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Due diligence business investigations checklist Are you on track? Use our due diligence business investigations checklist to make sure.

When you’re conducting a due diligence business investigation, you want to make sure you’re dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s. Conducting thorough due diligence investigations requires attention to detail, a well -thought-out game plan and persistence.

Due diligence expert Cynthia Hetherington has developed a handy checklist to help frame up successful due diligence investigations of businesses. Her firm, the Hetherington Group, is a consulting, publishing, and training firm focusing on intelligence, security and investigations. With over 20 years’ experience conducting investigative due diligence, corporate intelligence, Internet and online investigations they have formulated methodologies based on experience and subject expertise.

She takes abstract concepts and incorporates them into a blueprint for action, such as this checklist. It’s a tool that can be immediately integrated into operations, potentially saving you time, money and effort.

Use this checklist to help structure your investigations — and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Assets / Liabilities

  • Property Ownership
  • Vehicles / Watercraft / Aircraft
  • Security Ownership (5% Owners)
  • Business Reports
  • Credit Reports
  • Intellectual Property
  • Causes (political, charitable, sponsorship)
  • UCC

Company

  • Name
  • State and FEIN Identifiers
  • Business status (profit, non, charity)
  • Industry codes (NAICS, SIC)
  • Business address
  • Website
  • Contact numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Social media profile addresses

Company Biography

  • Executive management
  • Company history
  • Company statements (mission, sales objectives, purpose)
  • Federal contracting (Sam.gov)
  • Secretary of State / Corporation filings
  • Permits (OSHA)
  • Professional licenses
  • Professional association affiliations
  • Charitable donations
  • Political donations

Legal

  • Bankruptcies
  • Liens / Judgments / Tax
  • Sanctioning / Regulatory
  • Litigation
  • Criminal
  • Compliance
  • Property (Foreclosures)

Media

  • News/Literature
  • Social Media (beyond biographical)
  • Open Sources (surface web)

Investigations

Thomson Reuters CLEAR

CLEAR online investigation software makes it easier to locate people, businesses, assets and affiliations, and other critical information. With its vast collection of public and proprietary records, investigators can dive deep into their research and uncover hard-to-find data.