There is an interesting dynamic that appears in some transactions.

A lender or prospective client decides not to engage. They choose to go elsewhere. And then, almost casually, they ask for the reasons your firm believed the value would not support the deal.

In other words, they want the roadmap without hiring the guide.

That should be declined.

Once a party has chosen another direction, there is no professional basis for handing over your case-specific diagnostic thinking simply because they ask for it politely. At that point, your judgment risks becoming a free planning document for someone else’s use.

They may take it to another valuation provider. They may use it to coach the seller or borrower. They may use it to shape the next conversation internally. They may use it to test whether someone else will be more flexible.

Whatever the downstream use, the principle is the same.

Your early judgment is not public property simply because you were candid enough to raise concerns before engagement.

This is one reason pre-engagement discipline matters so much. Professionals who are loose with their analysis before an engagement often end up helping transactions they have already decided not to participate in.

That makes no sense.

A firm should be generous with professionalism, clear in communication, and respectful in tone.

It should not be casual with its intellectual work product.

Going another direction is a choice. It is not a license to take the diagnostic value of someone else’s experience on the way out the door.