The research and the filings behind an estate, a trust or a client’s claim

What I do for counsel

Work done to your standard of proof, not a marketing standard

• Asset location and documentationEstate and inheritance money, life insurance and annuities, bank accounts and CDs, stocks and brokerage accounts, trust interests, tax sale and foreclosure surplus, uncashed and outstanding checks and vendor payments, state-held property, and court and settlement funds, searched across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.
• Heir and successor tracingI trace and confirm the heirs or successors with the records that establish the line.
• Financial record reconstructionBank and card records reconstructed where a matter calls for it.
• Claim packets and exhibitsPrepared so they hold up with the custodian and with the court.
• Corporate family treesFor institutional clients: predecessors, subsidiaries, trade names, acquisitions and the spellings each one was reported under, searched in every state.

How we work together

1. You tell me the matterWhat it is and what has to be proved.
2. I locate and documentThe assets first, then the heirs or successors, with the records that establish each link.
3. I prepare the evidenceClaim packets and exhibits built for the custodian and for the court.
4. The filing goes where the law sends itWhere a state requires counsel to file, counsel of the client’s choosing files and I do the work behind it.

Where the line is

I do not practice law. Your judgment on the matter stays yours. Where a state requires counsel to file, I work through counsel of the client’s choosing.

Fee arrangements are sized to the matter and agreed in writing before work begins.

The money never passes through my hands. Whoever holds the money pays the claimant directly.