Effective Date: August 10, 2026
Percival, Carter & Associates Investigators (“PCA Investigators,” “PCAI,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides probate research, missing-heir investigations, beneficiary research, and related investigative research services.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information through our public website at pcainvestigators.com and our client portal at portal.pcainvestigators.com.
The website and client portal are separate systems and handle information differently. This Policy describes both.
1. Information We Collect
Information submitted through our website
Our website currently collects information through two intake forms on our “Get Started” process, a free case review form, and a newsletter signup form in the site footer. The intake and case review forms use hCaptcha, and all four use a honeypot, to help prevent automated submissions. The case review form asks for your name, email address, role, firm (optional), the name of the person who died, the county and state of the estate, who you are looking for, and whether anyone has already searched for them. It also offers an optional, unticked box to receive occasional updates; we record your answer to that box, and we reply to your request whether or not you tick it. Case review requests do not create a client portal account. The newsletter form asks for your name, email address and firm name; we record the consent wording shown with the form and the time you subscribed, and you can unsubscribe from any email we send.
When an intake form is submitted and verified, the information is transmitted to our client portal. The submission can automatically create a portal account and a pre-filled draft case. The original form submission is also retained in our application database.
Information collected through the client portal
Clients and authorized users may provide substantially more detailed information through the client portal because the portal is used to manage actual investigation matters.
This may include:
- Names and identifying information for decedents, heirs, beneficiaries, related individuals, witnesses, and other people connected with a matter
- Dates and places of birth and death
- Addresses and contact information
- Social Security Numbers
- The last three digits of a driver’s license number
- Probate county and cause number
- Case deadlines
- Information supplied in connection with the investigation
- Research notes and other case information
- Documents and attachments
- Information contained in investigation reports
- Billing and payment information
Clients may submit information about other people, including heirs and beneficiaries, who may not have a direct relationship with PCA Investigators.
Payment information
Payments are processed through Stripe.
PCA Investigators does not store full payment-card numbers in its database. Our system stores a Stripe customer identifier and limited card information such as the card brand and last four digits, while payment processing is handled by Stripe.
Technical and account information
We may collect technical information associated with use of the portal, including IP addresses, user-agent information, session information, and records of account and case activity.
The portal also maintains audit records and point-in-time snapshots associated with cases, people, and reports. These records help us maintain an accurate history of activity and verify the integrity of investigation records and reports.
2. How We Use Information
We use information we collect to:
- Receive and evaluate investigation requests
- Create and administer client accounts
- Create and manage investigation cases
- Conduct probate, heir, beneficiary, and family-history research
- Communicate with clients about cases and services
- Prepare and deliver investigation reports
- Verify and maintain the integrity of reports and case records
- Process payments, invoices, refunds, and related billing activity
- Maintain audit records
- Protect the security and integrity of our systems
- Prevent automated or abusive submissions
- Operate and improve the website and client portal
- Respond to inquiries, requests, and other communications
- Meet legal, regulatory, accounting, and operational obligations
We do not use the client portal for advertising analytics.
3. Website Analytics, Cookies, and Similar Technologies
Our public website uses Google Analytics 4 (“GA4”) to understand website traffic and usage.
The website currently uses cookies and similar technologies, including:
- _ga — used by Google Analytics 4; currently configured for a 400-day lifetime.
- _ga_KVVYN8TPDV — used for Google Analytics 4 property/session state; currently configured for a 400-day lifetime.
- __cf_bm — associated with hCaptcha/Cloudflare bot-management functionality and generally lasts for the session.
The website also loads Google Fonts and hCaptcha resources from third-party Google and hCaptcha domains.
The client portal does not use Google Analytics.
The portal uses security-related session cookies. Portal sessions are designed to use secure, HTTP-only cookies with same-site protections.
Important: PCA Investigators does not currently operate a cookie-consent banner or a cookie-preference management mechanism. This Policy is intended to disclose the technologies currently in use; it does not represent that a consent-management system is available.
4. Third-Party Services
We use service providers that help us operate our website, client portal, payments, security protections, and related infrastructure.
5. How We Share Information
We may disclose information:
- To personnel who need access to perform their assigned case, verification, administrative, billing, or support functions;
- When necessary to process a payment, refund, invoice, or related transaction;
- When necessary to protect the security or integrity of our systems;
- When required by law, legal process, court order, or governmental request;
- When reasonably necessary to investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or other unlawful activity; and
- With a client or authorized representative as necessary to perform the services requested.
We do not currently use a third-party email-marketing platform for portal communications.
6. Information About Other People
Clients may provide PCA Investigators with information about heirs, beneficiaries, relatives, witnesses, informants, and other third parties in connection with an investigation.
That information may include names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, and other identifying information.
If you submit information about another person, you are responsible for having an appropriate basis to provide that information to us and for using our services for a lawful purpose.
If you believe PCA Investigators holds information about you in connection with an investigation, you may contact us using the contact information below to ask about the information we hold and applicable options concerning that information.
7. Security
We use technical and organizational measures intended to protect information handled by our systems.
These measures include:
- TLS for information transmitted to and from our applications;
- Secure, HTTP-only, same-site session cookies;
- Role-based access controls;
- Separate access areas for client, researcher, verifier, and administrative functions;
- Authorization controls for case and other application records;
- Signature verification for Stripe webhooks;
- Audit logging of account and case activity;
- Integrity verification for report and person snapshots; and
- Security-related response headers.
The decedent Social Security Number stored in the investigation-case system is encrypted at rest.
PCA Investigators does not currently represent that all sensitive information is encrypted at rest. In particular, Social Security Numbers stored for heirs and related individuals and the driver’s-license fragment are not currently encrypted at rest.
No method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
8. Report Verification
Completed investigations produce reports that are reviewed by a verifier independent of the researcher before delivery.
Reports are associated with an immutable snapshot and integrity hash. PCA Investigators provides a public verification route that allows a person holding a report’s verification hash to confirm that the report has not been altered.
The public verification route does not provide the authenticated client’s report PDF for unrestricted download. Report and invoice PDFs are available for download through the authenticated client portal.
9. Data Retention
We do not currently operate automated purge or deletion jobs for case records.
Application logs are automatically rotated after approximately 14 days. Case information, attachments, reports, audit records, and related information are not automatically deleted simply because a particular period of time has passed.
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including providing services, maintaining business and accounting records, resolving disputes, maintaining audit and report integrity, and complying with legal obligations.
We may delete information upon a valid request where appropriate and where retention is not required or otherwise justified by applicable legal, contractual, security, accounting, or operational requirements.
10. Your Information Rights
Depending on applicable law, you may have rights concerning personal information we hold about you.
You may contact us to ask:
- What personal information we hold about you;
- How that information is used;
- Whether information about you has been disclosed to service providers or other parties;
- Whether inaccurate information can be corrected; or
- Whether information can be deleted, subject to applicable exceptions and our legal or operational obligations.
Clients can edit certain account information, including their profile, email address, and password, through the client portal.
We do not currently provide an online privacy-rights request portal or automated data-export or deletion button.
To make a privacy request, contact:
Percival, Carter & Associates Investigators
8220 Louetta Rd, PMB 1098
Spring, TX 77379
(832) 281-2571
info@pcainvestigators.com
11. Children’s Information
Our services are directed to adults and organizations handling probate, estate, and investigative matters. We do not knowingly design our services to solicit personal information directly from children.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, systems, data practices, legal requirements, or other circumstances.
When we update the Policy, we will revise the Effective Date shown at the top of the Policy.
13. Contact Us
Questions about this Privacy Policy or our handling of personal information may be directed to:
Percival, Carter & Associates Investigators
8220 Louetta Rd, PMB 1098
Spring, TX 77379
(832) 281-2571
info@pcainvestigators.com
PCA Investigators is an independent investigative research firm and does not provide legal advice.