Asset Searches and Company Names: Tips on Tracking and Naming Companies

Some people just like privacy, but others form companies with a view to concealing any link between that company and themselves. If you are hiding assets from creditors, that’s a plus (for you, not the creditors).

Picking a company name can be more difficult than many think. A lot of the obvious company names are taken since you can’t have the same name as an existing company in your state. So people often follow rules that make it easier to pick a name quickly, a lot like the lazy way many choose passwords.

If you want to hide your company from an asset searcher’s prying eyes, don’t do the following.

1. Don’t name your company after something guessable by those who know you. People name things after the street they grew up on, but ex-wives looking for assets often know what that street is called (and we ask that question in our divorce questionnaire). The same goes for a beloved summer camp attended in their youth or a favorite pet. Keep the sentimental out of your naming convention.
2. Don’t pick an acronym of your children’s names and think we won’t see through that. ZKR Holdings could be anything, but if your kids are named Zach, Karen and Ryan, we will be onto you.
3. Don’t name companies after things related to your hobby. An opera buff named all his companies after – yes – operas. He did this before his marriage began to disintegrate, but it was easy to find companies we didn’t know about by searching a list of the 200 most popular operas.
4. Don’t group your names. If you name your first company after the street in Boston where you opened for business, using the street names all around there will make it easier to guess for new companies. Also, if we know your company is called Alpha Investments, don’t try for Alpha Investments II, III, IV etc. When we see that during an asset search, our eyes light up.
5. Don’t name a company in a new state the same thing it was named in the old state, especially if everyone you’re hiding from knows the name of the one in the old state.

The hardest companies to find are those that followed these rules:

1. They picked a name that could mean anything. If you are the owner of seven dry cleaners in northern Indiana, European Furniture Imports is a name we wouldn’t immediately link to you. Even better, Eusall Ltd. That could be anything.
2. They paid someone to be the incorporator. It’s no good spending all this time on picking a sneaky name, and then putting yourself down as the incorporator or agent for service of process. Some states don’t list the name of the incorporator, but some do.
3. When they paid someone to front for their company, they didn’t pay the same lawyer or agent who handles all of their other financial affairs. I once found a bunch of companies by going through the list of about 150 that a person’s lawyer had set up. We ruled out most of them, but a few turned out to belong to the person we were investigating.