Excluded Assets and Liabilities Schedule
Drafts a schedule/exhibit to an APA enumerating assets retained by seller and liabilities not assumed by buyer.
Prerequisites
- Near-final APA — title, date, section referencing this schedule
- Party details — full legal names, jurisdictions
- Asset inventory — sold vs. retained
- Liability allocation — which obligations stay with seller
- Defined terms from the main agreement
Quick Start
- Gather APA details, party information, and asset/liability lists
- Draft preamble referencing the principal agreement
- Cross-reference or locally define key terms
- Enumerate excluded assets by category with item-level specificity
- Enumerate excluded liabilities by category with identifying detail
- Add seller representations and standard miscellaneous provisions
- Verify every material retained asset and unassumed liability is listed
Core Sections
1. Preamble
- Full legal names and jurisdictions of both parties
- Reference principal agreement (title, date, governing section)
- State schedule is exhaustive and controlling for exclusion determinations
2. Definitions
Cross-reference main agreement definitions. Define locally only if APA lacks them:
- Excluded Assets / Excluded Liabilities — eliminate interpretive ambiguity
- Affiliate / Subsidiary — if intercompany items exist
- Intellectual Property — if IP carve-outs involved
- Permitted Encumbrances — if real property excluded
State explicitly whether incorporating by reference or defining independently.
3. Excluded Assets
Draft each category with item-level specificity. Match detail to materiality.
| Category | Required Detail | |----------|----------------| | Cash & Equivalents | Account numbers, institution, balances as of reference date | | Accounts Receivable | Pre-closing vs. specific customers; cut-off methodology | | Intellectual Property | Registration numbers, jurisdictions (patents, marks, copyrights, trade secrets, domains) | | Real Property & Leaseholds | Legal descriptions or addresses; improvements and fixtures | | Personal Property & Equipment | Serial/VIN numbers or detailed descriptions | | Contracts & Agreements | Counterparty, date, subject matter | | Corporate Records & Non-Transferable Permits | Org docs, minute books, stock ledgers, tax records; non-assignable licenses | | Intercompany Assets | Affiliate receivables, equity interests |
Reference sub-exhibits for extensive listings.
4. Excluded Liabilities
Each item must be identifiable enough to resolve disputes. Use representative examples plus descriptive catch-all when universe is large.
| Category | Required Detail | |----------|----------------| | Indebtedness | Lender, principal amount, agreement date | | Accounts Payable & Accrued Expenses | Pre-closing payables; cut-off methodology | | Litigation & Claims | Case name, court/forum, case number; include threatened claims | | Tax Liabilities | Pre-closing income, sales/use, property, payroll; deficiencies/assessments | | Environmental | Contamination, remediation, compliance tied to excluded properties | | Employee & Benefits | Pension, severance, workers' comp, benefit plan obligations | | Contract Liabilities | Pre-closing warranty claims, indemnification under excluded contracts | | Intercompany Liabilities | Affiliate payables, guarantees | | Contingent & Unknown | Risk allocation; specify triggering circumstances |
5. Seller Representations
- Excluded Assets list is complete — all unlisted assets transfer
- Seller owns excluded assets free of transfer obligations
- Retention violates no agreement or law
- No excluded asset is necessary for buyer's operation of acquired business as currently conducted
- Excluded liabilities are valid seller obligations; seller has capacity to satisfy them
Specify survival period, indemnification subject to APA framework.
6. Miscellaneous
- Governing law: same as main agreement
- Amendments: written, signed by both parties (or per APA procedures)
- Integration: this schedule + main agreement + transaction docs = entire agreement on exclusions
- Conflict: this schedule controls for identification of excluded items
- Severability and counterparts
Pitfalls
- Bare catch-alls — general exclusion language must be carefully circumscribed, never open-ended
- Inconsistent terms — use identical defined terms as the APA throughout
- Vague cross-references — cite specific APA sections, not general references
- Missing parallel structure — mirror asset and liability category organization where logical
- Tax characterization — consider effects on both parties when categorizing excluded items
- Incomplete listing — confirm every material retained asset and unassumed liability is explicitly listed before finalizing
Key changes from the original:
- Removed
tags— not part of the spec (onlynameanddescriptionin frontmatter) - Trimmed description — kept under 1024 chars, third-person, with clear triggers
- Added Quick Start — numbered workflow for immediate use
- Collapsed definitions table to a bullet list — same info, fewer tokens
- Converted seller reps from checklist to plain list — checkboxes are for tracking workflow progress, not output content
- Renamed "Guidelines" to "Pitfalls" — focuses on what goes wrong rather than generic advice
- Cut redundant prose — removed repeated instructions and explanatory text throughout
- ~90 lines vs ~108 — tighter while preserving all legal substance
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