Today Individual Federal Gift Law Exemption is $5.12M.  In Months it May Drop to $1M.  Result: Surging Demand for Appraisals.    Lou Carlozo at Reuters reports that faced with the possibility of the lifetime gift tax exemption dropping precipitously next year and the estate tax rate rising, wealthy individuals are rushing to transfer their assets to family members. More: ...

This Long Term Plan Is of Particular Use to Owners of Illiquid Privately Held Companies Consultants can help business owners planning a sale by helping them understand how a charitable remainder trust might help. These trusts can significantly reduce owed taxes and ensure owners receive regular income in return for donating cash, securities, or real estate to a charity. It’s of particular use for owners of ...

Shared Values and Employee Practices Drive Increased Productivity, Loyalty, and Best Customer Service The shared values and practices of employees in a company have real value that can be just as critical to a company’s success as its physical assets and market potential. Employees who passionately enjoy their work tend to be more productive, have increased employer loyalty, and offer better customer servic ...

The Best Experts Increase Odds of Winning by Devising Strategy, Guiding Discovery, and Enhancing the Quality of Daubert Challenges Donald M. May at Claims Journal explains how the best expert witnesses increase odds of winning by devising strategy, guiding discovery, and enhancing the quality of Daubert challenges.  Here are the sort of queries—about specific topical expertise, testimony record, exclusion h ...

Intangible Assets, Switching Costs, Network Economies, and Cost Advantage Provide a Critical Edge Ron Stacey contends the answer is not a dominant market share, efficiency, or even a talented management team. Companies with lasting advantage tend to be strengthened by intangible assets, switching costs, network economies, and cost advantage. Find out why.  ...

Restaurant Chains Have Managed to Combine Quality Control, Cost Control, and Innovation. Can Health Care?   Physician and writer Atul Gawande publishes an essay in the New Yorker today that discusses how the Cheesecake Factory delivers good food at reasonable prices while meeting rigorous metrics (it throws away only 2.5% of all its groceries, for instance), and explores whether and how the lessons of Chees ...

Of an Estimated $72B Raised by U.S. Buyout Sponsors Through Mid-Year, 43% Has Gone to Mega-Funds  PE Hub opines that while many LPs claim they favor small- to mid-sized business investments, that this year the numbers are beginning to tell a different story.   There is increased investment in buyout funds doing deals of $1 billion or more in size.   It may be that mega-funds  while less are simply the only ...

Six Initial Public Offerings Seek to Raise $1.1 Billion  The IPO market is set for its biggest week since Facebook Inc.'s FB +4.98% troubled offering in May, with Manchester United Ltd. and the operator of Outback Steakhouse among those scheduled to hit the tape, reports the Wall Street Journal.   More: ...

Bond King Says Stocks are Dead:  Believes Consistent, Annual Returns Are "Thing of the Past."  On the Horizon?  Inflation. “The cult of equity is dying,” Bill Gross wrote in his August Investment Outlook, the Wall Street Journal's Market Beat blog reports.    “Like a once bright green aspen turning to subtle shades of yellow then red in the Colorado fall, investors’ impressions of ‘stocks for the long run’ ...

CPA Firms Emphasize Privacy Efforts as Pressure Mounts From Regulatory Requirements, Professional Standards, and Client Expectations  CPA firms and other businesses that maintain confidential client data are vulnerable to external and internal threats, including inadvertently leaking data and being targeted by hackers, reports the Journal of Accountancy.  Seven steps can help businesses assess which data ne ...

Enterprise Value is a Perpetuity Concept, but Shareholder Level Values Depend on Expected Holding Periods.  Here’s Why the Difference Matters.  The conceptual logic regarding the income approach is difficult to refute, writes Chris Mercer on the Valuation Speak blog.  What can cause expected cash flows to minority shareholders to be less than the expected cash flows of the enterprise? What can cause the exp ...

It’s Prime Time for Estate Planning Market volatility may be tough on the nerves, opines the Wall Street Journal, but it could be a boon for wealthy families looking to shelter assets from taxes while helping their children.  Here’s how to  devise strategies on discounts, GRATs, and loans.  Additional advice:  take advantage of low interest rates and exploit the federal gift-tax exemption. ...

When Crossing or Responding to Your Opposing Expert Witness, Look for the L.I.E. (Large Internal Error) Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm cross-examines experts looking for the L.I.E (Large Internal Error).  He doesn’t always find one.  But when he does, he no longer needs to claim his expert would have done it differently or done it better.  He simply points out a liar—and dramatically wins the jury over.  Here’s how. ...

Research Highlights Growth in Healthcare Cloud Computing A MarketsandMarkets report predicts that the global healthcare market for cloud computing will grow to $5.4 billion in 2017, with North America expected to be the biggest contributor because of new clinical diagnosis codes, meaningful use requirements, and other federal efforts. However, privacy and security issues tied to the technology remain a barr ...

A $450B Annual Tax Gap Prompts Treasury to Pursue Aggressive Compliance Techniques Blake E. Christian explains why the IRS has an explicit focus and specific tactics. Here’s what to expect: increased regulation of tax professionals, more mandated disclosures, and an insistence on tax document matching. Plus, there will likely be an added focus on high-yield assessments. ...

10 Years After Implementation, NYT Cites Lawyer, Former SEC Official, PCAOB Oversight Member, and Editor Who See SOX as a Positive Development.  WSJ Sources Not So Sure.  IBD Claims SOX Has "Devastated" IPO Market.  The Times’ “Room for Debate” roundtable noted that last Sunday, July 24th, marked 10 years since the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting law was enacted, after the scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewher ...

Solid Background on Recent Court Decisions, Valuation in US Tax Court, Estate & Gift Tax, Pension Protection, More The Primus Valuation blog offers an in-depth summary of  the proceedings of last year's ASA IRS Symposium in Los Angeles.   Although a bit more than a year old, there's very solid detail here and extensive coverage of issues still very relevant to today's practitioners.  Here's an excerpt f ...

Organizations with a Market Capitalization of Less than $300 Million may be Paying Higher Insurance Premiums Catastrophic risk is of increased concern to insurers, and small businesses without losses will likely face increased premiums of 10-20 percent on renewal next year. Why? Wildfires, cyber-crime, cloud computing risk, and workers compensation rates are some reasons insurers cite. ...

Six Critical Questions to Ask Would-be Buyers When prospective buyers call, it’s critical owners use the opportunity to capture valuable information about the market, who active buyers are, and what’s driving the value of their company. MidCap Advisors suggests six critical questions to discern what profit levels and growth rates a buyer is looking for and, most importantly, how a buyer approaches valuing c ...

Recommended Valuation Process for Buy-Sell Agreements: Single Appraiser Chris Mercer tells how to set up a Buy-Sell Agreement for closely held and family businesses. He identifies three key procedures: Owners should select an appraiser for their business when they create the Buy-Sell, that appraiser should offer an initial baseline valuation for the Buy-Sell, and the named appraiser should continue to value ...