Note: This article is for orientation and does not replace professional or legal advice in individual cases. IDW S6 is the German standard of the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (IDW) for restructuring concepts.
Why an IDW S6 opinion is so demanding
When a company runs into a crisis, banks and investors usually require a restructuring concept under the IDW S6 standard of the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer. For restructuring advisors this means heavy time pressure: liquidity is tight, financing decisions are pending, and the duty to file for insolvency sets tight deadlines. At the same time, annual accounts, plans, contracts and minutes of uneven quality have to be analysed. And because banks rely on the opinion, among other things to limit liability and avoidance risks on restructuring loans, every assumption has to be traceable and evidenced.
Structure of a restructuring opinion under IDW S6
- Engagement and scope: subject, basis and limitations of the assessment
- Starting position: economic and legal circumstances, market, competition, organisation and financing
- Causes of the crisis and crisis stage: from stakeholder and strategy crisis via sales, earnings and liquidity crisis to insolvency
- Going-concern ability: can the company carry on, and will it remain solvent?
- Target picture of the restructured company: business model, markets and competitive advantages after the restructuring
- Restructuring measures: e.g. cost reduction, portfolio clean-up, financing measures
- Integrated business planning: income, financial and asset planning including the effect of measures
- Assessment of restructuring feasibility: able to continue as a going concern and again sustainably competitive and profitable?
Where AI helps and where it does not
| Component | What AI can contribute | What stays with the expert |
|---|---|---|
| Starting position | Market and industry research, summarising company documents | Judging what is relevant to the crisis |
| Causes of the crisis | Analysing accounts and minutes, recognising patterns | Assessing the causes, talks with management |
| Going-concern ability | Structuring liquidity data, documenting assumptions | Forecast and judgment |
| Target picture | Preparing market developments and positioning options | Defining the target picture with management |
| Measures | Drafting a catalogue of measures, making earlier cases usable | Selection, prioritisation, realism |
| Integrated planning | Checking consistency between text and planning | Building and validating the model |
| Restructuring feasibility | Structure, wording, source linking | The judgment and the responsibility for it |
Opportunities and limits
The biggest gain lies in the speed with documents: instead of spending days screening contracts, accounts and minutes, the key statements are quickly available in structured form. If every statement is automatically linked to its source, the opinion is easier to defend towards banks and investors. Contradictions between described measures and the plan are noticed earlier, and insights from earlier restructuring cases are quickly findable in the next engagement. Since restructuring opinions are often commissioned at fixed fees, every hour saved directly protects the margin.
The limits are just as clear. The judgment on restructuring feasibility is a professional assessment the expert stands behind. The integrated plan has to be right in both arithmetic and substance, and AI tools can make mistakes with complex financial models. Causes of the crisis often only emerge in conversation with management, banks and suppliers. And because information about a company in crisis is especially sensitive, it may only be processed in environments with EU data hosting, without training and with strict separation between engagements.
Checklist for using AI
- Fixed structure along the core components of IDW S6
- Source requirement for every statement on starting position, causes of the crisis and measures
- Checkpoints at which an experienced consultant approves causes of the crisis, target picture, measures and planning
- Secure environment with EU data hosting and no training on client data
- Preserve knowledge in a shared knowledge base
Conclusion
An IDW S6 opinion thrives on thoroughness, traceability and well-founded judgment. AI changes none of that, it only shifts the work: less time gathering and formatting, more time for analysis, conversations and assessment. For restructuring advisors this means: producing opinions faster and with better evidence, without compromising on quality.
