  We develop a conceptually simple scheme based on a master-equation approach
to evaluate the full-counting statistics (FCS) of elastic and inelastic
off-resonant tunneling (cotunneling) in quantum dots (QDs) and molecules. We
demonstrate the method by showing that it reproduces known results for the FCS
and shot noise in the cotunneling regime. For a QD with an excited state, we
obtain an analytic expression for the cumulant generating function (CGF) taking
into account elastic and inelastic cotunneling. From the CGF we find that the
shot noise above the inelastic threshold in the cotunneling regime is
inherently super-Poissonian when external relaxation is weak. Furthermore, a
complete picture of the shot noise across the different transport regimes is
given. In the case where the excited state is a blocking state, strongly
enhanced shot noise is predicted both in the resonant and cotunneling regimes.
