Asset Discovery: Searching Institutions Without Chasing Ghosts

The discovery problem

Executors must identify estate assets — but searching dozens of institutions blindly wastes time and money.

A bounded approach

• Start with the decedent's records: tax returns, mail, email, and safe deposit boxes.
• Send structured search letters to likely institutions.
• Track each request's status, sent date, and response.

A tracking log is your best protection if a creditor or beneficiary later claims you missed an asset.

Close the loop

For every search, record the outcome — found, not found, or pending — and reconcile the final inventory against your search log before filing.