redactedSearchers often treat the LOI as a short document the lawyers can clean up later. The problem is that included terms begin to harden, omitted protections become late asks, and an effort to change the baseline can be called a retrade. I wrote the first issue of Before You Sign about this because the LOI is often where leverage changes hands quietly. For every material point, ask: Why is this provision precise? Why is it vague? What important issue is missing?Who benefits from the wording or the silence? What happens if we try to change or add the point later?The goal is not to turn every LOI into a purchase agreement. It is to keep a short document from quietly deciding more than you intended. The issue also includes an annotated asset purchase LOI template: redacted