What is an Asset and Liability Investigation?
As a leading debt collection agency specializing in B2B collections, Construction Credit & Finance Group are the construction industry’s go-to experts in asset & liability investigations.
Learn everything you need to know about conducting an asset and liability investigation with Construction Credit & Finance Group’s CEO, Curtis Fort. In this live webinar, Curtis shares valuable insights on how to conduct these investigations effectively. Whether you’re a business owner, a credit manager, or a financial analyst, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now to enhance your knowledge of asset and liability investigations.
What is an asset and liability search?
There are several ways to conduct an investigation that’ll give you more information than the traditional methods. While businesses and individual credit reports are extremely valuable tools for credit managers to determine credit worthiness of a potential customer, they’re not always going to give that credit manager the full and whole picture. That is why it’s so important to use the services of a company that understands the complexity of collections investigations.
When the credit manager or their teams internal efforts fall short, that’s when you need to consider allowing a company that specializes in pre-litigation debt collections coupled with that strong investigative research approach. And what you’ll find is when collection efforts fail to recover your money, you’ll have much more information to provide to your attorney for when you want to move forward with litigation or small claims court.
When should you do an asset and liability search and why?
Typically creditors should conduct these investigations. If the customer provides a questionable credit application, once the customer has reached 60 days past their terms, this will help determine if the customer is having more serious problems than they’re sharing with you. For example, if you’re a credit manager, you’re typically not going to have your customer tell you that the reason they’re not paying is because they have current lawsuits or federal or state tax liens.
They just aren’t going to tell you the bad reasons as to why they’re not paying you. Typically they’re waiting on funds from a project or financing, et cetera – any credit manager can attest to that.
What all does and asset and liability investigation report provide?
An asset and liability report will provide information such as locating vehicles, watercraft, bank accounts, property in other counties or states, and any assets that are trying to be hidden. Oftentimes, the customer may try to hide their assets by transferring ownership to someone else. When we conduct an asset search we’ll be able to determine when, who, and how much they gave, which will benefit the creditor in court.
A complete report that provides all of the items listed above can come to a client in a secure PDF. This allows creditors to make a fully educated decision on approving a line of credit. It will help them take the next steps to recovering the money owed to their company.
Curtis Fort shares some of his tricks of the trade in saying that he will dive into local newspapers and trade magazines where “you can sometimes find your customers listed.” You can also try having a third-party pull a pacer report to look for bankruptcies or lawsuits. And if your customer will not provide you with a financial statement, you can then ask them for their tax returns and you can turn those tax tax returns into financial statements.
What do you do when you find that a debtor has viable assets?
The first thing to do when you find the customer has viable assets is to allow a third party agency collection agency to contact the debtor. You want to notify the debtor that you have found assets, which may help collect your money.
If that doesn’t help trigger a payment, then you may want to consider hiring an attorney to file suit. And once that suit is filed, and the judgment is entered by the courts, then the attorney can start attaching the assets. Once those assets are attached, the attorney can start recovering those assets through the laws in that current state with the, where the judgment was actually entered against the debtor.
if you’re seeing viable assets and the debtor is cash flow positive, those things are gonna help you want to extend the credit. But if you’re already past that stage, and you’ve already extended credit terms and the customer’s past due and falling behind, at that point in time, those assets help a company like CCFG truly leverage debtors. Finding those things that the debtors are trying to hide are really what helps us get your money collected.
Why debt collection software can help streamline your asset and liability investigation process:
Construction Credit and Finance Group’s debt collection software offers numerous benefits that streamline the asset and liability investigation process. With CCFG’s debt collection software, Construction Credit and Finance Group empowers businesses to make well-informed choices, mitigate risks, and optimize their debt collection efforts, ultimately improving their overall financial performance.
Construction Credit and Finance Group is a world leader in the B2B debt collection space, specializing in the construction industry. Contact CCFG today at 800-848-4176 to get started.
