Should Valuators Give Citations to Specific Court Cases in Expert Reports? Different expert witnesses subscribe to different schools of thought about whether it’s best to make frequent and specific citations in an expert report or not. Charles Lunden lists 12 reasons supporting one set of conclusions. Find out more! ...

Fifth Circuit Disallows 40% Valuation Misjudgment Penalty, OKs 20% Negligence Penalty The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit disallows a 40% valuation misjudgment penalty in Bemont Invs., LLC v. United States, but affirms a Texas Court’s 20% negligence penalty.  Judge Goeke at the Tax Court draws distinctions on when charitable deductions are allowable in Dunlap v. Commissioner. ...

Owners: Don't Exit Before You're Ready, Lock Yourself In, or Count on Future Consulting There is no single formula that will result in a happy retirement for business owners. Over 75 percent of business owners say they regretted selling their companies a year after the sale, according to a PwC study entitled “Whose Business is it Anyway?” But there are ways to improve the chances that consultants can help o ...

Booming Demand for Nurses and Physician Assistants;  Huge Need for Primary-Care Physicians An estimated 30 million people will gain insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act, asserts Aubrey Westgate at Physicians Practice.   At the same time, the Association of American Medical Colleges anticipates a shortfall of 45,000 primary-care physicians and 46,000 specialists in the coming decade.   More:   “W ...

Media Vary on Whether Election Increases or Decreases  Uncertainty;  Concur It's Good for Business A number of media outlets have begun to weigh in on the topic. At Accounting Today, the editors have put together a topical list of some of the relevant issues: ...

Why Experts Working from the Same Facts Generate Varying Opinions Financial experts can differ wildly in their opinions and findings because of differences in their underlying financial and economic assumptions, differing legal interpretations, differing theories on damages, and different access to information. Jim Gravitt explains. ...

The FASB Lists 29 Different Intangible Asset Categories. Here’s What You Need to Know. Intangible assets have comprised an increasing proportion of the value of assets of most companies in the last decade, Gregory Marsh explains. Often a collection of intangible assets is accounted for as a single asset labeled “goodwill.” Here’s why that sometimes doesn’t make sense. ...

Star Wars Creator Strikes Savvy Deal with Disney Quentin Fottrell at CBS MarketWatch reports that Disney will buy George Lucas' LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, the two companies announced Tuesday: Wade Westhoff, a financial adviser based in Danville, Calif., says of the Disney deal. “This is a textbook example of exit planning for a private business owner.” (Lucas and a spokesman for LucasFil ...

Federal Lawsuit from AHA and Four Other Providers Accuse HHS of Illegally Denying Medicare Payments Joe Carlson at Modern Healthcare reports the story: In a federal lawsuit, the American Hospital Association and four healthcare providers accuse HHS of illegally denying hospitals Medicare payments for audited outpatient procedures. The Chicago-based interest group for hospitals says in the complaint that HHS ...

Disaster Area Declarations Have a Lot of Tax Implications.  Learn Specifics. Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy, may provide certain tax opportunities and insurance recovery situations that business owners and individuals should be aware of.   Howard A. Lewis, MS, ABAR, AVA, and Former IRS Program Manager for Valuation Service offers insight: ...

Maintaining Professionalism Under Pressure and Under Oath Different legal professionals can use vastly different deposition techniques. John R. Markel shares two starkly different experiences with depositions, and details how to prepare yourself for the standard questions as well as how to cope with curveballs. ...

Willamette Management Author Explains: What You Need to Know About DLOMs Aaron Rotkowski explains why it’s appropriate to apply a DLOM to a controlling ownership interest—and how to figure it—and why it doesn’t make sense to rely on restricted stock studies and pre-IPO studies to estimate the DLOM for that interest. Find out more. ...

IFRS News Offers Summary of Significant Developments in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)   Grant Thornton's IFRS team publishes a quarterly update on developments in the international accounting arena: ...

WhitServe Alleges that Mac OS X Infringes on a Patent it Holds for "Sequentially Opening and Displaying Files in a Directory."  Steve Musil at c:net  reports that WhitServe, which owns intellectual property but doesn't make any real products, is suing Apple over allegations that versions of the Mac OS X operating system infringe on a file viewer patent it holds: The complaint, filed today in U.S. District C ...

Federal Agency Identifies Valuation Risk Factors and Best Practices Could the Securities Exchange Commission’s informal inquiry regarding valuation be an opening salvo to allow more formal investigation, or even regulatory action? The McLean Group shares an in-depth analysis of the SEC’s findings. ...

What Can be Won by Avoiding Litigation? By using the litigation-derived adversarial process as a template to educate and a resource for better decision-making, writes Paul Leiman, owners may well find that litigation itself can be avoided. Find out how. ...

A Balance of Valuation and Litigation Work; Secrets to Enhanced Productivity Marcie Bour, Founder and President of the Florida Business Valuation Group, offers tips and strategies on time management, favorite appraisal tools, marketing strategies, the benefits of client diversification, and the value of networking and seeking out mentors. ...

How to Maintain Independence and Professionalism in a Complex and Changing Niche As divorce laws change, attorneys increasingly rely on financial experts such as business appraisers and forensic accountants.  In this article, Robert D. Feder discusses the role of a financial analyst in the context of matrimonial law.  He also covers some of the potential pitfalls of the trade. ...

Valuators Must be More Than “Lucky Punks” How can appraisers best figure the cost of equity capital? Rand M. Curtiss argues that using standard tools including Ibbottson, Duff & Phelps, CAPM, or the Butler-Pinkerton model aren’t enough. What to use instead? Curtiss suggests starting with a look at the rate of return on mezzanine money and the rate of return on later-stage VC investments. Find out why. ...

Forensic Accounting Revenue in the U.S. is Expected to Grow 6.8% Annually A recent market research report noted in The CPA Insider reports that demand for forensic accounting services will remain strong over the next five years in the United States as a result of increased financial regulations and continued demand for investigative services in the wake of the recession: ...