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About the Author: Steve Ward
Steve Ward is the Owner and CEO of Master Matchmakers and a second-generation matchmaker who built the firm alongside his mother and co-founder JoAnn Ward. He hosted and executive-produced VH1's Tough Love for six seasons, co-authored Crash Course in Love (Simon & Schuster), and has been featured as a dating expert by CNN, the Today Show, Oprah, Glamour, People, and Cosmopolitan. He has spent more than 25 years personally coaching and matching relationship-minded singles nationwide.
Quick answer: Master Matchmakers has run verified, background-checked introductions since 2001, with fees starting at $3,500 and a contract that does not expire. Before signing with any matchmaking firm, ours included, check seven terms: what the fee buys, whether it expires, what happens if your search stalls, refunds, and what is promised on outcomes.
By the time you are reading a matchmaking contract, you have already done the harder work: picked an approach, sat through a consultation call, and decided you are ready to invest real money in a professional search. That puts you further along than anyone else reading this blog. What is left is not whether to hire a matchmaker, it is whether the agreement in front of you says what you think it says.
This is not a pitch for Master Matchmakers. It is a checklist of the terms worth reading closely in any matchmaking agreement, built from real commercial questions rather than legal ones. We are not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice about what a clause can or cannot do, or whether it would hold up if it mattered. Run every one of these checks on us too, and hold us to the same standard you would hold any firm asking for your signature and your money.
What the Fee Actually Buys
Every matchmaking fee buys one of three different things, and firms rarely say which up front. It can buy a fixed number of introductions, a fixed window of time to search in, or an open-ended process that keeps working until it succeeds. These are not the same product. A firm quoting six introductions has sold you a countable thing that runs out. A firm quoting six months has sold you a clock, not an outcome. A firm quoting a process has sold you something closer to an ongoing obligation than a transaction. Ask which one is in front of you, in writing, before you sign.
Master Matchmakers prices around the process rather than a fixed window: fees start at $3,500, and the total scales with the number of introductions and coaching sessions your search needs, how specific and open your criteria are, and which matchmaker leads it. What that number tends to look like in practice is broken down in more detail in what a matchmaker actually costs, but the short version here is that the figure moves with your search rather than being fixed at signing.
Get the number broken down in writing, too: how many introductions and coaching sessions are included at the starting figure, and what specifically pushes the total higher. A quote that hands you a single number with no explanation of what raises or lowers it is not a full answer, and it is a reasonable thing to push back on before you sign.
Whether the Engagement Expires
This is the term with the most leverage in it, and the easiest one to miss, because most contracts do not draw attention to it. Some agreements run on a fixed clock: a set number of months, after which the engagement ends whether or not you have met anyone, and any remaining introductions or sessions are simply gone. Others do not expire, so a search that is not finished stays open instead of lapsing on a calendar. A contract that expires is not automatically a bad one, but it is a materially different product from one that does not, and you should know which you are signing before the clock starts running.
Master Matchmakers' contracts do not expire. That is a fact about our own agreement, not a claim about anyone else's, and it is the genuine differentiator in this section. Confirm it directly with any firm you are considering rather than assuming either way, because most will not raise the point unless you ask.
What Happens When a Search Stalls
A search that goes quiet for a stretch is not automatically a problem: matchmaking is not instant. What happens next tells you more about a firm than anything in its marketing. Ask directly: when feedback comes back on an introduction, does it change who gets suggested next, or does the firm keep delivering introductions on a schedule regardless of what you said did not work? The first is a search being run. The second is a quota being met.
For our own engagements, post-date feedback is built into the process rather than collected and filed away: it is part of what a personal coach and the matchmaking team use to decide who gets suggested next. Paired with a contract that does not expire, a stalled search has room to actually correct course instead of running out a clock.
Raise this before you sign, not after weeks of silence. A firm's answer to "what happens if this takes longer than expected," asked plainly during the sales conversation, tends to be more candid than anything written into the agreement itself.
Whether the Search Moves With You
Relocating mid-search is not a rare situation for the kind of client this service is built for, and it is worth asking about before it happens, not after a move. Does the search follow you to a new city, does it pause, or does it simply end? A firm with genuinely national reach should have a clear, specific answer, not a general reassurance.
We do not have a published answer to this for our own agreement. If it matters to your decision, and for some readers it will, ask us directly and get the answer in writing before you sign, the same as you should ask any firm.
What Is Promised on Outcomes
No reputable matchmaking firm can legally guarantee you will end up in a relationship, and a contract that implies otherwise, even softly, is the warning sign here, not the selling point. Read the language closely. The word "guarantee" attached to an outcome should raise a question, not confidence.
Master Matchmakers does not promise a specific outcome, because no matchmaker legally can. What we stand behind is narrower and verifiable: the accuracy of the information you are given about anyone we introduce you to, checked before the introduction is ever offered, not after you have already met them.
Refund, Pause, and Cancellation Terms
These are three different things, and a contract that only mentions one of them is worth a follow-up question. A pause typically means the search stops running for a period, without the engagement itself ending. A cancellation ends the agreement outright. A refund is a separate question again: whether any unused portion of the fee comes back to you, in full, in part, or not at all, if you cancel partway through. A firm can offer any combination of these, or none of them, and there is no substitute for reading the actual clause rather than assuming one exists. A concrete example makes the difference easier to spot: a firm that lets you pause for a few months during a busy stretch, without extending or ending the contract, is offering something different from one that only offers a full cancellation with no partial refund. Neither approach is wrong on its own, but the two are not interchangeable, and a contract that uses the words loosely is worth a direct question.
We do not currently publish standalone refund, pause, or cancellation terms, so this is a genuine gap in what we can tell you here rather than something we are choosing not to answer. If it matters to your decision, ask us directly and get the answer in writing before you sign, exactly as this checklist recommends you do with anyone else.
What Happens to Your Information When It Ends
Your profile, your background check results, and whatever your matchmaker learned about you during coaching do not disappear automatically when an engagement ends. Ask what happens to that information: is it deleted, retained, or held for some period in case you come back? A firm that cannot answer plainly has probably not thought about the question either.
We do not currently publish a data-retention policy specific to what happens at the end of an engagement, so this is a genuine gap rather than something we can answer for you here. Ask us the same question you would ask anyone else.
| What to check | Reassuring sign | Worth asking further |
| Fee structure | States plainly whether you are buying a number of introductions, a window of time, or an open process | Vague answer, or the structure shifts once you ask directly |
| Contract length | Clear statement of whether the agreement expires and what happens to unused sessions if it does | Silence on expiration, or an answer that shifts between the sales call and the paperwork |
| Stalled search | Can describe how feedback actually changes the next introduction | Describes only a schedule of introductions, not a feedback loop |
| Relocation | Specific, written answer about what happens if you move mid-search | General reassurance with no actual policy behind it |
| Outcomes | Guarantees only the reliability of the information it gives you | Any language implying a relationship or specific result is guaranteed |
| Refunds and cancellation | Written terms for a pause, a cancellation, and any refund, inside the agreement itself | Refund policy exists only as a verbal assurance, not in writing |
| Your information | Can state plainly what happens to your profile and background-check results after the engagement ends | No policy, or an answer that takes real effort to get |
None of these seven checks requires a lawyer, and a firm that answers them plainly, ours included, tells you more than its marketing page ever will. If you are earlier in the process and still comparing firms, the broader checklist for finding the right matchmaker covers the vetting questions that come before this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do matchmaking contracts typically expire?
It varies by firm, and it is one of the most consequential terms to check before signing. Some agreements run on a fixed number of months and end on a set date regardless of progress; others continue until the search is complete. Master Matchmakers' contracts do not expire, so an unfinished search stays open rather than lapsing on a calendar.
What happens if a matchmaker does not find you any matches for a while?
A quiet stretch is not automatically a problem, since matchmaking is not instant, but what happens next matters. Ask whether feedback on an introduction changes who gets suggested to you next, or whether the firm just keeps delivering introductions on a fixed schedule regardless. The first is a search adjusting to you; the second is a quota.
Can you get a refund from a matchmaking service?
It depends entirely on the firm's written terms, and a pause, a cancellation, and a refund are three separate questions that are easy to blur together. Ask specifically whether any unused portion of your fee is returned if you cancel, and get the answer in writing before you sign, not after.
What should be in a matchmaking contract before you sign it?
At minimum, a clear statement of what the fee buys, whether the agreement expires, how a stalled search is handled, what happens if you relocate, refund and cancellation terms, and what happens to your information afterward. No reputable firm can promise a guaranteed outcome, only the reliability of the information it gives you.
Does Master Matchmakers guarantee you will find a match?
No, and no reputable matchmaking firm legally can. What we stand behind is narrower: the accuracy of the information you receive about anyone we introduce you to, checked before the introduction is offered. Our contracts do not expire, so an unfinished search continues rather than ending on a deadline.