When conducting financial due diligence, it’s easy to think you need expensive tools and proprietary databases to get real insights. But there’s a surprising number of free due diligence resources that can take you far—especially in the early stages of research. Whether you’re building out a due diligence checklist or diving into a specific lead, these public resources can add valuable depth to your review process.
Here are nine of the best free Due Diligence resources you should know about:
- Companies House (UK): Company registration details, directors, and annual accounts.
Tied to: Entity verification, financial due diligence.
How to use it: Search by company name or number to get official filings and corporate structure. Especially useful for UK-based targets. - OpenCorporates: Global corporate registration data.
Tied to: Beneficial ownership, international scope in due diligence checklist.
How to use it: Look up businesses by name or jurisdiction to uncover cross-border ownership and links between entities. - OFAC Sanctions List Search: Checking for sanctions and watchlist flags.
Tied to: Compliance, reputational risk.
How to use it: Use exact name searches for individuals and entities to screen for links to restricted parties. - Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index: Country risk profiling.
Tied to: Jurisdictional risk, country-level due diligence.
How to use it: Use as a high-level metric when assessing the risk of doing business in specific countries. - FINRA BrokerCheck: Background checks on U.S.-based brokers and financial advisors.
Tied to: Personnel due diligence.
How to use it: Look up individuals or firms to find licenses, regulatory actions, and employment history. - Google Advanced Search: Deep web research, press mentions, hidden content.
Tied to: Media due diligence, reputational insights.
How to use it: Use advanced operators to filter by site, region, date range, and more for more precise research. - LinkedIn: Professional backgrounds, network connections, company info.
Tied to: Management due diligence.
How to use it: Check employment histories, endorsements, and shared contacts for potential red flags or validations. - PACER – U.S. Federal Court Records (Note: Free with limitations): Litigation history.
Tied to: Legal due diligence.
How to use it: Requires account registration. Search for past or ongoing litigation involving the company or key individuals. - WHOIS Lookup: Domain ownership verification.
Tied to: Cyber risk, technical footprint due diligence.
How to use it: Enter a website URL to see who registered the domain, when it was created, and other metadata that can point to suspicious patterns.
These free due diligence resources can significantly strengthen your investigations. Use them to expand your due diligence checklist, validate financial due diligence findings, and reduce compliance risk—all without touching your budget.
