Originally Posted by landlord advocate
I was a private investigator for eleven years, working mostly white collar crimes. Lots of computer database work. I was able to dig fairly deep. We used the Lexis/Nexis database, Axiom, Secretary of State databases for the state the person resided in, any state they were associated with and always Delaware, property records/auditor's office, Socials of the children or close relatives and then back tracking. Although I worked very few divorce cases, when I did we would make a list of known banks, savings and loans, credit unions, mutual funds that the person may have been affiliated with and also a list of banks and savings and loans in close proximity of the residence and employment. We would then have a process server deliver the paperwork necessary to freeze any account at those establishments. If there was no account, the bank would say so. If there was an account, they would freeze it. And, we would then know if there were assets at that bank.
It is more difficult now that people are using virtual banking such as Ing rather than the bank at the end of the block. There are countries that are still making it easy to transfer and hold funds, as long as they are done in small enough deposits.
Can you find all the assets belonging to a person? No. If a person picks the right "mattress" to hide the bills under, they will most likely stay hidden.