A colleague was sharing a story the other day about an old women who was dying and had only a few weeks to live. However, the women absolutely refused to create a will or even reveal her assets to her family. Even though her children treated her well and never asked her for any money, she was convinced that if she revealed her financial situation that it would ensure her untimely death. While her family was in the process of paying her bills, they discovered a checking account that contained a significant amount of money. This made them wonder what other unknown assets their mother had that they didn’t know about.
Most people know it’s important to have a will, but many people never get around to writing one. While the above case may seem a bit extreme, it’s not improbable that family members may have to locate missing assets after a loved one dies.
When a family member dies without a will (known as intestate in legal terms), the laws regarding the distribution of property and assets vary by state, the deceased’s marital status and whether the deceased and his/her spouse or partner had any children. But, basically, the courts decide who gets – or doesn’t get – what. And if the family doesn’t know about an asset, the state gets to keep it indefinitely and use any interest it earns. Therefore, it’s important for heirs to search for unclaimed property, money or other assets in the loved one’s name.
The first step would be to carefully go through the deceased’s personal papers to search for financial information like bank accounts, insurance policies, safe-deposit boxes, stock certificates and bonds.
Next, you should look for a hidden house safe. Possible locations to search include closets, under beds and dressers, in drawers, in the attic, in the basement and even the freezer.
Finally, you should search unconventional spots. Many times people don’t trust banks to keep their money safe, so they may hide cash or other valuable assets somewhere in the house. Some unusual locations to search are under floorboards, behind false walls in a closet, under a mattress, in out buildings on the property or even attached to the top of valances or cornice boards.
However, you need to realize that undertaking an asset investigation to find unknown assets can be a time-consuming task, especially if you don’t have the appropriate resources to conduct a proper asset search.
That’s where can help. We’re known as a top Indiana Asset Search Investigator. Our experienced financial investigators know how to find hidden assets through a statewide asset search as well as a nationwide asset search. We’ve even been able to find international accounts and locate off shore accounts.
During a financial investigation, we search for hidden:
- Money
- Bank accounts
- CD and safety deposit boxes
- Retirement funds
- Stocks and bonds
- Off shore accounts
We can save you time and energy searching for missing assets, because we have access to proprietary data bases that the average person can’t access. And we know how to use these data bases to find the right information. The staff at has over 50+ years of experience in gathering personal and financial information, so we can find hidden assets faster and more efficiently than you can. Contact us today to learn more about our Indiana Asset Search Investigator services.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
