• Practice Management - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Pricing on Purpose

    How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm, Part 3 In this third article of the three-part series, Ronald Baker discusses how to implement a value pricing model and the advantages this model presents over the hourly billing model. Again, the focus is on the value provided to the customer and communicating this to clients. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

  • QuickPress - Valuation/Appraisal

    Building the Global Valuation Standard

    “Rome was not built in a day,” but efforts are underway to do it faster for international valuation standards. At the recent World Congress of Accountants, Sir David Tweedie, chair, International Valuation Standards Council, outlined the challenges facing the valuation profession when he stated and questioned the following: “The profession developed as secondary specialization by experts working in different types of asset classes. It led to a fragmentation by asset type. Skills are regarded as technique rather than as a profession. What are the accepted qualifications? Lack of recognition by regulators, other professions, and prospective recruits.” Globally accepted professional standards…

  • QuickPress - Tax

    Donating RMDs Saves on Taxes, Other Benefits

    Thanks to the U.S. Senate, IRA owners age 701/2 and older have until Wednesday, December 31, 2014, to make a direct transfer from their account to an eligible charity of their choice of up to $100,000 without paying taxes on the distribution. The senate approved the direct rollover in addition to more than 50 other tax provisions as part of the extender’s package on December 16, 2014—just two weeks shy of the year-end deadline.  This option, which first became available in 2006, can be a smart alternative for some IRA  owners by allowing them to take their mandated annual required…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured

    Pricing on Purpose

    How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm In this second article of the three-part series, Ronald J. Baker challenges professionals to move from value billing to value pricing. Value pricing inverts the hourly billing model by recognizing the economic facts that it is the customer who is the ultimate arbiter of value. If value is created, the customer understands that cost is secondary.

  • Estate Planning - QuickRead Featured - Valuation/Appraisal

    U.S. v. Finely Hilliard, et al.

    Fifth Circuit Affirms District Court and $83 Million in Unpaid Taxes and Interest Owed by Donees The Fifth Circuit recently affirmed the district court’s decision and the imposition of unpaid taxes and interest on donees of shares sold at less than fair market value to the company owed by relatives of the donor. As Joe Brophy explains, this case illustrates the pitfalls of deathbed planning involving asset transfers below market value.

  • Healthcare - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Valuing Stand-Alone Ancillary Service and Technical Component (ASTC) Enterprises under Hypothetical Conditions

    In this article, Robert Cimasi and Matthew Wagner provide a roadmap of the valuation and legal issues valuation professionals confront valuing a medical practice that also provides ancillary and technical component (ASTC) services. The fact that the ASTC services are often integrated with the professional services of a practice does not restrict the ASTC service line from having value separate and aside from that of the practice enterprise. The authors share their views on how to value the hypothetical “carve-out” ASTC, including what approaches to consider.

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured

    Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm, Part 1

    In this first of a three-part article, Ronald Baker challenges professionals to rethink how they market and price professional services. He reminds us that “[c]ustomers buy value, not hours.” Many practitioners and firms are locked into the current pricing myopia of hourly billing, which prevents professionals from getting paid what their customers believe they are worth. In this first article, Mr. Baker offers some compelling reasons why professionals should make the switch from hourly billing to value pricing.

  • QuickPress - Valuation/Appraisal

    Most Valuable Company in the World Is…

      In a recent valuation, Apple has been crowned the most valuable company on the planet, and second place wasn’t even close. After its stock hit a record high recently, Apple was valued at $700 billion. That’s $300 billion more than the runner-up, Exxon Mobile. It’s hard to wrap your head around these kinds of numbers, but imagine the enormity that is Google. Even with that kind of influence, Google is still worth only half as much as Apple. When CEO, Tim Cook, took the company’s reins from the late Steve Jobs, many were in doubt as to whether the…

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickRead Top Story

    Factors Affecting Succession/Exit Planning in the Veterinary Industry

    Revenues in veterinary practices continue to climb, but profitability has fallen. The supply-demand currently favoring sellers is about to change, and that is expected to impact sellers. These practices have options—other than selling to a consolidator—and will remain attractive to associates; however, vet practices will need to be proactive to control costs to command a better price.

  • Case Law - QuickRead Featured - Valuation/Appraisal

    Business Valuation in Divorce Case Law Compendium

    At some point in a business valuation analyst’s career, an attorney or pro se party will call asking for a business valuation and perhaps even to retain your services. A good starting point is Business Valuation in Divorce: Case Law Compendium, 2nd ed. This edition is 584 pages long and provides a comprehensive court case digest that emphasizes similarities and differences in the treatment of goodwill (professional and personal), discounts, fair value, tax-affecting, and other significant issues. This is a must-have resource for those already practicing in this area and for those embarking in their valuation career.

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickPress

    Media Mergers to Increase in 2015

      While the Comcast/Time-Warner merger is pending with the FCC, another mega deal has fizzled out. Toy giant Hasbro got cold feet in its $3 billion bid for DreamWorks Entertainment after its stock slid five percent after investors deemed the price way too high. Not to worry though, a new report from Ernst & Young showed 40 percent of media executives surveyed said they expected to make a buy sometime in the next 12 months. If the deals come to fruition, that would be the highest M&A rate for the media sector in three years, although one expert expects most…

  • Tax

    NFL to Lose Tax Exempt Status?

      The NFL is the nation’s largest sports franchise, generating nearly $10 billion per year. What most people don’t know is that it’s also a nonprofit organization. Even at that level of income, the NFL is a 501(c)(6) “business league” organization where the vast majority of its earnings trickle down to its 32 teams, which includes the Washington Redskins. Recently, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington DC’s non-voting congressional delegate, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to strip the NFL of its tax-exempt status because it promotes a “racial slur for profitable gain.” Meanwhile, a companion bill to accomplish the…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Taxpayer Loss

    Lessons to be learned by Valuators from Cavallaro v. Commissioner Cavallaro v. Commissioner holds some valuable lessons for valuation experts. Following a tax-free merger of two companies owned between different family members, the children of the petitioners (and owners of one of the companies, pre-merger) received 81 percent of the stock in the merged entity. Differences arose between one set of accountants and Hale & Dorr, the law firm that assisted the founders with estate planning. The key issue was whether valuable technology was owned by the company controlled by the parents or the company owned by the children. The…

  • QuickPress - Valuation/Appraisal

    Fair Value of Big Data

    Five years ago, no one really knew what big data was and now, it seems it’s all anyone can talk about. Big data is the term used for information retailers, government agencies, and other organizations collect from the public that other entities might have a vested interest in purchasing because they produce ancillary products or services that could be marketed to the same individuals. While there has been much concern regarding big data the government collects and its impact on privacy, it’s becoming much more of a concern in the valuation world. Are these datasets assets? Some are valued in…

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickPress

    M&A as a Growth Strategy

      Merging with or acquiring another company isn’t just about consuming or becoming bigger than the competition. In an in-depth article with ABF Journal, Phil Isom and Dan Tiemann of KPMG outline the deals their organization has pursued in the last 12 months and the strategies behind them. The authors detail how M&A can and should be used as a growth strategy with an eye on bringing new talent, tools, and resources into a company. Some deals are made to remain in sync with global trends and retain a competitive edge. It’s not always about the money, at least not…