Course purpose
This advanced course develops a complete planning method for financial investigations. It shows how to convert a mandate, allegation or control concern into defined objectives, decision criteria, competing hypotheses, scope boundaries, an evidence strategy, sequenced procedures, workstreams, resources, safeguards, milestones, reporting arrangements and closure criteria. The course treats the plan as a controlled governance instrument rather than a static checklist. It emphasises proportionality, legal review, preservation, security, exculpatory evidence, reproducibility, change control and early asset-recovery consideration. The method is applicable to corporate, regulatory, civil, disciplinary and criminal-support contexts, subject to the authority and rules of the relevant jurisdiction.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Translate a mandate and allegation into neutral investigative objectives, decision criteria and competing hypotheses.
2. Design an evidence matrix and sequenced work programme that addresses completeness, volatility, dependencies and corroboration.
3. Allocate roles, specialist resources, budget, security, legal review and quality controls to defined workstreams.
4. Use milestones, decision gates, issue logs and scope-change controls to direct execution without prejudging findings.
5. Define reporting, escalation, closure, retention and follow-up arrangements that make the investigation reviewable and decision-ready.
Forensic CPD
