Private Equity Services

Operational readiness for the highest-risk moments of the deal lifecycle.

FOHRT supports private equity sponsors and portfolio companies through the highest-risk moments of the deal lifecycle: diligence, carve-outs, standups, and integration.

Due Diligence

Most engagements center on employment structure, executive compensation and transition risk, benefits alignment, and severance exposure — the areas most likely to surface real cost or liability before close. Where the deal calls for it, we go deeper: entity structure, classification risk, union exposure, and retirement plan liabilities that don’t show up in a standard balance sheet review. For multi-national transactions, that can mean country-by-country risk mapping across visa exposure, TUPE and works council obligations, and EOR requirements, platform and tech stack readiness assessments, and TSA or reverse-TSA scope negotiation — run as a structured, phased engagement, not a single pass. Scope is set by the deal, not a fixed checklist.

We’ve surfaced multi-million dollar retirement liabilities during diligence, including on a transaction that ultimately did not close — findings that gave the client what they needed to make the right call.

Carve-Outs

A carve-out inherits risk the parent company built over years: benefits and payroll run through systems that won’t survive separation, 401(k) plans that may need to split or spin out entirely, and compliance exposure that was someone else’s problem until now. We assess benefits continuity and funding status, review payroll processes and provider relationships currently run through the parent, evaluate employment agreements and handbook policies for wage-and-hour and multi-state compliance exposure, and identify 401(k) split or spin-out requirements and timing. Where the carve-out crosses borders or involves a unionized workforce, we also handle CBA review and EOR structuring. The result is a workforce risk heat map across employment status, benefits, and compliance, translated into concrete Day 1 requirements and TSA scope recommendations — so the new organization can actually operate independently from day one, not just on paper.

De Novo Standups

Standing up a new operating entity means building the people function from nothing, on a deadline that doesn’t move. We run standups through four phases: a strategic assessment of current state and viable paths forward; Day 1 readiness covering entity setup, HRIS and payroll selection, initial compensation and benefits design, and the policy and handbook framework needed to operate legally from the first day of business; full implementation, launching systems, building out recruiting for critical roles, and standing up operational infrastructure end to end; and steady state and scaling, evaluating the right long-term HR structure and getting the organization to an exit-ready compliance posture. We’ve led or supported standups across trade services, HVAC, HR tech, facilities, professional services, and government contracting.

Post-Acquisition Integration

Integration is where the deal thesis either survives contact with reality or doesn’t. We build the org structure and reporting lines for the combined organization, assess and align benefits across entities, and lead change management and communications through the transition — the part most integrations underinvest in and pay for later in attrition. We refresh employee handbooks and policies to reflect the new organization, define job architecture and leveling for the combined workforce, review the HRIS and tech stack for its ability to actually support growth, and set the future-state HR strategy so the organization isn’t just integrated, it’s positioned for what comes next. We clear compliance and legal-entity risk specific to the deal and build the infrastructure that holds after we leave, not just launches.

Why Choose Us

Customized Strategies

Every deal is unique, so we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all diligence or integration playbooks. We tailor each engagement to your specific deal structure, risk profile, and timeline, ensuring our findings are implementable and hold up under scrutiny — guidance designed to protect deal value and drive long-term portfolio success.

Experienced Consultants

Our consultants bring deal-side operating expertise to every engagement. With over 30 years of experience across treasury, finance, and HR leadership — including work inside private equity-backed organizations — our team has served as CFOs, COOs, and CHROs, with firsthand insight into the operational risk that threatens transactions before, during, and after close.

Data-Driven Approach

Every finding we surface is backed by thorough diligence and grounded in real regulatory and financial detail, not assumption. We leverage industry claims data, compliance thresholds, and financial modeling to identify risk that standard diligence misses — helping you make decisions that protect EBITDA and hold up when a diligence team or an LP asks hard questions.

Implementable, Real-World Solutions

We don’t believe in theory for theory’s sake. Our findings are practical and actionable, designed to integrate into your deal timeline and produce measurable outcomes that protect value — not a report that sits unread after close.

Facing a carve-out, standup, or integration that needs to hold?

If you’re facing a carve-out, a de novo standup, an integration that needs to hold, or you need HR leadership without full-time overhead, this is the work we do.