While proper due diligence is clearly very important, it is unfortunately not always done very well, whether by the individual investor, the advisory firm or the multinational institution with the huge compliance department (reference the Bernie Madoff scandal, for example).

Asking the right questions and focusing on the right issues is what matters most and while our due diligence process can, of course, never eliminate all forms of risk altogether, it can help to minimise the possibility of unexpected and unwelcome events, and prevent you being exposed to risks which were both foreseeable and unnecessary.