SIG’s investment, transaction, and insurance intelligence practice—a core specialty of our company—supports insurance underwriters and brokers; hedge funds; funds of funds; private equity and venture capital funds; institutional investors; individuals, family investment offices, operating companies, and attorneys engaged in investment activities; mergers and acquisitions (M&A); and other transactional work through integrative intelligence combining many sources and techniques to ensure clients can make the best decision.  

Taking non-financial due diligence to a much deeper level—which we call “guerilla due diligence,” SIG’s litigation intelligence supports backgrounding, strategy, and tactics, including real-time support during negotiations. 

In today’s uncertain environment, it is more critical than ever to know as much as possible about whom you are dealing with, their history, links, and behavioral characteristics—and even where their money comes from.  SIG specializes in both domestic U.S. and international investment intelligence, and has worked in over 65 countries.  While the availability of specific different elements of data varies from country to country, SIG’s holistic intelligence approach ensures in-depth, broad-based findings not limited to one source or kind of data.

Elements of investment and transaction intelligence include:

Identification and investigation of “unrevealed” issues related to individuals and companies: Uncovering elements that the target of acquisition or investment, or the prospective insured, has not disclosed and may not want you to know, including legal, regulatory, internal, and personnel issues; links to other entities, and related undisclosed issues.

Reputation: Understanding of the reputation of prospective insureds and targets of investment.

Intelligence on key individuals: Definition of business, personal, and legal history and background of key individuals at targets of investment, M&A targets, and prospective insureds. This includes psychological and behavioral pattern profiling; detection of points of “influencability;” relevant historical factors; political affiliations; predictive patterning of actions and reactions.

Intelligence on links and connections: “Peeling the onion” to define second, third, and fourth-degree connections, to ensure that companies and individuals are free from links to terrorist or criminal groups, for example. Another use is in examining providers to prospective insureds, to help classify and evaluate risk.

Investigation of company legal history and related elements: Independent tracing of lawsuits in which a company or individuals associated with a company have been involved to reveal patterns and vulnerabilities.

Intelligence assessment of market situation and strategy: Discovery of key issues that may affect the viability of market plans, including barriers and enablers, customer attitudes.

Intelligence assessment of market situation and strategy: Discovery of key issues that may affect the viability of market plans, including barriers and enablers, customer attitudes.

Verification and reference checks: Professional and personal reference checks for key people, including education verification, military service verification, employment verification, and other reference and verification elements.