Agreement Is Not Completion, Says Consultant Vincent D. Russo of the Gap Where Transactions Go Wrong

Transaction security, a core mandate of Russo's consulting practice, treats the period between a handshake and a settled transfer as a job in its own right

United States, 12th Sep 2026 - A signed agreement, says consultant Vincent D. Russo, Ph.D., is often mistaken for a finished transaction. In his experience, the distance between the two is where deals are actually lost.

"Everyone pays attention up to the handshake," Russo said. “Then attention drops off, right when the conditions, the timing and the money still have to line up. That gap is not automatically anyone's job, unless someone makes it their job.”

Transaction security is one of three mandates in Russo's personal consulting practice, alongside asset sourcing and investment diligence. He describes it as the work of staying close to a deal through the unglamorous middle stretch, between an agreement in principle and a completed transfer.

"It means tracking the conditions precedent instead of assuming they'll sort themselves out," Russo said. “It means keeping counterparties honest about timing, and confirming funds and custody arrangements independently rather than accepting someone's assurance that everything is in order.”

Russo says the mandate exists because incentives shift once an agreement is reached. "Before signing, everyone is careful. After signing, the party who benefits from delay sometimes has every reason to be less careful," he said. “Someone independent needs to be watching that gap on the client's behalf, not on the counterparty's.”

He is direct about the limits of the role. "I am not a lawyer and I am not a custodian," Russo said. “What I do is make sure the right specialist is involved at the right moment, and that nothing drifts simply because nobody was tracking it day to day.”

That approach, he says, is a direct extension of his earlier career in client relationship management inside financial institutions, where a transaction's success was measured by whether it actually closed on the terms the client had agreed to, not by how confident everyone sounded at signing. "Confidence is not a status report," Russo said. “I'd rather check.”

Russo takes on a limited number of engagements at a time from his base in the United States, a structure he says reflects how much sustained attention a transaction in progress actually requires.

More information is available at thevincentrusso.com. 

About Vincent D. Russo

Vincent D. Russo, Ph.D., is an independent consultant who sources assets, secures transactions and investigates investments for a small number of clients on a one-to-one basis. Born in Parma, Italy, and educated across Europe - a B.A. from the University of Bologna, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam - he spent his earlier career in client relationship management inside financial institutions before founding his personal consulting practice, based in the United States. Learn more at thevincentrusso.com. 

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