Undivided, by design. I run at most two sale processes and a small number of assessments at any time, by design. When I accept your engagement, you get me: the person who assessed your business is the person in every meeting, on every call, behind every number. Your matter is never divided among juniors, never queued behind a bigger client, and never practice for someone still learning.
I work for you, not for the deal. My fees are fixed before we start, I take no referral fees in any direction, and nothing in my model pays me to steer you anywhere. That structure exists for one reason: so the advice never has a thumb on the scale. If the right answer is “don’t sell”, or “wait two years”, or “you don’t need me for this” - that is the advice you will get, even when a different answer would have paid me more.
The difficult conversation happens, and it happens early. If your earnings will not support your number, if a shareholder is the real problem, if the business is not ready - I will say so in plain words the first time it becomes clear, not in week seven when it is comfortable. Candid, never cruel: every hard truth arrives in the same breath as the path to deal with it. You are not paying me to be agreeable. You are paying me to be right early enough for it to matter.
I own my work. Every score cites its anchor, every chip traces to its cause, every number can be interrogated - by you, your board, or a buyer’s advisers. If my judgement does not hold up under that questioning, that is mine to answer for, not something I hide behind caveats. Accountability is not a clause in my terms; it is the product.
Nothing moves on ambiguity. Scope is fixed before fees, fees are fixed before work, and shareholders are aligned before anything goes near a market. Misalignment discovered late is how value dies quietly, so I force the alignment conversations early - even when they are the uncomfortable ones.
Your information decides your family’s future, and I handle it that way. Confidentiality and candour are professional obligations to me, not clauses. What you tell me goes nowhere without your consent, and your existing advisers keep their seat - my job is to make their role bigger, not to take anyone’s chair.
If I am not the right adviser, I will tell you who is.
When I am wrong, I say so - and fix it at my cost.
Adil Moosa · Principal, Northtrail Partners Pty Ltd
This code describes how I work. It does not form part of the engagement terms.