An M&A advisor is engaged by one side of a transaction to run it: to find the counterparties, prepare the materials, manage the process and negotiate to close. The title covers business brokers, boutique advisers and investment banks, all of which do recognisably the same job at different sizes. This page sets out the five deliverables and how the fee works, using a $12,000,000 sale throughout.
They build a buyer list you would not have built
Financial buyers, adjacent strategics and overseas acquirers, tiered and agreed. A list containing only names the owner could have written down has added nothing, and it is the most common quiet failure because nobody checks it against the counterfactual.
They prepare the materials and run one clock
The teaser, the CIM and the model, then a process where every party moves to the same timetable. The CIM alone is 121.2 hours and $11,514 on this site's arithmetic. The clock is what produces competitive behaviour, and it stops working the first time a deadline slips for one party.
They negotiate the part before the lawyers
Getting several parties to indicate, ranking them on more than price, and taking one into exclusivity on terms that protect the seller. This is where most of the fee is earned, because an owner negotiating alone against a buyer with a deal team is on the wrong side of an information gap.
What they are paid
A retainer plus a success fee. On the worked example, $12,500 a month over nine months is $112,500 and a 5% fee on $12,000,000 is $600,000: $712,500 in total, or $487,500 payable at close if the retainers are credited against the fee.
Questions people ask about what is an m&a advisor
What does an M&A advisor do?
Builds the buyer list, prepares the materials, runs the process on one timetable, negotiates to the LOI and manages diligence to close.
How are they paid?
A monthly retainer plus a success fee at close. On the worked example, $112,500 plus $600,000, or $487,500 at close if credited.
Is an M&A advisor the same as a business broker?
Same job at a smaller size, usually more listing-driven. The bands overlap and the fee arithmetic tells you which one you are in.