Hello, A friend of mine is involved in a battle about a will. One of the parties is crying poor to gain an advantage in the mediation/potential legal battle, undervaluing some things they own and almost certainly not declaring other assets. Does anyone have any suggestions for locating their assets? These could be properties, shares, cash, trusts, companys etc. Any idea on costs with conducting such a search? I understand assets overseas would be very difficult to locate. Also what about assets in their partner and children’s names that may have been conveniently gifted or large sums of cash that may have been withdrawn in recent times and hidden (or taken overseas)? Also for the lawyers if someone’s Affidavit declares an asset is worth far below what it is worth is there any penalty or negative consequences for this? Some assets are hard to value but a house is not that hard to get a rough estimate of the price, saying its worth for example $300k when it is clearly worth 5-600k and a small unit in this suburb costs more that they claim their house is worth. Thanks a lot
A solicitor and private detective can assist with the types of asset searches that are available nation-wide, and what they cost. The declared values in the affidavit must be made on a reasonable basis. Otherwise the person who swore the affidavit can be held in contempt of court.
Title searches cost around $12 per search. You can search on names across different states. Can also does asic searches o what shares the person owns and then see if these companies own any real property. Cannot search for interests in trusts though.
Thanks for that, interesting their is no way to search for interest in trusts. What is it likely to cost to do a fairly decent nationwide search on someone for interests in real estate, companies, shares, bank acocunts?
$12 to $20 per state for a land title search. $45 for an ASIC names search. Trusts are private arrangements so impossible to know without direct questioning.
