RAETZER / READINESS
Evaluate the ownership, economic, governance, transition, and urgency issues that may affect a founder, partner, shareholder, or LLC-member separation.
~5 MINUTES · 19 QUESTIONS · INSTANT RESULTS
Before the next conversation
A business separation is both an ownership event and an operating-business transition. This assessment helps identify the issues that may affect the structure, negotiation, documentation, and timing of a founder, partner, shareholder, or LLC-member separation. It focuses on seven practical assessment issues before you speak with an attorney:
→ Ownership and governance documents
Review the governing documents, ownership records, management rights, and transfer provisions that frame the separation.
→ Valuation and economic terms
Identify the purchase price, valuation method, payment timing, security, debt, guarantees, and accounting questions.
→ Control and decision authority
Surface deadlock, access, voting, management, records, and authority issues affecting the business while terms are resolved.
→ Separation and transition terms
Consider resignations, intellectual property, customers, employees, digital assets, confidentiality, and continuing obligations.
→ Release and risk allocation
Identify indemnification, restrictive covenant, release, dispute-resolution, and enforcement provisions that may be needed.
→ Business continuity
Consider how the operating company can continue serving customers, managing people, and meeting obligations during the transition.
→ Urgency and execution authority
Clarify deadlines, contested events, decision-makers, adviser coordination, and the next step required to move forward.
01
OWNERSHIP & GOVERNANCE
02
ECONOMICS & VALUATION
03
SEPARATION & TRANSITION TERMS
04
URGENCY & EXECUTION
Urgent route: If a lawsuit, arbitration demand, injunction request, owner-removal deadline, document-signing deadline, or other immediate dispute already exists, request Priority Review instead of relying on the standard assessment.
Next step
Complete the applicable RAETZER readiness assessment. Your responses will help identify the likely scope, urgency, complexity, decision authority, and appropriate next step before you speak with an attorney.
The prices shown are indicative fixed fees or starting prices for qualifying matters. Final eligibility, scope, staffing, and fee are confirmed only after the applicable readiness assessment, conflicts review, jurisdictional review, attorney consultation, and execution of a written engagement agreement.
Each fixed fee is based on the parties, entities, documents, transaction structure, revision rounds, closing assumptions, and other limitations stated in the engagement agreement. A material change in the matter may require a supplemental fixed fee or an approved hourly scope.
Additional parties, entities, targets, bidders, investors, security classes, or closings
Material changes to economics or structure
Extraordinary diligence or negotiation
Repeated re-trading of agreed terms
Substantial corporate cleanup or missing records
Compressed or expedited deadlines
Specialty tax, regulatory, employment, benefits, real-estate, environmental, antitrust, litigation, or foreign-law issues
Restarting a transaction after termination or material delay
Government filing fees, state notice fees, foreign or local counsel, accountants, tax advisers, investment bankers, business brokers, lenders, appraisers, valuation providers, data-room providers, expert consultants, translators, and other third-party costs are not included unless expressly stated.
Legal fees are earned according to the milestones stated in the engagement agreement and are not contingent upon raising capital, obtaining financing, signing a transaction, or completing a closing.
RAETZER does not guarantee capital, financing, investors, acquisition targets, buyers, sellers, valuation, transaction approval, or closing.
RAETZER does not act as a broker-dealer, placement agent, investment banker, business broker, lender, accountant, tax adviser, valuation provider, or foreign-law adviser unless a separate written agreement expressly states otherwise.
Non-contractual note: Formal engagement letters govern and summarize these principles: one transaction/project; defined entities/parties/documents; ordinary negotiation only with material restructuring supplemental; defined revision rounds; exclusions for litigation/tax/accounting/valuation/regulatory/real-estate/environmental/benefits/foreign law unless included; third-party/government fees separate; delay/term changes permit supplemental fee; additional closings/investors/targets/bidders/entities/documents separately priced; fees earned by milestones and not contingent; additional work only after written approval of supplemental fixed fee/hourly scope. Formal engagement letters govern.
Pricing and package descriptions are provided for general informational purposes and do not constitute an offer to provide legal services. No attorney-client relationship is created through the website or an assessment submission. Representation begins only after conflicts review and execution of a written engagement agreement.
Before you begin
This assessment is provided solely for educational, informational and screening purposes. It is not legal advice, does not determine legal compliance or establish that a transaction or corporate initiative is “ready” under applicable law, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Do not submit confidential or privileged information. Representation begins only after conflicts review and execution of a written engagement agreement.
A considered first step
Before legal work begins, identify the transaction, urgency, complexity, decision authority, and principal readiness issues.
The next decision

RAETZER PLLC
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