A sophisticated RIA buyer recently shared an experience he had with a well-known M&A advisory firm’s auction process. After signing a non-disclosure agreement to join the process, he described the information he received on the seller as ‘a little more than an email with a questionnaire attached requiring 13 pages of responses, followed by yet another list of questions requiring hours of work from his team.’ Despite requesting all that time and effort from the bidder, the sell-side advisor still hadn’t disclosed the identity of the seller, let alone offered time to meet them.

But here’s the twist: the prospective bidder already knew the seller personally. So, while he followed the M&A advisor’s formal process, he was also speaking directly with the seller, gaining insight into what was being provided by the M&A advisor. To his surprise — and frustration — he discovered that all the seller saw was a spreadsheet listing about 40 potential buyers, along with a few small points and the buyers’...