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 ...

Winning Skills and Strategies in Writing Exceptional Reports Tom Helling shows how to enhance your own reputation, build future business, and help clients solve problems in your written report. Key ingredients are careful logic, strong research, and good writing. Learn how to do it all. ...

There’s Good Reason for Long-Term Concern, Uncertainty, and Fear. Here's What To Do. James Doulgeris at Physicians Practice explains:  "Everyone in the practice and allied health world should take the title of the legislation seriously — The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It does not say physician protection nor does it say it will be affordable for you. Most practices will suffer serious ...

Next Year’s New Medicare Tax Provides Another Incentive to form an S Corporation  Investors often use S corporations to minimize self-employment and Medicare taxes. Next year's new 3.8% tax on net investment income provides another incentive to form an S corporation. Thomas Wechter, JD, discusses in this article at The Tax Insider the new rules that take effect in 2013. ...

Alternatives to Hospital Employment Include Solo 'Micropractices,' Patient-Centered Medical Homes, and Direct-to-Pay Practices Andy Robeznieks at Modern Physician reports that medical practice innovation—including the use of technology to increase efficiency and reduce overhead—is what "holds the key to private practice being a viable alternative to salaried employment," according to a new report from the P ...

Cost Approach is Best Used Simply to Allocate Value Under the Income Approach, Contends Mark Dietrich   Mark Dietrich is concerned that a recent presentation at the NACVA annual conference may have misrepresented the views he expressed with a number of other authors in a paper published in Hospitals and Health Systems RX that was titled Assessing Intangible Value in a Physician Practice Acquisition.  He cut ...

Fraud's History is Impressive: From Over-the-Counter Cure-Alls to Florida Real Estate and Musical Talent Fraud The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has built up a choice collection of fraud souvenirs under founder and chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells. Visit the Accounting Today site to see  some of the most notable pieces, which include Bernie Madoff’s cigar box, an Enron stock certificate, a Nigerian F ...

How Much Do You Know about Protecting Personal and Corporate Information from Would-be Fraudsters? Find out what you know about how to analyze credit, what causes data breaches, what precautions to take when accessing hotspots in an airport with a laptop, current identity theft laws, and controlling physical access to restricted areas. ...

Catastrophic Events and Consequences for Value Managing catastrophic risk exposure is much more difficult than managing continuous risk exposure, explains Aswath Damodaran.  Here’s how to incorporate the risk from catastrophes into valuation models. ...

Valuing Trademarks When Diamond Foods bought Kettle Foods, nearly 40 percent of its purchase price of $616M was paid for “brand intangibles.” How are such valuations determined and what are the drivers? ...

Why There is No Such Thing as a Minority Premium Robert Buchanan of PCE Valuations writes about the application of discounts to fractional interests and argues that some appraisers are mistaken when they assert that certain levels of discounts amount to a “minority premium” for certain non-controlling interests. Here’s the logic behind his thinking. Be sure to read Mr. Buchanan's whole argument at HERE. Her ...

Five Limited Partnerships Owned Real Estate Complexes Built in Accordance with Federal Low Income Housing Guidelines  The Appraisal Institute Newsletter notes that Bankruptcy cases assigning value to apartment buildings owned by debtors are required to include the value of remaining low-income housing tax credits.  The news was originally reported by Bloomberg BNA on July 3. A valuation order setting market ...

GuruFocus Adds New Valuation Tab to Site; New Feature Automatically Calculates DCF Valuation.  What are Top 10 The Nasdaq Community site notes the appearance of a new Valuation tab at its GuruFocus web site.  Learn about how DCF analysis works, why it's considered a reliable method of analysis, and view some top current stock picks of an investor who uses the method:    ...

A County Buys a Strip Mall Under Eminent Domain Process; at Issue is Whether Chairs and Tables Require Additional Tax   A Bankrate Tax Talk column at Fox Business News Personal Finance site considers a rather unusual case of a strip mall's sale:    ...

73% of Tech IPOs Aren't Profitable When They Go Public, But Smaller Companies (e.g., Zillow, Bazaarvoice, Jive Software) Fare Better Post IPO Bigger isn’t always better, at least when it comes to initial public offerings, GeekWire reports. A new report out from Tableau Software’s Daniel Hom, editor of the IPO Dashboards blog, finds that smaller tech companies, described as having fewer than $100 million in ...

The Most Critical Challenges Confronting Medical Practices Recently, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) published results of its member survey and listed the top challenges facing physician practices today.  Reed Tinsley recaps results. Here are critical factors physician executives should focus on to control costs, build incentives, ease management, and strengthen growth. ...

A Smart Approach to Board Level Risk Management As the economy recovers, companies that cut costs or deferred spending at the bottom of the recession are now looking to reinvest: in hiring, new debt, facilities or equipment, or business acquisitions. How much risk is too much?  This presentation details critical internal and external factors to examine. ...

Tips for Family Businesses to Survive and Thrive When Tough Times Hit Can You Revive Your Distressed Family Business?  The first step to figuring that out, Steven F. Agran explains, is an objective assessment of cost structure.  What determines whether a business can be cash flow positive at current sales levels or even at lower levels, if sales continue to decline?  Find out here. ...