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 ...

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 ...