The entire value of a feasibility study is that the analyst had nothing riding on the answer. Everything else is engineering on top of that fact.
Federal programs require independent analysis for a structural reason: the borrower’s projections are advocacy by construction, however sincere. Independence restores the information content. It has concrete requirements — no ownership interest in the project, no success fee, no contingent pricing, no compensation that varies with the determination — and one cultural requirement that cannot be papered: the willingness to deliver an unfavorable finding to a client who paid for the work.
Wert-Berater’s fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, not the borrower, in every engagement — a structure stated in writing and operationalized by the fee: it is the same whether the determination is favorable or not. The firm’s record includes INFEASIBLE findings on engagements where the sponsor expected otherwise, including a 170-unit condominium base case found infeasible at its proposed cost — alongside the restructured 184-unit program the same analysis showed could work. That second half is the point: independence is not hostility; it is the freedom to report what the data shows, including the version of the project that succeeds.
Every experienced feasibility consultant has taken the call asking whether the determination might be “revisited.” The professional answer is procedural: new evidence is always welcome and will be analyzed; pressure is not evidence. A determination that moves under pressure was never a determination — and a lender who learns a consultant’s findings are negotiable correctly discounts every report that firm has ever issued.
For lenders selecting a consultant, the screening questions are blunt: who pays you, does the fee vary with the outcome, and when did you last issue an unfavorable determination? The third question has a verifiable answer or it does not.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. More than 4,000 feasibility studies completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $40.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $40.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.