L3 Engagement Terms

Your engagement

Provider: Duke Business Advisors, Inc., doing business as Lucensys Group. Client: the business and authorized owner identified in the engagement schedule.

The engagement

We examine what could prevent the business from operating under another leader, successor, management team or ownership structure, and prepare an evidence-linked improvement plan. The engagement does not presume that you intend to sell. Before work starts, we agree your intended owner option, review boundaries, participating people, essential records, meeting arrangements and expected dates in the schedule. The 90-day plan is an action horizon, not 90 days of implementation or coaching.

Included work and deliverables

• Private L3 assessment, owner-option brief and critical-function map.
• Owner discovery of up to 90 minutes and up to three key-person interviews of up to 45 minutes each, only with your express authorization. Unavailable interviews are stated as limitations; they are not described as corroboration.
• Targeted review of supplied records, proportionate to the agreed owner option: available financial statements for up to three years plus current reporting, customer/supplier concentration, critical commitments, organization/authority, key-role coverage, processes and essential systems, data and rights.
• Two agreed bounded continuity walkthroughs. Where feasible, authorized and safe, one includes a technology/data recovery or access-continuity demonstration. No production disruption, credential sharing or unrestricted system access.
• A findings/priority workshop of up to 90 minutes.
• A complete tailored report covering financial continuity, people and leadership, scalability, transferability, and Technology & Data; plain-English native score explanations, evidence register, dependency map and answer appendix.
• A consolidated 90-day plan for days 1–30, 31–60 and 61–90, later prerequisites, accountable roles to agree, measures, checkpoints and evidence of completion.
• One owner debrief of up to 60 minutes, owner decisions and unresolved referrals.

Fee and two-payment option

The total service fee is USD $9,997. No sales tax is added. Under the two-payment option, $4,998.50 is due before advisory work begins and $4,998.50 is due when the current internally approved report and 90-day plan are ready for private delivery. The balance is due on the ready-for-delivery notice, before report release. There is no installment surcharge, interest, subscription or automatic second charge. You initiate each payment through the provided Stripe invoice page. The engagement schedule identifies these amounts and the agreed payment plan. A pay-in-full alternative requires a separately agreed schedule and confirmation that no installment has already been paid; never pay both plans for one engagement. Payment is for the agreed advisory work, report, plan and meeting obligations. It does not buy a particular assessment score or guarantee a business outcome.

Information, participation and boundaries

You identify authorized participants and supply the material information you may lawfully provide, through an agreed private method. We request only what matters. Dates depend on availability and receipt of essential information. Missing evidence may require a revised timetable or an expressly agreed conditional report. We state what was reported, reviewed, demonstrated, conflicting or unavailable. A successful walkthrough is evidence only within its stated bounds, not business-wide readiness. More extensive diligence or additional work requires a separate written agreement.

Factual review, corrections and completion

Identify factual errors during the agreed factual review or within 30 calendar days after release. One consolidated factual correction pass is included. Changed facts, expanded analysis and new owner objectives require a separate agreement. Original answers/scores remain intact; corrections are documented separately. Changed approved content requires a new review and separate release of the revised version. Completion requires the agreed report/plan and debrief obligations to be fulfilled, or your written agreement to defer the debrief. Payment or internal approval does not itself complete delivery. Missed meetings are rescheduled by agreement; no automatic no-show fee or forfeiture is introduced by these terms.

Cancellation, refunds and interrupted work

Cancellation before advisory work begins receives a full refund of amounts paid. After work begins, we review completed work, remaining deliverables and the reason for cancellation with you. Any retained fee/refund must be explained in writing against work actually performed. There is no automatic nonrefundable deposit, cancellation penalty, late fee or automatic balance charge under these terms. If essential records or participation are unavailable, pause and agree in writing how to resume, narrow or close the engagement, including treatment of unperformed work. We confirm in writing when advisory work starts.

Advisory limits

This is not a sale-readiness certificate, formal valuation, earnings verification, quality-of-earnings engagement, audit/assurance, legal interpretation, tax/security opinion or transaction representation. No sale price, financing, continuity outcome or improvement in business value is guaranteed. Implementation, ongoing coaching and specialist services require separate arrangements. Financial illustrations and owner replacement implications are limited by the supplied evidence and scope.

Confidentiality, privacy and use

The accompanying privacy notice explains use of information for advisory work and administration. Staff interviews need express authorization; do not provide another person's credentials. Reports support your business's agreed owner option; third parties must not treat them as independent assurance. Tell us before requesting distribution or reliance for another purpose. Raw records, internal advisor notes and unrelated personal information are excluded from client report delivery.

Acceptance, payment and release

An authorized client representative accepts the exact terms/privacy versions and the engagement schedule. Retain dated source evidence and document fingerprints. Payment never changes scores, approves/releases a report or grants client access. Internal approval alone sends no balance invoice. A separate delivery-readiness check precedes the balance request. After payment verification, release still needs its own advisor action and uses the approved version and private access mechanism.

Effective October 31, 2026. Version L23-2026-10-31.