Trusting Trustify
TRUSTIFY INC. was founded in 2015 with its specific goal helping people hire investigators. It made the Washington Business Journal as one of the top 2016 Start Up Of The Week. It could be considered the Uber for private investigations. It was easy to access for short term investigation for divorce or child custody cases and insurance claims. Its inception shook up the P. I. Industry to its core.
Well established private investigative companies’ livelihood were threatened. It may have closed up shop for smaller agencies such as mine. I survived.
Then TRUSTIFY was found embroiled in litigation and lawsuits. State licensing boards and private investigation agencies discovered trustified were hiring unlicensed, unbonded, and uninsured private investigators. Many of these private investigators were quite possibly young and inexperienced.
There were many causes for TRUSTIFY, INC. past downfall, but for this article the focus remains on the hiring of inexperienced and unlicensed investigators. TRUSTIFY could not deliver on the final product it had so expeditiously advantaged – that being quality fraud investigations.
Their subcontracted investigators were not paid.
TRUSTIFY is now gone but to my clients – especially insurance companies and law firms, attorneys, claims adjusters, a word of caution.
When searching for private investigators to work up your fraud or questionable compliance issues, there will be more companies to come with similar business model as TRUSTIFY’s – extolling extreme lower cost. To these clients and prospective clients it is difficult to accurately assess or vet private investigative companies. Good reviews are not the best way. In the insurance industry, claims adjusters, claims managers, PIP adjusters and defense lawyers may be prohibited by in – house compliance rules to give their reviews.
The best way to vet is be aware of the red flags of poor private investigative agencies or professional investigations.
Agencies that come off as a “Pack” advertising as a national firm is one red flag. These business entities work off a margin. They are basically sales agencies! They will not care about selling of the work product. It is numbers based. They may be licensed in every state but their investigators will quite possibly be inexperienced and unlicensed. They will be poorly paid and overworked.
I have worked judiciously for 35 years to remain in good standing by joining Michigan Council of Private Investigators (MCPI) and thoroughly staying in compliance with State regulations and State associations My humble agency remains an image of professionalism.
I charge appropriate rates. I maintain proper licensing, bonding and being insured and audited.
And most importantly, I personally perform the investigations.