FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PRICE FLUCTUATIONS AND EFFICIENCY ON INVESTIGATIONS
Like people, not all investigations are alike. What may seem to be a simple matter at first glance can turn out to be more complicated than it appears or in some cases less complicated which brings us to the heart of the reason as to why one investigation may cost more or less than another – unknown variables or as one attorney once put it, “you can’t see what’s coming around the bend in the road”. Since we have been asked this question time and time again, we have compiled a list of the most common factors that influence price fluctuations below:
· Profile type of the subject – blue and white collar criminals require more in-depth investigation as they are more likely to use sophisticated & complex methods to conceal their assets, location, and activities
· Common names
· Use of abbreviated names and/or those that contain suffixes – i.e. a. J. Smith or a. John smith. A. J. Smith III, etc…
· Use of aliases, intentional or otherwise
· Scope of investigation
o Geographic locations where checks need to be conducted
o Number of individuals and business entities names that need to be checked
o Financial status of the individuals or entities
o Investigation objectives
· Sophistication of subject’s business operations and structure
· Research on business entities
· Debtor’s obfuscation methods used to thwart collection efforts:
o Similar named business entities which appear to be set up to deliberately confuse creditors collection efforts and/or ownership – (i.e. abc company, llc, abc company, inc, abc company i, inc, abc company ii, llc, etc…)
o Use of acronyms and formatting methods using letters of company names (i.e. abc company, a b c company, a.b.c. company, a. B. C. Company, etc…)
o Determining ownership interests in business entities when apparent methods have been used obsifucate the chain of ownership – i.e., use of attorneys and/or generic registered agents, or other business entities as their registered agents to cloak business associations)
o Use of mail drops or other methods used to conceal locations of residential or business addresses
o Sophistication of subject’s asset concealment mechanisms – i.e. use of trusts, titling assets in the names of other family members or business entities, use of proxy agents, online banking, etc…
· Method of concealing / titling assets - i.e title assets in names of family members, trusts, or business entities
· Restricted access to records – i.e. records not accessible to the public or that require physical visits to on-site locations, property records not indexed by name, costly subscriptions required to access records
· Record-keeping practices in some jurisdictions requires additional steps to acquire the information needed
· Expenses - databases, access fees, copy costs, use of another vendor or investigator to access records, etc...
· Obtaining copies of documents when needed; requires additional time and expense
· Excessive number of records found
· Report preparation – formatting and table construction
· Data collection, processing, integration, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of available information (for executive summaries)
· Data integrity – determination / confirmation of accuracy and/or determining if data is up-to- date or out-dated
· Follow-up investigation in general / “following leads”
· Complexity of investigation in general
· Special or additional requests by clients
· Insufficient or incorrect information provided by client
· Rush basis
We provide our Clients the ability to contain costs and stay within budgetary guidelines by limiting the scope of the investigation to a particular number of hours at an hourly rate when necessary. This method has been used with great success by our Clients and has achieved good results. If you have any questions after reading this section, contact us at (972) 552-2160