Missing assets

How do assets go missing? The answer is: surprisingly easily. Simple explanations include problems in payments processing systems, assets that are hidden, held in unknown trusts, located in foreign jurisdictions, assets subject to intestacy or administrative mistakes and errors in data.

More complex causes include insolvency events, incorrect corporate dissolution, assets subject to complex or lengthy disputes, corporate actions, or assets incorrectly appropriated following mergers and acquisitions.

Often the amounts involved can be insignificant on their own and unviable to chase but over many years can become substantial. Those entities which operate from multiple locations and jurisdictions, have many subsidiaries and have been in existence for long periods of time are more susceptible to the risk of missing assets, as are individuals who move frequently between locations.