to Sue
Is the case worth pursuing?
Suspected Hidden Assets
The “I have nothing” debtor
Divorce Proceedings
Full marital-asset picture
Probate & Estates
Estate assets and transfers
Fraud Recovery
Where the money was moved
Legal, and Done the Right Way
The compliance that protects your case is the same thing that makes the work trustworthy.
Asset searches are lawful when they run on public records and authorized sources for a permissible purpose, and the rules that matter here are short enough to state in one place. An asset report is not a consumer report and is not furnished for any of the purposes section 1681b permits one to be used for — no tenant screening, no employment, no insurance, no credit decision. Debt and judgment work is built to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, whose section 1692b governs how location information may be sought from a third party: the asker may not state that the consumer owes any debt, and ordinarily may not approach the same person twice. That section binds our collection clients rather than us, and we build to it so their file stays clean. Vehicle data is reached only under an enumerated permissible use of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, and obtaining financial information by false pretenses is prohibited outright by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Those last two statutes carry the real weight on this page, so the operative text of each is quoted, with its section, in the two sections that follow.
One consequence is worth knowing before you commission anything. For a judgment-recovery purpose a compliant search identifies the financial institution where a debtor holds an account — never the account number, never the balance. That is not a limitation in practice: a writ is served on the institution for “any and all accounts,” so the institution is what enforcement actually needs. Because a permissible purpose is required, we will ask for your judgment or the basis for the search.
Which Record Office Has to Answer You
Sorted by duty to disclose, not by how hard anyone is willing to look.
Asset classes are not equally findable, and the reason is not diligence. Each class sits in a different record office, and each office owes a stranger a different duty. Sorted that way — by who must answer, and how fast — the range runs from an office obliged to answer anyone to a bank that answers nobody without a court behind the request.
The open end: secured-transaction filings
Under the uniform text of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code — adopted in substance by the states, with each enacting state’s own version controlling — the filing office “shall communicate or otherwise make available in a record” what is on file “to any person that requests it,” and “not later than two business days” after the request. No permissible purpose, no standing, no relationship to the debtor. The index is unusually complete because a financing statement must be filed to perfect most security interests — a lender that skips it loses priority — so the record is a by-product of the lender’s self-interest. It is also bounded: a filing is sufficient if it names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral, with no dollar figure among the three, so it proves equipment was financed and never states the balance. Filings lapse five years after filing unless continued, which is why Michigan’s Secretary of State lets a requester specify “All” rather than “Unlapsed” records, at six dollars per debtor name — a lapsed filing is often the best surviving evidence of a machine or trailer the debtor financed and still has. California puts it in one line: UCC filings are public records. The anatomy of the filings themselves lives in our UCC lien search guide.
County land records are almost as open, and more useful than their reputation: a recorder indexes every conveyance under both grantor and grantee, so the deed moving a house to a brother-in-law is filed under the debtor’s own name — a transfer out is as findable as ownership. Assessor rolls, mortgage indexes and tax-lien and delinquency rolls fill in value and distress. Secretary-of-state registrations do the same one layer up, naming officers and registered agents, which is how a subject with nothing held personally turns out to control two operating companies.
The closed end: motor vehicles, then the bank
Vehicles invert the default. Under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act a state motor-vehicle department “shall not knowingly disclose or otherwise make available” personal information from its records except under an enumerated permissible purpose. Judgment enforcement is one of them, not a loophole: subsection (b)(4) covers use “in connection with any civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitral proceeding,” expressly including “the execution or enforcement of judgments and orders,” and is one of only four uses reaching what the statute calls highly restricted personal information without express consent. The number matters — (b)(3), the general business use, is confined to verifying what the individual gave the business and does not carry a creditor’s search. Titled vehicles and vessels are searched under (b)(4) or not at all. The bank sits past even that, and the law there is specific enough to need its own section.
The Wall at the Bank, and the Door Already Open
Why the shortcut the market advertises is both an offence and unnecessary.
Bank accounts are where this market gets careless, and where a buyer can least tell a lawful provider from an unlawful one. The wall is written down, not a matter of skill. Section 6821(a) of title 15 makes it a violation “for any person to obtain or attempt to obtain, or cause to be disclosed” a financial institution’s customer information about another person by “making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” to the institution’s staff or to its customer, or by producing a document known to be forged or fraudulently obtained. That is pretexting, in the statute’s own words.
The subsection nobody quotes is the one that reaches the client. Subsection (b) makes it an equal violation “to request a person to obtain customer information of a financial institution, knowing that the person will obtain” it that way. A creditor who buys a balance from a vendor that produces balances has bought a liability, and evidence an opponent neutralises with one question about provenance — which is why it is worth vetting an asset search firm before you retain it. Section 6823 sets the exposure: a fine under title 18 or up to five years for a knowing and intentional violation, and up to ten years where it accompanies another federal offence or a pattern of illegal activity involving more than one hundred thousand dollars in a twelve-month period.
And the shortcut is unnecessary. Under section 6802(e)(8) the same act’s disclosure limits do not prohibit a bank from disclosing “to comply with a properly authorized civil, criminal, or regulatory investigation or subpoena or summons,” or “to respond to judicial process.” A writ of garnishment is judicial process. The institution answers it on the record, stating what it holds as of the moment of service — the only balance a court will act on. The research supplies the institution; the writ supplies the rest.
It also settles the licensure question that circles this field. Congress wrote one carve-out into section 6821 naming private investigators. Subsection (g) prevents nothing for a “State-licensed private investigator” except so far as reasonably necessary to collect child support, only from a person a federal or state court has adjudged delinquent, only where the action is not unlawful under any other federal or state law, and only where a court of competent jurisdiction has authorised it by order or judgment. Four conditions deep, and about child support. That exception is not one we rely on, because public-records research for a permissible purpose never reaches the prohibition it relieves. What a bank search does and does not return is set out on our bank account search page; the wider can-and-cannot line is drawn on what an asset search shows.
From a Judgment to a Reachable Asset Map
Finding the asset is step one; matching it to the right remedy is the win.
An asset search pays off when each finding points to an enforcement action. A located bank account supports a levy; a confirmed employer supports wage garnishment; titled vehicles can be levied or repossessed; and real property can be liened. We map what we find to the remedy that fits.
Collection also depends on the debtor’s situation. A self-employed debtor hides income differently than a W-2 earner, and a debtor who moved out of state needs a nationwide search to find both the person and the assets. When you first need to locate the debtor at all, that starts with skip tracing — and even an ordinary creditor chasing someone who owes money and moved benefits from knowing what is there before spending on enforcement. When you simply need the debtor located to begin, that locate is often back within 24 hours, with the documented asset report following as the financial picture comes together.
Four Ways an Asset Actually Gets Found
Knowing which method your matter actually needs is what saves paying for the other three.
Almost everything written about asset searching treats the records search as the whole discipline. It is one method of four, and they are sequenced rather than interchangeable. Records research is the sections above — those filing offices worked systematically, each hit corroborated against the source document rather than a vendor’s summary. It needs no court, and it is the only one of the four available before judgment, which is why it is the method for deciding whether a defendant is worth suing at all.
Compelled testimony opens the day you win: a debtor’s examination under oath, an information subpoena in writing. The records work aims them, because an examination run with no prior asset picture produces a rehearsed nothing, while one run with a deed in hand produces either an answer or a provable evasion — the mechanics belong to post-judgment discovery. Third-party discovery then reaches the employer, the bank, the title company, the relative whose name is on the deed; it clears the wall described above for the reason that section gives, because a subpoena is legal process, and deciding which third parties are worth subpoenaing is a call the records work should make for you. Transfer analysis runs backwards: where an asset was plainly there and is now gone, the recorded chain shows when it left, to whom and for what stated consideration — the spine of a claim to unwind the transfer.
A found asset is also not automatically a leviable one. A debtor’s membership interest in an LLC is usually not seized at all; in most states the remedy is a charging order against distributions, intercepting money on its way out rather than reaching company property. Matching each finding to the remedy that actually applies — and knowing which assets can be reached and which cannot — is where a search stops being a list.
Why DIY Asset Searches Fall Short
The walls a self-serve search hits, and how a professional search clears them.
No data access
The records that matter aren’t public-facing. Our fix: authorized sources, used lawfully.
Bank info is protected
You can’t legally pry it loose. Our fix: a GLBA-compliant, permissible-purpose search.
Hidden transfers
Assets moved to family or LLCs. Our fix: we trace conveyances a database misses.
Not court-ready
Raw data won’t support a writ. Our fix: documented findings you can act and file on.
Wasted enforcement
Chasing a judgment-proof debtor. Our fix: we separate collectible from empty.
Legal exposure
The wrong method breaks the law.
Database Lookup vs. Professional Asset Search
What each path delivers when you need to collect.
| Approach | Reaches | Bank accounts | Court-ready | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free public records | Some property | No | No | A rough first look |
| Consumer database | Surface data | No | No | Low-stakes checks |
| DIY across sites | Scattered | No | No | Time you don’t have |
| Professional asset searchPeople Locator | All major classes | Institution, lawfully | Yes | Enforcing a judgment |
For a quick gut-check, public records may do. When you are about to spend real money enforcing, a documented professional search tells you whether — and where — recovery is actually possible.
How Much Does an Asset Search Cost?
What sets the price — and how we keep it worth your while.
An asset search starts at $129, and depth and difficulty move it from there. A focused search — say, confirming a bank and an employer for a straightforward levy or garnishment — is lighter than a full financial profile across every asset class with transfer analysis. How identifiable the subject is matters too: a clean full name with a date of birth resolves faster than a common name. And a debtor who has actively moved or hidden assets takes more digging than one who has not.
A few specifics set the scope. An individual search is different from a business one, where corporate filings, UCC records, and layered ownership add ground to cover. A focused asset search — confirming a bank institution and an employer for a levy or garnishment — is lighter than a full asset profile spanning property, vehicles, accounts, entities, and transfer analysis. And a hidden-asset investigation, where a debtor has actively moved or concealed holdings, is the deepest version, because finding what someone took pains to bury is the hardest part of the work.
What we can say plainly: we scope the search to your actual goal, so you are not paying for twenty asset classes when you need two. We work on a defined-search basis, not a subscription. And the point of the exercise is economic — a good asset search should tell you whether enforcement is worth pursuing before you spend on it. For a straight estimate on your matter, tell us what you are enforcing and we will scope it. The variables that move the number are broken down in our guide to what an asset search costs, and what the finished work looks like when it lands is the debtor asset profile report.
Asset Searches Nationwide
Assets do not respect state lines — neither does our search.
Property, accounts, and businesses can sit in states a debtor has never lived in, which is why a single-state search so often misses the recovery. We search nationwide, across all fifty states — California, Texas, Florida, New York, Arizona, and the rest — covering real property, vehicles, business entities, and account institutions wherever they are held. If your debtor left the state or you are pursuing a judgment debtor across state lines, the same search finds both the person and what they own, so nothing recoverable slips through a jurisdictional gap.
What an Asset Search Looks Like
Illustrative of the work — representative examples, not specific client cases.
The value shows up where a judgment was stuck and a search broke it loose. A few representative examples:
A stuck judgment collected. Three years after entry, a default judgment had produced nothing: no known employer, no property in the county of record, and a debtor whose answer to every letter was that there was nothing to take. The search returned a bank institution and a current employer in a neighbouring state. A levy and a wage garnishment followed, and the judgment was paid.
A hidden transfer surfaced. A debtor had quietly deeded a property to a relative after the suit was filed. Identifying the transfer gave the creditor’s attorney the basis to challenge it as a fraudulent conveyance.
A lawsuit reconsidered. Before filing, a client asked whether a defendant was worth suing. The search showed little reachable beyond exempt property, and the client saved years and legal fees by settling instead.
These are illustrative rather than specific cases, but they reflect the pattern: locate the assets, verify them, and turn a number on paper into a decision you can act on.
Our Role: Research and Document — You and Counsel Act
The service, lawfully bounded.
We deliver a sourced picture of what a subject holds, each finding tied to the record it came from. Acting on it is yours and your counsel’s, and four lines mark where our half stops.
- Not a law firm, and not a collection agency. We do not garnish, levy, seize, freeze, or contact anyone to collect. Whether a particular asset can be reached, and by which remedy, is a legal question for your attorney.
- An asset report is not a consumer report and is not furnished as one, so it may not be used to decide whether to rent to someone, hire them, insure them, or extend or price their credit. We are a skip-tracing and public-records research firm.
- Facts in context, not verdicts. We report what the records show and how confident we are, including what we did not find. Whether a transfer was improper, an entity a sham, or an asset truly exempt is for counsel and a court to determine.
- One category we decline outright. Where the real object is not the money but reaching a person who has separated for their own safety — a protective or restraining order in the background, a request for someone’s whereabouts rather than for the location of assets, or stalking or harassment anywhere in the history — we decline it and say why. An asset search surfaces a home, an employer and a daily pattern as readily as it surfaces a bank, and we will not put a person at risk on the strength of a case number.
If a request lacks a legitimate, lawful purpose, we decline it. This page is general information, not legal advice.
How an Asset Search Works With Us
A confidential, permissible-purpose process — documented for court.
You Share the Purpose
Your judgment or legitimate basis, the subject’s details, and what you need to enforce.
We Investigate the Classes
Accounts, property, vehicles, employment, business interests, liens, and transfers — lawfully.
We Verify and Document
Confirmed findings, mapped to remedies, in a report you can rely on in proceedings.
You Enforce With Aim
Writs, levies, and garnishments directed where recovery is actually possible.
Asset Search — Questions
What is an asset search?
An asset search locates the assets a person or business holds, such as bank and brokerage accounts, real property, vehicles, employment and wages, and business interests, along with liens and transfers. It is used to decide whether to pursue a claim and to enforce a judgment against what is actually collectible.
Are asset searches legal?
Yes, when conducted properly through public records and authorized sources for a legitimate, permissible purpose. We are precise about which statute applies, because the loose version of that claim is wrong: we are not a consumer reporting agency and an asset report is not a consumer report, so there is no such thing as an FCRA-compliant asset search. The boundary here is that our work may never be used to decide someone’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment or housing. The statutes that bind the search itself are the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which keeps motor-vehicle data tied to the permissible purpose your own matter supplies. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act governs what a collector may do with an address after we deliver it, not how we find it. We will not run a search out of mere curiosity.
Can you find someone’s bank account?
For a judgment-recovery purpose, a compliant search can identify the financial institution where a debtor holds an account, meaning the bank’s name and location, not the account number or balance. That is what enforcement needs, because a writ is served on the institution for any and all accounts the debtor holds there.
Can you find a bank account balance?
No, and no lawful provider can. A compliant search identifies the financial institution, meaning the bank’s name and location, not the account number or balance, because obtaining a bank’s customer information by false pretenses is a federal offence under 15 U.S.C. 6821 and subsection (b) makes asking someone else to do it the same offence. You do not need the shortcut. A garnishment or levy is judicial process, the institution may respond to it under 15 U.S.C. 6802(e)(8), and its answer states what it holds on the day of service. That is the figure a court acts on.
Can an asset search find hidden or transferred assets?
Often, yes. A thorough search looks for property deeded to relatives, accounts moved to a spouse, and shell companies or special-purpose LLCs used to park assets. Identifying such transfers can give your attorney the basis to challenge a fraudulent conveyance.
Will the report hold up in court?
It is built to be used in a proceeding rather than only read. Every finding is tied to the record it came from, with the identifiers your attorney needs to pull and authenticate that record independently: the recording county and instrument number for a deed, the filing office and file number for a UCC statement, the state and entity number for a company registration. Nothing rests on a database summary we cannot show you the source for. That is what court-ready means here, and it is why the report can aim a writ, a levy, or a garnishment. We are not a law firm and we do not offer expert testimony, and whether a particular finding is admissible in your matter is a question for your counsel and the court.
What if there is nothing to find?
We tell you honestly. A debtor with only exempt property may be effectively judgment-proof, and learning that early saves you from spending good money chasing an empty recovery. An honest result is part of the value.
How long does an asset search take?
It depends on depth. Locating the debtor can often be done within 24 hours, while a documented asset report comes together over the following days as each class is searched and verified. A focused bank-and-employer search is faster than a full multi-class profile with transfer analysis, and we give you a realistic timeline when we scope your matter.
Our Commitment
You get a lawful, verified, court-ready picture of what is collectible — not raw data or a guess. Twenty-plus years locating assets the right way, for judgment creditors, attorneys, and others with a legitimate need.
Find What’s There to Collect
Tell us what you are enforcing and who the subject is, with your judgment or legitimate basis and whatever details you have. We will locate and verify the reachable assets — accounts, property, vehicles, wages, and business interests — document them for court, and point your enforcement where recovery is actually possible.
Start an Asset Search →
