No. Identify exactly which services and payments it covers. A private quote does not amend the government’s fees, gift or eligibility requirements.
Read inclusions rather than relying on the label
Current principal gifts are US$1 million individually or US$2 million corporately after successful vetting and instructions, separate from US$15,000 nonrefundable processing. Clarify any promised handling of these payments through the applicable official process. Hypothetical example: a hydrogeologist compares two proposals, one materially cheaper, and finds on reading that the cheaper one excludes the vetting stage entirely.
Compare inclusions rather than totals. A useful method is to write the official sequence down the left of a page, from the nonrefundable processing charge through vetting and official instructions to the gift the applicant pays to the U.S. government, then mark against each step whether the quote covers work at that point and what work.
Where a quote claims to include a government amount, ask how it is transmitted and what receipt the applicant will hold; where it excludes one, ask when the applicant should expect to pay it. Put the same written questions to both advisers and compare the answers side by side. No professional arrangement changes the published amounts, the order of the steps, or the eligibility that must still be established.
Ask each adviser to identify in writing the point at which its work ends and what the applicant is then expected to do unaided, since that boundary is where an incomplete engagement usually shows itself.