home  /  deal team directory
the deal team directory

Who you actually need, and when.

Most owners assemble a deal team the way they hire a plumber in an emergency: by asking whoever is nearest. The result is usually a good lawyer doing the wrong job, an expensive banker hired too early, and nobody at all in the seat that mattered most.

This directory describes the seats rather than the people who fill them. That is deliberate. The Institute does not accept payment from any advisor, does not place anyone, and will not tell you that a particular firm is the best, because it has no honest basis for saying so. What it can do is tell you what each role genuinely does, when in the journey it earns its fee, the questions that separate a serious candidate from a plausible one, and the way owners most commonly get each hire wrong. Bring these questions to your own candidates and you will run a better process than most first-time buyers and most first-time sellers.

28 seats on a deal team

Filter by stage of the journey, or browse every seat. Each entry opens the Institute’s full account of the role.

Intermediaries and deal runners

Sell-side investment banker

Runs a competitive process to sell your company. The most consequential hire a selling owner makes, and the one most often made on a single referral.
also called: M&A advisor, sell-side advisor, banker
Preparing to sell

Buy-side banker or search advisor

Finds and approaches acquisition targets for you, usually the ones that are not for sale.
also called: buy-side advisor, origination advisor, deal sourcer
Sourcing & targetsValuation & diligence

Business broker

Lists and sells smaller owner-operated companies. Useful for what it is, and frequently mistaken for something it is not.
also called: main street broker, business intermediary
Sourcing & targetsPreparing to sell

Legal

Transaction counsel

The lawyer who drafts and negotiates the deal itself. Not the lawyer who has handled your business for twenty years, unless they genuinely do this work.
also called: M&A counsel, deal counsel
Structure & financingValuation & diligencePreparing to sell

Specialist counsel

Tax, employment, benefits, IP, environmental, regulatory, antitrust. The seats you only discover you needed when one of them surfaces a problem.
also called: deal specialists, subject matter counsel
Valuation & diligenceStructure & financing

Diligence, accounting and valuation

Quality of earnings provider

Tests whether the earnings you are buying are real, repeatable and yours. The highest-return professional fee in most acquisitions.
also called: QoE, financial due diligence, transaction advisory services
Valuation & diligencePreparing to sell

Valuation professional

Produces a defensible view of what a business is worth, for a stated purpose. Which purpose matters more than owners expect.
also called: appraiser, business valuation analyst
Valuation & diligencePreparing to sellStrategy & readiness

Specialist diligence providers

IT and cybersecurity, environmental, insurance and benefits, operational, human capital. The findings that do not appear in the financials.
also called: technical diligence, operational due diligence
Valuation & diligence

Commercial diligence consultant

Tests whether the market will still be there in five years, which no amount of financial diligence can tell you.
also called: market diligence, strategic due diligence, customer diligence
Sourcing & targetsValuation & diligence

Your own accountant

Knows your numbers better than anyone, and is the wrong person for several of the jobs you are about to hand them.
also called: the company CPA, external accountant, controller
Strategy & readinessValuation & diligencePreparing to sell

Insurance and benefits advisor

Finds the liabilities that never appear on a balance sheet, and the ones you inherit the moment you close.
also called: risk advisor, employee benefits consultant
Valuation & diligenceIntegration

Real estate advisor

For the very common case where the owner also owns the building, and the two are about to be separated.
also called: commercial property advisor, corporate real estate
Valuation & diligenceStructure & financingPreparing to sell

Capital providers

Senior lender

The bank providing the cheapest money in the structure, and the party with the most covenants attached to it.
also called: commercial bank, cash flow lender, asset based lender
Structure & financing

SBA lender

Government-guaranteed lending that makes smaller acquisitions possible, with conditions attached that owners should understand before applying.
also called: SBA 7(a) lender, preferred lender
Structure & financing

Private credit and mezzanine

Money that sits behind the bank and costs more, used to bridge the gap between senior debt and the equity you want to put in.
also called: mezzanine, subordinated debt, unitranche, junior capital
Structure & financing

Equity partner

Family offices, independent sponsors, private equity and minority investors. Capital that comes with a shareholder attached.
also called: financial partner, minority investor, independent sponsor
Structure & financingStrategy & readinessPreparing to sell

Representations and warranties insurance broker

Insures the promises in the purchase agreement, which changes who carries the risk and how much money stays behind.
also called: RWI broker, W&I insurance, transaction risk broker
Structure & financing

Debt placement advisor

Runs a competitive process for your financing, in the way a banker runs one for your company.
also called: debt advisor, capital markets advisor, financing agent
Structure & financing

Integration and the day after

Integration lead

The seat that decides whether the acquisition creates value, and the one most often left empty until after closing.
also called: integration manager, IMO lead, post-merger integration
IntegrationStructure & financing

Interim executive

A temporary operator for the gap between the seller leaving and the right permanent person arriving.
also called: fractional executive, transitional management
Integration

Communications advisor

For the week when your employees, customers and competitors all find out at once.
also called: internal communications, transaction communications, PR
Integration

Executive search

For the management layer the acquired company does not have, or the one that leaves.
also called: headhunter, recruiter, talent advisor
IntegrationPreparing to sell

Systems integrator

Merges two companies’ software and data, which is slower, more expensive and more disruptive than anyone forecasts.
also called: IT integration, ERP consultant, data migration specialist
Integration

Governance and stewardship

Independent directors and advisory boards

People with no stake in the deal happening, which makes them the rarest thing in the room.
also called: non-executive directors, board advisors, advisory board
Strategy & readinessIntegration

Family business advisor

For when the hardest negotiation is not with the buyer but at your own kitchen table.
also called: family governance advisor, succession consultant
Strategy & readinessPreparing to sell

The owner’s own side

Exit planner

Works on the years before a sale, when almost all of the value is actually created or lost.
also called: exit planning advisor, succession advisor
Preparing to sell

Personal wealth and tax advisor

What the proceeds mean for you and your family, planned before the deal closes rather than after.
also called: personal tax counsel, estate planner, private wealth advisor
Preparing to sellStructure & financing

ESOP advisor and trustee

For selling the company to the people who already work in it, which is a real option and a specialized one.
also called: employee ownership advisor, ESOP trustee, EOT advisor
Preparing to sellStructure & financing
Acquisition Conciergeorientation · not legal, tax or valuation advice
Happy to. Tell me roughly where you are, exploring, in a live deal, or preparing to sell, and roughly what size company you run, and I will tell you which seats matter now, which can wait, and which you probably do not need at all. I will not recommend a particular firm, because the Institute takes no money from advisors and has no basis for naming one.