I'm a forensic asset recovery and research specialist working in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories. I read the primary public records themselves — state unclaimed‑property files reaching back four decades, foreclosure and tax‑sale surplus registers, mortgage‑refund rolls, outstanding‑check ledgers, bankruptcy, court and probate files — to find money and property owed to businesses, estates, heirs and institutions, and then I recover it from whoever is holding it. I never touch your money: recovered funds are paid to you, and I am paid only if you are, only out of what you actually receive.
No upfront cost · I never touch your money · Paid only out of what you recover · Strictly confidential
When a payment goes uncashed or an account goes quiet, companies rarely notice — and after a set dormancy period the holder must hand it to the state. It waits there, in public records, under whatever name and address it carried at the time. Most owners never learn it's there.
Refund checks, rebate checks, AP and vendor payments, payroll and expense checks that were issued but never cleared — then escheated to the state.
Dormant shares, dividends, credit balances, deposits and A/R credits that fell off the books and were surrendered under unclaimed‑property law.
Mergers, acquisitions, name changes and dissolutions bury funds under predecessor entities. Tracing them back to today's owner is exactly the work I do.
Most recovery firms react to a name you hand them. My background is financial‑fraud investigation and asset tracing — so I work the other direction. I acquire the records themselves — entire state unclaimed‑property files, county foreclosure and tax‑sale surplus registers, outstanding‑check ledgers, court and bankruptcy rolls — and forensically comb them: reassembling every spelling, address and predecessor name a company or a family has ever used, across decades of records and every state in the country.
By the time we speak, the search is largely done. What I bring to a first conversation is evidence, not a promise — the property, the holder, the year, and the trail that ties it to you.
State unclaimed property is the largest single source — it is not the only one. The same forensic method (read the primary record, trace the owner, prove the chain of title) pulls money — and real property, vehicles and valuables — out of foreclosure and tax‑sale surplus registries, mortgage‑refund rolls, outstanding‑check ledgers, bankruptcy and court files, probate records and insurance books, in every state and territory.
When a home or commercial property is sold at a mortgage foreclosure for more than the debt against it, the surplus belongs to the former owner, the heirs or the junior lienholders — not to the lender and not to the court. Those overages sit in court registries and trustee accounts across the country under deadlines almost no one is told about.
The same rule applies when a county sells a property for delinquent taxes: whatever remains after the taxes and costs are paid is owed back to the owner of record or the lienholders. Counties hold these funds for a limited time and then escheat or keep them.
FHA mortgage‑insurance premium refunds, escrow and overpayment balances, and settlement refunds owed to borrowers who paid off, refinanced or sold — money the servicer or HUD still holds because the borrower moved on and never heard about it.
Outstanding check and warrant registers held by counties, cities, school districts, courts and utilities. Vendor payments, refunds, bonds, deposits and jury and witness fees that were issued, never cashed, and quietly aged off the books.
Escheated funds sitting with every state treasury: dormant accounts, uncashed vendor and refund checks, securities, dividends, insurance proceeds and deposits — including money stranded under a predecessor or maiden name after a merger, a move or a death.
Assets the probate paperwork never surfaced, and heirs nobody told. I reconstruct an estate from the records themselves, identify the rightful beneficiaries, and recover what is theirs. Where an estate was never opened or was left unfinished, and where state law allows it, I can fund the litigation — with counsel of your choice — needed to complete probate and put the assets in your family's hands.
When an elderly or disabled relative's accounts were drained, a deed was signed that should never have been signed, or a caregiver's spending does not add up. I reconstruct the bank, card and property records line by line, trace where every dollar went, and build the evidence file that probate counsel, civil counsel and, where warranted, law enforcement need to act on it.
Unclaimed bankruptcy distributions held by the clerk or the U.S. Treasury, funds deposited into a court registry and never withdrawn, unclaimed civil and class‑action settlement proceeds, and criminal restitution that was ordered for a victim but never reached them.
Ever wondered whether a loved one had a life insurance policy you were never told about? I can find out. Lost or lapsed policies, unclaimed death benefits, demutualization proceeds and premium refunds — frequently payable to a family or an estate that never knew the policy existed.
Not all of it is money. Estate real estate that slipped into a tax sale, vehicles and titled equipment, safe‑deposit box contents surrendered to the state, and other valuables sitting in an estate nobody ever administered. If it has value and it belongs to an heir, I go after it.
Forensic asset research for counsel, parties and judgment creditors when the other side is not being forthcoming. Public‑record and financial‑trail research that turns a paper judgment into a collectible one.
Every engagement is scoped in writing before work begins, and each line of work is pursued in the manner that state's or district's law requires.
Most people never claim what they are owed for two reasons: it takes time and it takes money. I supply both. I do the heavy lifting — the research, the documentation, the filings, the follow‑through — so your side of it takes minutes, not months.
You tell me who you are. I show you what I've already found in your name — no cost, no obligation, nothing to sign to find out.
I confirm ownership and assemble the documentation and lineage each state requires to prove the funds belong to you.
I prepare and submit each claim across every state involved and handle the follow‑through — at my own cost and risk, start to finish.
The recovery is paid to you, never to me. I never hold or handle your money. My single, disclosed fee is settled only out of what you actually receive — never a dollar before, and never a dollar if nothing is recovered.
Most of what I recover is confidential by agreement, and I keep it that way. These three are described without names because the families and counsel involved deserve that. The numbers are real.
Assets an estate did not know it had, traced through the records, documented to the standard the holders required, and paid out to the family. From the first review to the final check, the heirs dealt with one person: me.
A Georgia woman died with no immediate family. Settling her estate meant finding every first cousin, then the children of first cousins, and then their children — 47 rightful heirs across three generations, each one located, documented and brought into the settlement so the estate could close.
Located the people entitled to a veteran's estate and assembled the proof counsel needed to administer and distribute it. Engaged by the estate's attorneys and referenced by them since: the kind of engagement where the research has to stand up in court, not just in a letter.
I see it through. Most firms file the claim, take their percentage and disappear, leaving the family to deal with the state, the court or the insurer on their own. I don't. I stay with you through every form, every follow‑up and every question until the money is in your hands and the matter is closed. That is the job.
James J. Herndon has spent a career finding what people did not want found. In a law‑enforcement career built on financial‑fraud cases he traced assets across state lines and located people who had gone to considerable trouble not to be located — work that carried him into extradition proceedings in more than a dozen countries. He commanded a county forensic unit, went on to lead a municipal law‑enforcement agency, and later directed enterprise security and risk for a global manufacturer. For the past ten years he has applied that same discipline to a quieter problem: the money and property the system misplaced, and the families who were never told.
There is no call center here and no hand‑off to a junior associate. You work directly with the specialist who did the searching, from the first review to the funds in your account. That accountability — and complete confidentiality — is the whole point.
This field attracts mailers and cold calls, so healthy skepticism is warranted. Everything about how I work is designed to earn trust the slow way — by being transparent about the credential I hold, the money I front, and the law I operate under.
I act under Georgia Department of Revenue Claimant Designated Representative credential #2024000016 (active 2024–2028). A real credential, a real name, a real person.
My contingency fee sits within the limits each state's law allows for recovery work, disclosed to you in writing before anything is signed. No tiers, no surprises.
I invest my own hours and cover the cost of research and filing. If a claim doesn't recover, I absorb that loss. You are never billed for the attempt.
Recovered funds are paid to you, not to me. I am paid only if you are, and only out of what you actually receive. The money never passes through my hands.
When getting your family's assets back means opening or finishing a probate case, I can fund that litigation in the states that permit it, with the attorney you choose. Time and money are the barriers; I remove both.
I am a private company, not a state or county office, and I will never pretend otherwise. You are never required to use my services. Where funds sit with a state or county office, the owner can usually file directly with that office at no charge; where recovery takes a court proceeding, such as a surplus petition, an interpleader or a probate case, there are filing costs and legal steps that I front for you. What you are paying for is that I found it, I can prove it is yours, and I will see it through.
Everything you share is handled confidentially and used only to verify and pursue your claim. A mutual NDA is available on request.
Note: JJ Herndon Company is a forensic asset recovery and research practice registered with the Georgia Department of Revenue and working nationwide. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal or tax advice.
Because you can verify me. I operate under a named Georgia Department of Revenue credential (#2024000016), I'll put my fee and terms in writing before you commit to anything, and you never pay a cent up front — I'm only paid from money that actually reaches you. A scam asks for money now; I invest mine first.
Because states, counties and courts don't chase you down. When funds are surrendered as unclaimed property, or left over from a foreclosure or tax sale, they're listed in public records under whatever name and address applied at the time — often a predecessor company, a maiden name or an old address. Unless someone forensically searches those files, the money simply waits.
To claim funds on your behalf, each state requires proof that I'm acting for the rightful owner. That authorization lets me file and manage the claim — it does not give me control of your money. Recovered funds are directed to you, with my disclosed fee netted only after a successful recovery.
Sometimes, yes — and for a simple single‑state claim I'll tell you so honestly. The value I add is on the hard cases: property scattered across multiple states, foreclosure and tax‑sale surplus that a court will only release on proof of title, funds buried under predecessor or acquired‑company names, and the documentation each treasury, county and clerk demands to prove the chain of ownership. I've already done the searching and I manage the paperwork end to end.
A single contingency percentage, within the limits the law of that state or district permits, agreed in writing before any work is filed. It is netted only from funds actually recovered. If nothing is recovered, there is no fee and no cost to you.
Very possibly. Policies get lost when the insurer changes hands, the premiums were paid from an account nobody else knew about, or the paperwork went out with the house. I can find out: I search insurer records, state unclaimed‑property files and the estate's own paper trail, and if a policy or benefit exists in your family's name I will tell you plainly what it is and how to claim it.
In the states where the law allows it, I can. Where recovering your family's assets requires opening or completing probate, or bringing a claim to get property back, I can fund that litigation with the attorney of your choice, and I am repaid only out of what the estate actually recovers. You choose counsel, counsel directs the case, and I do the research and carry the cost.
The funds are paid directly to you by whoever was holding them; they never pass through my hands. My fee is settled from that recovery, not before. Timelines vary by state and by the complexity of the claim, and I keep you updated at each step.
Tell me who you are and where you've operated, or who your loved one was. I'll search what I hold, tell you plainly whether there's money or property in your name, and only then talk about recovering it. No obligation, no upfront cost, and I never touch your money.