Public-record due diligence on real-estate sponsors — before you wire.

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Frequently asked questions

What records does a Shield report include?

Shield reports surface public records only: federal sanctions screening (OFAC SDN and the trade.gov Consolidated Screening List), SEC filings and enforcement history (EDGAR, IAPD, SALI), adverse news from media monitoring, state business registries, US courts and dockets, county property records, licence registers, and community listening. Every claim in a report carries a direct citation to the source record, with its URL and retrieval date. Quick Shield ($97) covers the company across every US public-record source Shield has — federal, state, and county — with nothing about managers or projects. Sponsor Shield ($247) additionally screens person-named records for each listed manager and searches every other company found for the same managers (US) — no numeric cap on the number of related companies searched.

Where does Shield's data come from?

Official public-record sources: the US Treasury's OFAC list, the SEC's public databases, CourtListener's RECAP public archive, news monitoring (GDELT and web search), state business registries, county property records, and licence registers. The free scan checks major company registries — the state business registry (CA + NY live), UK Companies House, and Canada's federal corporations registry. Shield does not scrape sources whose terms prohibit it — that is why FINRA BrokerCheck is not used.

How is a report built?

A screening pipeline queries live public-record sources for the subjects in scope — the company at Quick Shield, plus every manager and related company at Sponsor Shield — matches on exact-phrase names, screens each subject (PASS, REVIEW, BLOCK, or UNRESOLVED per subject), and ends the report with our verdict — our reading of the record: STOP, CAUTION, PROCEED WITH DILIGENCE, or LOW CONCERN. Common names surface every matching candidate with the ambiguity flagged, never a guess. Delivery is a PDF by email, within 5 business days. The full source list per tier — including what is not yet checked — is on the methodology page.

What is the difference between the free scan and the paid reports?

The free scan checks major company registries (state registry CA + NY, UK Companies House, Canada federal), needs no account, and keeps your results for 30 days (longer once you sign in). Quick Shield ($97) covers the company across every US public-record source Shield has — federal, state, and county — and nothing about managers, related companies, or projects. Sponsor Shield ($247) adds person-named record screening for each listed manager and every other company found for the same managers (US), no numeric cap, and carries the seven-source process guarantee (Terms §8.5). Structure Shield ($347 — your contract is parsed to extract the company, managers, and projects to double-verify the findings, plus full project-record coverage) and World Shield ($497 — every country we have) are live and available for purchase today.

How accurate are Shield reports?

Shield does not promise exhaustive coverage — it promises cited coverage. Every claim includes a direct citation to the source record; if a claim cannot be cited, it does not ship. Where an underlying public record is partial, the report says so — CourtListener's RECAP archive holds many federal dockets, not all of them. If a source cannot be reached while a report runs, that source returns UNRESOLVED in the report, with the reason, instead of an implied clean result. What Shield does not check yet — state securities enforcement, federal banking regulators, DOJ criminal press releases, professional licence verification — is listed openly on the methodology page.

What does "beta" mean?

Shield is in beta: report format and source coverage are under active development, and presentation details may change. It does not change what each tier checks (Methodology Page), the 48-hour Process Guarantee, or your refund rights. Every finding still cites its public source.

Is a Shield report legal or investment advice?

No. Shield is an information-only tool. Reports do not constitute legal, financial, or accounting advice, and a Shield report is not a consumer report under the FCRA — it may not be used for any purpose covered by the FCRA. All interpretation is the sole responsibility of the customer. The report verdict is our opinion — our reading of the record — not advice.

Does Shield tell me what to do?

Shield doesn't tell you to invest or to walk away. What you get is our reading of the record: a plain-language verdict — STOP, CAUTION, PROCEED WITH DILIGENCE, or LOW CONCERN — saying what the cited public records show in our judgment and what we would want cleared before any new money moves. It is an opinion based on public sources — not investment, legal, or tax advice, and not a consumer report. The decision is yours.

What is a Form D filing?

Form D is the notice a sponsor files with the SEC when raising capital in a private offering under Regulation D. In Shield reports it appears as prior offerings: a list of the principal's prior Reg D filings, drawn from SEC EDGAR — every Reg D offering the principal has sponsored, filings since 2008 — each cited with a link to the underlying record.

How do I check if a real-estate sponsor has SEC enforcement actions?

You can check two free SEC databases yourself: SALI — SEC Action Lookup (Individuals), covering bars, suspensions, and cease-and-desist orders since 2014 — and IAPD, the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, which flags RIA representatives with disciplinary history and firm affiliations. Shield reports check both and put the results in a discipline-history section: any SEC bars, suspensions, or cease-and-desist orders, with case numbers and URLs. Each finding cites the underlying SEC record so you can open it yourself. Scope limit: state-level securities enforcement (TX/NY/WA/FL) is not checked yet; it ships with higher tiers only after an internal FCRA review.

Does Shield check federal court records?

Yes — from the Quick Shield report ($97) upward. Shield screens federal dockets via CourtListener's RECAP, a free public archive populated from PACER filings, for entity-named parties at Quick Shield and person-named parties from Sponsor Shield ($247) upward. Coverage is partial — RECAP archives many dockets, not all, and PACER itself is not queried. Court records surface as cited records only, with no per-record verdict or score: every entry carries its docket number and filing date so you can verify identity, and when a name matches many possible litigants the report flags the ambiguity rather than guessing.

How is Shield different from a background check?

Shield is not a consumer reporting agency, and a Shield report is not a consumer report under the FCRA — it may not be used for any purpose covered by the FCRA. Shield is an information-only product: it aggregates cited public records — filings, enforcement history, court dockets, news — and does not assess, characterize, or score a person's character, reputation, or conduct.

Can Shield screen an Israeli sponsor?

Partially. For an Israeli resident principal, Shield does not have direct or reseller access to the Israeli Registrar of Companies officer records, so the person-level officer-history check is not available. If you submit one, you are notified before the report runs and can choose either a full refund or proceeding without the officer-history source — the report still includes OFAC SDN, SEC EDGAR, SEC IAPD, SEC SALI, and GDELT news monitoring where the principal has US filings. Israeli coverage is planned for a future release via a reseller agreement.