Who it's for

Anyone who has been offered an investment and wants to think it through clearly

You do not need to be financially sophisticated. Investigator™ is written in plain English and designed for anyone — whether this is your first investment or you have been investing for years.

You've been approached unexpectedly
Cold call, social media advert, WhatsApp message, or a friend who's "made a lot of money." Unsolicited contact is one of the most common routes into investment fraud.
Something doesn't feel quite right
You can't fully explain what you're investing in, you're feeling rushed, or you've been told to keep it quiet. These feelings matter — this tool helps you name what's bothering you.
You want to check before you commit
The investment might be entirely legitimate. Investigator™ helps you confirm that — systematically, independently, and in your own time.
You've already invested and have concerns
It's not too late to use this tool. The summary and next-steps guidance can help you understand your position and what to do if something has gone wrong.
How it works

Seven stages of independent review

Each stage builds on the last. You can upload a prospectus or terms document at the start and Investigator™ will read it and pre-fill what it can — so you are not starting from a blank page.

Document and basics
Upload a prospectus, photograph a printed page, or enter the investment details manually. We extract key terms — promised return, lock-up period, FSCS status, offshore registration — and flag what we find before you answer a single question.
Client classification
Are you being asked to sign a "sophisticated investor" or "high net worth" self-certification? Many people do not realise this removes most FCA retail protections — including the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman. This stage explains what you may be waiving and whether you genuinely meet the legal criteria.
Consent and pressure
Genuine informed consent requires time, full information, and real freedom to say no. This stage checks whether those conditions are present — and names the tactics that are sometimes used to undermine them.
Offshore and jurisdictional risk
Offshore registration is not automatically a problem — but it adds significant risk around regulatory oversight, compensation cover, and whether you could ever enforce a legal judgment if things go wrong. Some territories offer regulatory cover in name only.
Automated public checks
Ten one-click searches — FCA Register, FCA Warning List, ScamSmart, Companies House, disqualified directors, Action Fraud, MoneySavingExpert forum, domain age, Financial Ombudsman eligibility, and an independent web search — all pre-filled with the firm name so nothing is left to chance.
Asymmetry and consequences
Every investment agreement has two sides. This stage maps who controls access to your money, who bears the risk if things go wrong, and what the real-life consequences of a loss would be — not just the financial impact, but the life impact.
Your investigation summary
A plain-language picture of everything you have found — with a risk score, consequence cards specific to your situation, and clear next steps. Print it, save it as a PDF, or share it with someone you trust. Every summary carries a unique reference number and a date and time stamp.
Public data sources

Ten checks from public data — automatically, in one place

Investigator™ does not replace your own judgement. But it removes the friction from the checks that matter most — so nothing gets skipped because it felt too complicated.

🏛FCA Register
🛡FCA Warning List
🔎FCA ScamSmart
🏢Companies House
👤Disqualified directors
🚩Action Fraud
💬MoneySavingExpert forum
🌐Domain age (WHOIS)
⚖Financial Ombudsman
🔍Independent web search
How we approach this

A few things you should know about how Investigator™ works

It supports your judgement — it does not replace it
Investigator™ helps you see more clearly. It asks good questions, surfaces public information, and names things that are sometimes hard to name. But the decision is always yours. No tool can make it for you, and any tool that claims to is either oversimplifying or misleading you.
Nothing you enter is stored or shared
Your answers live only in your browser session. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is logged, and there is no account to create. The only data that leaves your device is a document you choose to upload for analysis — and that is used only to extract key terms, not stored anywhere.
A clean result does not mean a safe investment
Investigator™ checks what is publicly available and asks questions about what you have been told. It cannot verify claims that are not yet on record, and sophisticated fraud often passes basic checks in its early stages. Use this tool as a floor, not a ceiling.
It is not regulated financial advice
Investigator™ is a public-interest due diligence tool, not a regulated advice service. If you need regulated advice — and for significant investment decisions you should — seek an independent financial adviser who is authorised by the FCA and not connected to the investment you are considering.
It is completely free
Investigator™ is a public-interest tool from the Academy of Life Planning. There is no subscription, no premium tier, and no upsell. It exists because access to clear, independent thinking about financial decisions should not depend on how much money you already have.
Get SAFE
If things have already gone wrong

Get SAFE — Support After Financial Exploitation

Investment fraud causes real harm — not just financial, but emotional, relational, and psychological. Get SAFE is a free, trauma-informed support service for anyone who has been affected by financial exploitation or investment fraud.

If you or someone you know has lost money to a suspected scam, or is under pressure to invest in something that doesn't feel right, Get SAFE can help you stabilise, understand your position, and work out what to do next.

Visit getsafe.org.uk →

Ready to investigate?

Takes around 15 minutes. Free. No account. Nothing stored. Print your summary at the end.

Begin the review →