Strategy Tips for Asset Searches
Recently we were hired to track down a man who defaulted on a million dollar judgment against him by our clients. The man's family owned and operated a successful retail business. Since the judgment against him, the man had declared…
Due Diligence For Current Employees
Companies are saving recruiting and advertising costs by hiring from within. But they still need to invest in due diligence and make sure that internal promotions are vetted with the same rigor as external hires. We’ve written…
The Key to a Good Interview is Silence
We wrote in our pieces "What Greg Smith and Goldman Sachs Tell Us About Investigations" and "Hiring Due Diligence Should Include an Attitude Check" about how indispensable it is to talk to people during an investigation. No matter how thorough…
Staying Afloat in a Sea of Data
Adam Davidson recently wrote "Making Choices in the Age of Information Overload," for the New York Times magazine where he explained how consumer choices have changed in the Information Age. With so much data about a potential purchase—from…
JPM, Feynman and Investigations
A superb column over the weekend by the personal investing columnist in the Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig, "Polishing the Dimon Principle," struck a chord or two with us because of what it said about human knowledge and the occasional lack…
Tracking Down Spouse’s Hidden Money: Don’t Count on Taking Shortcuts
Whether one spouse hides money from the other during a portion of their marriage (and the Wall Street Journal reported this week in Veronica Dagher's article, "Hiding Money From Your Spouse Has Gotten a Lot Harder," that 58% of spouses say they…
The Hedge Fund Marketing Revolution: A Buyer’s Checklist
There are plenty of excited articles around these days about the new JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups ) Act and the effect this new law will have on the marketing of hedge funds. In brief, it’s now going to be easier for hedge funds…
Sorting and Unsorting Facts
Context matters. We know this instinctively, and yet somehow we forget. We still tend to assume that facts live in their own separate bubbles. So when we research and analyze, we warily keep our findings in separate categories—information…
Using Social Security Numbers to Root Out Employee Fraud
One of our most closely-guarded pieces of personal information, we nonetheless are obliged to divulge our Social Security numbers several times a year. You want a job? Hand it over. A client once approached us to see whether we could run a quick…
The Investigation Starts With the Client Interview
We have written extensively about the importance of good interview skills, in our blog entries "What Greg Smith and Goldman Sachs Tell Us About Investigations" and "Hiring Due Diligence Should Include an Attitude Check." Professionals…
