How A Skip Trace Can Uncover Hidden Assets During A Bankruptcy

Anyone filing bankruptcy in Arizona should go in expecting their assets to be examined. The trustee’s job is to find everything the estate owns, and undisclosed property is exactly what that examination is built to surface. Where a filer’s paperwork and the public record don’t line up, a skip trace is often what closes the gap.

A skip trace is a records search. It pulls together address history, employment, business filings, property records, vehicle and vessel registrations, and known associates, then reconciles them against what a person has claimed. It’s the same technique used to locate someone who has moved without leaving a forwarding address, pointed at property instead of at a person.

People file for bankruptcy in Arizona for ordinary reasons. Medical bills that outran the insurance. A foreclosure. A repossession, then the second one. Most filers disclose everything and the case proceeds without drama. The trouble starts when someone decides a particular asset is nobody’s business, sometimes to shield it from creditors and sometimes to keep a child support calculation lower than it should be.

Hidden assets take predictable forms: a safe deposit box in another name, a retirement or brokerage account left off the schedules, savings bonds, a second vehicle, a boat, a trailer, equipment, a rental property, transfers made to a relative shortly before filing. Leaving any of it off the schedules is not a paperwork slip. You sign those under penalty of perjury.

A records search surfaces most of it, because assets like these leave a trail. Titles are recorded. Businesses register agents. Property changes hands in public. Where a record suggests something the filer denies, a stakeout can confirm whether the vehicle sitting in the driveway is actually where they said it went.

The practical advice for anyone filing in Arizona is the simplest version: disclose all of it. Exemptions protect more than most people expect, and an asset you disclose and exempt stays yours. An asset you hide and lose costs you the property, and can cost you the discharge along with it. Assets moved to a friend or family member before filing are recoverable by the trustee, and courts see that pattern often enough to recognize it on sight.

If you’re an attorney working a case where the schedules don’t add up, a records search early is cheaper than a surprise at the 341 meeting.

About The Authors

Maha and Melissa Crossler own Subpoena Colada, a family owned and Arizona certified process serving company working across Maricopa County and the rest of the state. They bring more than seven years of legal support experience, and alongside standard, expedited and same day service of process they handle skip tracing, stakeouts, court runs, and exhibit preparation.

Subpoena Colada
Maricopa County and all of Arizona
Phone: (602) 335-1979
Email: [email protected]
Web: subpoenacolada.pro