Working as a 1099 Private Investigator
If you’re exploring this field, you’ve probably seen the term: a 1099 ...
Family Offices, Trusts & Estate Representatives
Independent, documented investigation for the assets, beneficiaries, and fiduciary duties you’re responsible for.
On this page:
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Overview
Most family offices, trustees, and estate representatives don’t call a private investigator because things are running smoothly. Something specific has happened. A beneficiary dispute where the claimed facts don’t match the record. A trustee whose handling of assets has raised questions internal review can’t answer. A high-value transaction that needs due diligence deeper than a database check. An estate where assets are believed to exist that nobody has been able to locate.
Whatever brought you here, the stakes involve generational wealth, institutional responsibility, and the families depending on both. You need independent, documented findings that hold up in probate court, in trust litigation, and in front of regulators, not assumptions. That’s exactly what we’ve done for family offices, trusts, and estate representatives across all 50 states.
Experience
Serving family offices, trustees, and estate representatives nationwide since 2009
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Client satisfaction rate among the families and fiduciaries we serve
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How We Help
Asset Recovery Investigations
When trust or estate assets have been moved, concealed, or diverted, we follow the paper and the money, build the evidence, and give your counsel what they need to pursue recovery.
Surveillance Investigations
Discreet, lawful, and thoroughly documented. When a beneficiary’s claim or a fiduciary’s conduct doesn’t match the record, we get the timestamped evidence that shows what’s actually happening.
Background Checks & Due Diligence
Before you fund, sign, or appoint. We vet transaction parties, investment managers, fiduciaries, and advisors far deeper than a database check, so you know exactly who you’re trusting with the assets.
Locate a Beneficiary or Witness
Missing heirs, unresponsive beneficiaries, witnesses your counsel needs. Addresses go stale and people move. We find them and verify identity to the standard the matter requires.
Fiduciary Conduct & Fraud Investigations
When a trustee’s or advisor’s handling of assets raises questions internal review can’t answer, we document the conduct independently and discreetly, in a form that holds up in trust litigation.
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Resources
Career Paths in Private Investigations
People often picture a private investigator career as one job—someone in a ...
What Makes a Great Private Investigator?
What makes a great private investigator? It isn’t a gadget, a badge, ...
Private Investigator Training :Why Ongoing Training Makes Better Private Investigators
Private investigator training is one of the most important investments you can ...
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Meet Our Investigators
Here’s the part most firms won’t say directly. Family office and estate work isn’t standard corporate investigation. The matters involve fiduciary responsibility, multi-generational assets, complex legal structures, and families whose relationships are often already strained. The investigator handling yours needs to understand what fiduciary documentation requires, what probate and trust courts expect, and how to work a sensitive matter without creating collateral damage inside the relationships involved.
You get licensed, vetted, experienced investigators who meet that standard on every engagement, not a generalist working a fiduciary matter for the first time. People who treat your clients’ legacy with the seriousness and discretion it deserves.
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Why choose us
Discreet
Discretion isn’t a courtesy here, it’s the job. We don’t disclose your identity, the existence of the engagement, or our findings to anyone outside the authorized scope, and we work within whatever confidentiality structure your counsel and trust committee require.
Licensed & Court-Ready
Every investigator carries whatever license the state requires, and every finding is documented to evidentiary standards from day one. In probate, trust litigation, and regulatory review, unlicensed work can compromise admissibility. Ours holds up.
We Answer the Phone
You hear from your actual investigator throughout, not a customer service rep reading from a script. Real updates, honest assessments, and a direct line to the person doing the work.
Investigators Where You Need Them
Licensed investigators across all 50 states. Whether the assets sit in Houston, a beneficiary is in another state, or a transaction party needs vetting across jurisdictions, you get the same documentation standard everywhere.
Straight Answers
Sometimes the findings confirm what you feared, sometimes they clear it. Either way you get the documented truth, not the answer that’s easiest to hear. After 17+ years of fiduciary and estate matters, we’ve learned that’s what protects you.
Clear Pricing
You’ll know the retainer, the rate, and what a change in scope means before any work begins. What we won’t do is quote low to win the engagement and revise upward once we’re underway. You get a real estimate based on your actual matter.
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Next steps
You don’t need the whole matter figured out before you call. Tell us what’s going on at whatever level of detail you’re comfortable sharing, and what your counsel, trust committee, or court proceeding requires. We’ll give you an honest assessment of what independent investigation can realistically produce, and nothing moves without your authorization.
Case studies
Houston Private Investigator Rescues Missing Teen from Trafficking Ring
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Results learn how we uncovered Suspected Infidelity in West Lake Hills Austin, Tx
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Person Location Services: Missing Parent Located for Child Custody Case in 48 Hours
Case Overview A New York-based father contacted Terrance Private Investigator and Associates ...