Can a private investigator get someone's bank balance?

No. Obtaining a financial institution's customer information by false statements or forged documents is prohibited by 15 U.S.C. § 6821, and so is asking someone else to do it. Balances and statements come from subpoenas and discovery in a case, not from an investigator.

Then what is an asset search actually worth?

It establishes what someone owns and where they bank, from records that are lawful to access: property, corporate filings, court records, liens, UCC filings, vehicles and vessels. That is what tells your attorney where to send a subpoena and whether a judgment is collectible.

Can you find accounts someone opened in another state?

Often, yes — corporate filings, recorded liens and court records are searchable beyond Florida, and people who relocate assets usually leave a documentary trail. What cannot change is the legal boundary around the account contents themselves.

How long does an asset investigation take?

It depends on how many names, entities and counties are involved. A focused search on one individual is usually faster than untangling a network of entities. You should get a realistic scope and timeline before any work begins.

Is this useful before I file a lawsuit?

Very often it is the most useful time. Knowing whether there is anything to collect can change whether you sue at all, and it costs far less than discovering the answer after a judgment.

How Private Investigators Find Hidden Bank Accounts in Florida

In a divorce, a judgment collection or a partnership dispute, the question is nearly always the same: is the other side hiding money? It is a fair question, and there is real work an investigator can do to answer it. But there is a hard line in federal law, and the companies that cross it put their clients' cases at risk. This guide explains how hidden assets are found lawfully in Florida, what cannot be touched, and how the lawful findings actually get used.

The line federal law draws

Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act it is unlawful to obtain, or attempt to obtain, a financial institution's customer information about another person by making false statements to the institution or to the customer, or by providing forged or fraudulent documents (15 U.S.C. § 6821(a)). The same section makes it a violation to ask someone else to obtain that information knowing they will get it that way (§ 6821(b)). That practice has a name in the trade — pretexting — and it is exactly what an investigator who promises you a bank balance is proposing to do.

So treat it as a red flag, not a selling point. If a firm offers “bank account searches” that return balances and account numbers, ask how they obtain them. Evidence gathered that way can be excluded, it can expose you to liability, and in Florida it can cost the investigator the Chapter 493 licence that made them worth hiring in the first place.

What a lawful asset investigation actually looks at

A great deal is a matter of public record, and the skill is in knowing where to look and how the records connect:

Real property. Deeds, mortgages, satisfactions and transfers are recorded with the county. A property quietly deeded to a relative or an LLC six months before a lawsuit is a fact the record will show.
Business interests. Florida corporate filings name officers, directors, managers and registered agents. People who hide money rarely hide the entity that holds it.
Court records. Judgments, liens, prior lawsuits, bankruptcies and divorce filings often disclose assets the person has already had to describe under oath.
UCC filings. A financing statement showing equipment or inventory pledged as collateral tells you a business exists and roughly what it owns.
Vehicles, vessels and aircraft. Titles and registrations are recorded, and a boat kept at a Miami marina is not invisible.
Licences and permits. Professional, contractor and alcohol licences establish income sources and business locations.

Our asset checks page covers the scope of this work. Where a business is involved, it overlaps heavily with corporate due diligence.

How accounts get identified without pretexting

An investigator does not need to see inside an account to establish that it exists. Lawful indicators include a bank named as a lienholder on a recorded mortgage or vehicle title, a lender named in a UCC filing, an institution identified in a prior court filing or sworn financial affidavit, and documents the client already lawfully holds — old joint statements, tax returns filed together, cancelled cheques, loan applications. Identifying where someone banks is the useful deliverable, because that is what your attorney needs to direct a subpoena.

Where the balance comes from

In litigation, account records are produced through discovery: a request for production, a sworn financial affidavit, a deposition, or a subpoena served on the institution. In Florida family cases the parties exchange financial affidavits, and a document filed under s. 92.525, F.S. is signed under penalty of perjury. That is a powerful lever, and it is the reason the investigator's job is to find the facts that make an affidavit testable rather than to go around the process.

Hypothetical example: a spouse swears they hold no business interests. A corporate records search turns up an LLC formed two years earlier naming them as manager, and the county recorder shows that LLC took title to a condo with a mortgage from a named bank. Nothing confidential was accessed — but the affidavit is now contradicted on the record, and counsel knows exactly which institution to subpoena.

Fraudulent transfers leave tracks

Assets moved to stay ahead of a creditor usually move to people, not strangers. Transfers to a spouse, a sibling, a parent or a newly formed entity shortly before a lawsuit or judgment are visible in recorded documents and corporate filings, and the timing is often the whole story. Whether a particular transfer can be unwound is a legal question for your attorney; establishing that it happened, when, and to whom is investigative work.

What this is used for

Divorce and equitable distribution — testing a financial affidavit before you rely on it.
Judgment collection — deciding whether a judgment is worth pursuing, and where to direct collection efforts.
Before you sue — a defendant with nothing collectible can make a strong claim economically pointless. Better to know first. See civil plaintiff investigations.
Partnership and shareholder disputes — tracing what the other side actually controls.

What to bring

Full legal name, any former names, approximate age and last known addresses.
Any business names the person has been connected to.
Case number and your attorney's contact details if a matter is already filed.
Documents you already lawfully possess — prior affidavits, tax returns, joint statements.

Miami Private Investigations is licensed in Florida under agency licence A1800135. If you want to talk through whether an asset investigation makes sense in your situation, contact us for a confidential consultation.