How to Do Financial Asset Investigations: A Practical Guide for Private Investigators, Collections Personnel, and Asset Recovery Specialists [Paperback]

Ronald L. Mendell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0398070458 | ISBN-13: 978-0398070458 | Publication Date: April 2000 | Edition: 2nd

Financial asset investigation continues to evolve through its techniques, and this book serves as a practical primer, emphasizing the use of data collection forms, the latest computer technology, and tools for identifying, locating, and assessing debtors¹ assets and liabilities. The text explains data gathering from computer data bases, CD-ROM, human sources, surveillance, and public records. The topics cover both individuals and businesses. They range from obtaining subjects¹ basic identifiers, such as a social security number, to using key business ratios to calculate figures for a company¹s balance sheet. This new edition strives to incorporate more online and electronic resources and includes a complete chapter on investigation through use of the Internet. Additional new topics include financial investigation for security officers, piercing the corporate veil, news groups, and public record searching shortcuts. Throughout the book, useful forms are provided for gathering, organizing, and analyzing data which allows for easy integration of information. Learning how to exploit information trails and cutting through smoke screens are the main themes of this practical and effective investigative tool.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: Charles C Thomas Pub Ltd; 2nd edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0398070458
• ISBN-13: 978-0398070458
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,181,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly One Of A Kind..., December 4, 2004

By 

Michael Beltz, FCI "truthsleuthpi" (Orlando, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Financial Asset Investigations: A Practical Guide for Private Investigators, Collections Personnel, and Asset Recovery Specialists (Paperback)

As a licensed private investigator that is experienced in asset investigations, I can personally tell you that this is truly the only book of its kind. I would like to personally thank Mr. Ronald L. Mendell, BS, CLI for writing such a complete and long overdue text on this vital topic. Mendell does an excellent job of describing a systematic method for utilizing various resources/information sources to construct a detailed financial profile of the SUBJECT of the investigation.

Asset investigations are time consuming and arduous. Often, one small piece of information can be the key to uncovering a wealth (sometimes literally) of information regarding the SUBJECT. Even an experienced investigator will benefit from this text merely by employing it to insure that all bases have been covered.

Forget what you know or you think you know about asset investigations. This book is the real deal for legal (emphasis added) asset investigations. To date, I have not found another book on this topic that comes or even appears to come close to providing the same level of information. If you perform or would like to learn how to conduct asset investigations, I would not hesitate for one second to add this text to your investigative library.

As a final note, if you plan on performing any type of asset investigation, I highly encourage you to thoroughly research the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (also known as the GLB) via the Internet. Excellent knowledge of this legislation could mean the difference between a lucrative career as an asset investigator or an excellent career as a resident of your local state correctional facility - no joke. Good luck!

As always, check with your local library or bookstore to see if you can read/review this or any title before deciding to make a purchase. This method has effectively allowed me to make the most of my investigative library budget.

I hope you found this review helpful. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me via email at [e-mail]. Respectfully submitted, MB.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mendall is essential reading for financial investigators, December 17, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Do Financial Asset Investigations: A Practical Guide for Private Investigators, Collections Personnel, and Asset Recovery Specialists (Paperback)

In this seminal textbook for conducting asset searches, Mendall's provides the tools for analyzing a subject's financial situation. The emphasis here is on painstaking research in public records to develop a detailed portrait of the subject. Every investigation of this kind starts in the local courthouse with hard work, meticulous attention to detail, careful notes, and other not-so-glamorous means of retrieving, organizing, and analyzing information in order to provide intelligence to a collection attorney. Using the techniques in this book, one can locate real property, business, bank accounts and other asset for postjudgment execution. I highly recommend this book. It is always on my shelf and I find myself consulting it repeatedly. I only wish that Mendall had included more case studies

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand, August 11, 2008

By 

Cedria King (Buckeye, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: How to Do Financial Asset Investigations: A Practical Guide for Private Investigators, Collections Personnel, and Asset Recovery Specialists (Paperback)

This book is on financial asset investigations. The reader must have some knowledge of the reader's legal system, privacy laws, handling confidential information, general accounting, reading financial statements, and what to do after you find the assets. This book is not for the average person that does not have this knowledge. That said, this book is a great addition for the professional's library. The author tried to cover as much information as she could but this book doesn't "hold your hand" and tell you what to do after you find the assets. Finding assets also does not mean they are worth anything. The reader must then investigate further into the true value of the asset before proceeding forward. Even those with extensive knowledge will learn something from within this book.