In today’s world we should not accept what we are told at face value. As a default we should take whatever we are told to be false until proven true. There are many ways to lie and one of the most common is evasiveness. For example, if you are a Bank customer you may asked whether the investment product is 100% principal guaranteed and you may have been told, “Don’t worry, the Banks that issued this product are top US Banks with triple A rating, it is very safe”. Now you tell me whether your question was answered! If you would like to learn more and tell whether a person is lying, please take a look at my one-day course.

I am sure that many have read about the above situation where many investors claimed mis-selling of the structured products. Since 2004, I have been conducting investigation courses and one of my modules taught was on investigation standard, meaning fair and proper investigations must be conducted to establish the truth.

What is fair and proper investigations? Fair means independent or 3 rd party investigations. The person conducting the investigations must not have any conflict of interest or bias in any way. As the Bank is an interested party, its staff conducting the investigations will not be seen as impartial. Generally complaints of poor service should continue to be investigated by the organization concerned but complaints of mis-selling are quite different as there are legal liabilities and large amount of money is involved. The confidentiality of the investigation is compromise as the Bank should not be privy to the other party’s evidence before the case goes before the Court.

The other question is whether a proper investigation had been conducted. Again this is taught in my investigation course. Whether a proper investigation is conducted will depend on the process and whether the investigator is qualified. The process must be transparent with checks and balance and properly documented for review if necessary. The person conducting the investigations should be trained and have the necessary investigation experience and track record. This is easy to establish by looking at the number and types of cases he had investigated and the results, with cases going to trials as significant.

INVESTIGATION TIP 1 - Investigtation Standards