Guide
Who can help me review a franchise disclosure document?
Four sources help, each with a different job. A franchise attorney reads the contract for terms that will bind you. An accountant reads Item 21’s financials and your own numbers. Existing owners, listed in Item 20, tell you what the document leaves out. An AI research tool like Peregrine works through all 23 items with you first, so you arrive at the lawyer and the owners knowing what to ask.
Start by reading it yourself, structured
The FDD is long, and most buyers skim it. You don’t need a law degree to get the shape of it — you need a way through its 23 items that doesn’t let you skip the ones that matter. Read Item 7 (what it really costs to open), Item 19 (any earnings claim, and whether there is one at all), Item 20 (how many owners came and went), and Items 5, 6 and 17 (the fees and the exit). A tool like Peregrine takes the document and walks you through those items in plain language, then writes you the list of questions the document leaves open.
A franchise attorney
Hire a lawyer who does franchise work specifically, not your family attorney. Their job is the franchise agreement — the contract behind the FDD — and the terms you cannot see from the sales conversation: renewal, territory protection, what happens if you want to sell, and what the franchisor can change unilaterally. Expect a flat fee for an FDD review. It is the cheapest insurance you will buy in this process.
An accountant
An accountant reads Item 21 (the franchisor’s audited financials — is the company itself sound?) and helps you build your own projection, because Item 19 may give you little or nothing to work from. If the FDD carries no earnings claim, that is itself information: the franchisor has chosen not to make one.
The owners in Item 20
Item 20 lists current franchisees and everyone who left in the last three years, with contact details. These people have no reason to sell you anything. Call the ones who left as well as the ones still in — they are the most honest read you will get. The franchisor’s own reference list is chosen; the Item 20 list is everyone.
Where an AI tool fits
Peregrine doesn’t replace the attorney or the accountant. It does the work that used to stall people before they got there: reading the whole document, flagging what’s missing, and turning it into the questions you take to the professionals and the owners. It means you pay the lawyer to answer sharp questions, not to explain the document to you.