• Article

Why M&A Fees Feel Painful – and Lost Value Doesn’t

The psychology of paying for advice versus paying through outcomes, and how founders consistently misprice risk at exit.

Third: fee aversion combined with false math.

Advisory fees feel concrete; upside feels hypothetical. Owners fixate on the percentage instead of the delta. “Why pay 5% when I can save it?” becomes the mantra, even when the banker’s involvement typically moves the outcome by far more than the fee. Humans are terrible at counterfactuals.

Part 3 of ‘The 10 Invisible Reasons Business Owners Don’t Hire an M&A Advisor (Until It’s Too Late)’

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