Forte's roots date back over twenty years to the late 1980s when James Balogh, a successful attorney and entrepreneur, saw an opportunity to combine bankruptcy records from the nation's 11 federal district bankruptcy courts into a single database. Jim successfully overcame the many complexities of sourcing and combining the public records data into a single database, and called his creation Banko^®. In just a few years time, Banko gained wide adoption and soon became the industry standard for credit grantors and collection agencies alike.

A few years later, in 1996, Jim leveraged his unique knowledge of public record database development when he decided to pursue a new challenge: probated estate data. At the time, Jim was one of only a handful of people who recognized that the probate process offered a superior approach to collecting on deceased debt. For creditors, the probate process offered better recoveries and superior brand protection. For survivors, the probate process offered them significantly reduced contact from the deceased's creditors at the time they were grieving their loved one's death.

In 1998, Jim launched Probate Finder^®, the credit and collection industry's first national database of probated estate data. Since its founding, Jim and the Probate Finder team have been continuously improving Probate Finder's processes to source and combine data as well as the technologies to match records and file claims. Today, the Probate Finder Technology includes the credit and collection industry's only national probate database with over 2.6 million estate records drawn from the nation's more than 3,450 probate courts.

Late in 2008 and in an effort to offer the unique advantages of the Probate Finder Technology directly to credit grantors, Forte introduced its innovative EstateWise^™ Solutions. EstateWise Solutions, including EstateWise^™ OnePass, EstateWise^™100 and EstateWise^™ Predictor, help credit grantors improve deceased account recovery while protecting their relationships and their reputation.

Most recently, in collaboration with organizations that wanted to provide a resource to survivors of their deceased customers, Forte introduced MyWayForward.com, an innovative online platform that gives organizations the opportunity to provide a consistent, respectful customer experience to survivors.

We invite you to learn more about our innovative technologies and performance-improving solutions by exploring our website or contacting Forte today.