IAMI CMFI study plan

Define the core marine insurance concepts (utmost good faith, insurable interest, indemnity, proximate cause, constructive total loss, general average) in your own words and map each to a fraud opportunity it creates.

Distinguish the roles of broker, underwriter, claims adjuster, surveyor, average adjuster, and loss-prevention specialist, and state at which handoff point fraud most commonly enters a claim file.

Classify fraud into opportunistic, premeditated, and organized categories, and give one marine-specific example of each.

Build a personal red-flag checklist of at least 20 indicators drawn from claim timing, documentation quality, vessel and voyage history, and party relationships.

Explain how soft fraud (inflated values, exaggerated duration of delay) differs from hard fraud (staged casualty, scuttling) in detection difficulty and typical evidence trail.

Trace the documentary chain of a cargo claim from bill of lading through commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of insurance, and survey report, and identify where each document can be falsified.

Analyze the main cargo fraud typologies: over-valuation of goods, phantom or short shipment, deliberate damage or wetting, misdeclaration of commodity, and double financing of the same consignment.

Interpret Incoterms risk-transfer points and explain how a disputed transfer point shifts who may legitimately claim.

Evaluate the evidentiary weight of clean versus claused bills of lading, letters of indemnity, and ante-dated shipment dates.

Practice computing a cargo loss adjustment (insured value, deductible, salvage, under-insurance average) and spot the arithmetic patterns that suggest inflation.

Break down hull and machinery cover, including total loss, partial loss, sue-and-labour, unrepaired damage, and new-for-old deductions, and note the fraud pressure each clause creates.

Explain the mechanics of a staged casualty (scuttling, deliberate grounding, arson) and list the physical and behavioural indicators that separate it from a genuine casualty.

Interpret classification society status, survey records, repair yard invoices, and machinery damage reports for signs of fabrication or back-dating.

Assess the role of the vessel's age, value-to-hull ratio, mortgage exposure, and scrap value in motivating a constructive total loss claim.

Compare owner-caused damage, crew negligence, and third-party collision damage in terms of who benefits from a fraudulent framing.

Differentiate cargo theft, armed robbery, hijacking, and piracy under the standard marine definitions, and explain which cover responds to each.

Identify fraud patterns that hide inside genuine theft events: over-stated stolen quantities, phantom theft, collusion with carriers or guards, and re-routed cargo sold on.

Evaluate ransom and kidnap-and-ransom claim structures and the fraud risks around proof of payment and negotiation intermediaries.

Apply the red-flag framework from weeks 1-3 to a piracy or theft scenario and rank indicators by diagnostic strength.

Describe the role of voyage data, AIS tracks, port state records, and crew statements in testing whether a theft narrative is geographically and chronologically possible.

Outline the main marine liability exposures (collision, pollution, wreck removal, cargo liability, passenger and crew injury) and the fraud profile of each.

Analyze personal injury claim fraud in the maritime setting: exaggerated injury, pre-existing conditions, staged accidents, and duplicate claims across jurisdictions.

Design an investigation plan for a single claim, sequencing scene inspection, documentary review, digital evidence, and third-party enquiries.

Draft an interview plan for a claimant, a crew member, and a surveyor, using open questions, cognitive interviewing, and inconsistency probing without accusation.

Explain chain of custody, contemporaneous notes, and evidence preservation standards for physical, digital, and testimonial evidence.

Apply structured interview technique in a simulated second interview, focusing on eliciting timeline detail and testing consistency with documents.

Identify the legal boundaries on investigation: consent, data protection, jurisdictional limits, privilege, and the prohibition on coercion or misrepresentation.

Explain the fraud-related legal concepts that shape marine claims (misrepresentation, non-disclosure, fraudulent devices, waiver, estoppel, limitation periods).

Map the regulatory and reporting obligations that apply when fraud is suspected, including sanctions screening, suspicious transaction reporting, and referral to law enforcement.

Evaluate ethical dilemmas such as a genuine claim with a minor exaggeration, a broker's conflict of interest, and pressure to close a claim quickly.

Structure a fraud investigation report with findings, evidence index, chronology, indicator analysis, and defensible conclusions.

Design recovery routes: subrogation, salvage recovery, restitution, civil action, and criminal referral, and state the evidence each requires.

Build a set of fraud prevention controls for an underwriting and claims workflow, covering pre-bind screening, document verification, surveyor rotation, and payment controls.

Define measurable fraud-detection metrics (referral rate, red-flag hit rate, recovery ratio, cycle time) and explain how each would be monitored.

Review a set of short claim scenarios and decide, for each, whether to pay, investigate further, or decline, justifying the choice.

Consolidate all nine domains into a single one-page concept map linking fraud typology, indicator, evidence, and control.

Complete two timed practice sets covering all domains and review every wrong answer to its root cause.

Rehearse verbal explanations of the ten hardest concepts until each can be stated accurately in under one minute.

Revisit your week 1 red-flag matrix and revise it with everything learned, removing weak indicators and adding domain tags.

Write a personal exam-day checklist covering timing strategy, question triage, and common trap patterns.