Learn How the Pros Take Down an Embezzlement Scheme and Gather Tips on How to Best Defend Your Own Practice. Mark S. Warshavsky reviews Stephen Pedneault’s Anatomy of A Fraud Investigation. The book combines a step-by-step recounting of best practices with real-life drama as investigators discover, investigate, and resolve a fraud incident—a fantastic guide to how to defend against and uncover fraud.
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Taxes on S-Corporations are Hotly Discussed by Legislators and May Change. Here’s the History, Standing Precedents, and Current Law. S Corporations have been much in the news lately, as we’ve noted on the QuickRead blog. In this piece, Peter Agrapides provides a comprehensive chronological account of valuation cases where the issue of tax affecting S-Corporations has taken center stage.
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The Winklevoss Twins Realized Too Late the Value They’d Agreed to for Their Common Shares of Facebook. Here’s How it Played Out. Last week Lorenzo Carver introduced the topic of how 409A valuations destroy value for some shareholders. Today’s piece is a case study in how a wide disparity in value estimates largely created by the 409A process played out in the UConnect v. Facebook lawsuit.
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Authors of New Book Describe How Ability to Bring in New, High-Quality, Well-Paying Clients Consistently is Key Bruce H. Rogers and Russ Alan Prince are the co-authors of the just published book Profitable Brilliance: How Professional Service Firms Become Thought Leaders. At Forbes, the authors detail how a strong referral strategy is critical to a profitable, growing business, and that one of the best ways to build a referral network is by establishing yourself as a thought leader:
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Why Choosing Good Counsel to Help with Exit Planning Can Be the Most Important Decision a Business Owner Makes Venture Resources believes many business owners don’t fully appreciate the complexities and factors that are present in the deal structuring and business selling process, including understanding how to project the company’s future, applying alternate deal structures, and maximizing current business potential. Here are some tips.
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Good Mentors Not Only Catch Errors, but Speed Professional Development, Provide Perspective, and Help Build Your Company Brand The mentoring process is invaluable, explains Baria Jaroudi. That’s not simply because it provides a proofread and detail check, or even because it strengthens professional development and solicits team expertise and new perspectives. Perhaps most importantly, strong mentoring helps firms deliver the sort of work that builds a company’s brand, attracts new business, and defends the value of analyst work in a world of increasing automation.
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Why Built-up Volatility Rates Produce Better Value Indications In part one of a three-part series, Lorenzo Carver explains how the interaction between auditors and valuation professionals during dual-purpose 409A valuations of common stock and employee stock options destroys value for hundreds of thousands of employees receiving stock options every year by granting options at strike prices that are above the fair market value of the underlying common stock.
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Avoid Hypotheticals. But Remember: Experienced Experts Recognize that Limited Evidence Will Often Support a More Limited Opinion Michael Kaplan explains how limited evidence can still support a limited opinion. Read about a valuator who had access to an insufficient number of documents and a hard cutoff date to complete a valuation by. Since the valuation was prepared in a manner that meets the professional standard of care, was generally in compliance with business valuation standards, and the expert’s approach and methodology was consistent with industry practice, the valuation stood up in court.
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Arizona Board of Appraisal Dismisses USPAP Complaint Filed by Chase On August 10, the Appraiser’s Guild blog reports, the Arizona Board of Appraisal dismissed the USPAP violation complaint filed by Chase Bank against John Dingeman on initial file review:
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Study: More Deals Occur in Countries That Follow Similar Financial-Reporting Standards At CFO.com Kathleen Hoffelder reports that dissimilar national accounting standards and the lack of adherence to international financial reporting rules seem to be a major deterrent to companies eyeing targets beyond their borders, according to a recent academic study. Moreover, cross-border acquisitions by companies of target firms in countries with similar accounting strictures tend to relieve CFOs and other senior executives of financial and administrative burdens, says Shawn Huang, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas and one of the survey’s authors, along with Jere Francis, a professor at…
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Few Companies with Under 100 Employees Have Fraud Controls in Place Small businesses are significantly more likely than their larger counterparts to neglect instituting basic antifraud controls that could save them from costly losses, a recent worldwide survey shows. The Journal of Accountancy reports in the August issue:
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The U.S. Must Cut $800 or $900 billion From Our Annual Government Spending to Maintain Mid-term Economic Solvency. And That’s Just the Beginning. Flooding the system with trillions of dollars and deficits has bought the U.S. economic stagnation, writes Rob Slee in an August 20, 2012 post at MidasNation. “What a lost opportunity. One thing we learned in MidasNation over the past few years is that when owners ignore the exponentially changing market and put their heads even deeper in the sand, only bad things result. Further, incremental actions will not change the equation for the better either.…
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Acquiring Companies Need to Conduct a Brand Valuation Post-Acquisition to Comply with IFRS. Here’s Why it Makes Sense to Do it Before the Acquisition. As all companies complying with IFRS must carry out a brand valuation post acquisition for compliance, there’s a strong argument for carrying out the necessary due diligence and valuation beforehand, explains the marketing director of Intangible Business, in a piece first published in Finance Week. Valuing brands pre-acquisition helps management determine how much to pay, it can help finance the deal, prepare the team for integration and identify opportunities for the brand. Seeing as…
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Divorce Proceedings Can Stall Operations, Distract Key Employees, and Require Expensive Outside Counsel. Here’s How Good Planning Can Mitigate the Costs. Solid legal counsel, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, shareholder agreements, confidentiality, and structured settlements can all ease the strain on a small business during a divorce proceeding, explains Jennifer A. Brand at the Fox Small Business Center. Find out the details.
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Infosys, the Indian IT Services Giant, Has Assigned a Value to Its Entire Workforce Since 2008. Here’s Why European and American Companies Don’t Yet Formally Value Employees—and Why They Should! Recognizing the value of employees in company accounts makes a compelling business case and reflects the realities of 21st century business, argues Leon Kaye in the Guardian.
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Healthcare Practices Still Command Significant Goodwill Value. Here’s How Owners Can Successfully Plan an Exit. According to The Health Care Group’s Goodwill Registry, a database of buy-in and sale transactions, medical and dental practices are still commanding significant prices for intangible value/goodwill. Here’s the detail on the numbers and guidance for optimal ways owners can find a successor, partner firm to merge with, or effect an outright sale.
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New Rule Intended to Help Inform Mortgage Applicants of How Value Is Determined The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released Wednesday a new proposed rule that would require mortgage lenders to provide home loan applicants with appraisal reports to determine how the value of a property was determined, reports Tory Barringer at DS News, an outlet that focuses on the mortgage default servicing industry. CFPB proposed the rule in response to a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that requires creditors to provide mortgage applicants with a copy of written appraisals and home value estimates. The newly-proposed rule would require that…
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It’s Critical to Have an Exit Plan: But Unforeseen Disability or Untimely Death Contingencies Need to Be in Place Too. Here’s What to Consider Have you ever dreamed of selling your business and retiring to pursue a lifelong passion or hobby? Hopefully, that will happen. But, let’s face it. Life is unpredictable.
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Key Strategies Include Building Competitive Intelligence, Reading Trade Media, Innovation and Response to Trends, and More. Bruce Marcus at CPA Trendlines offers a guide to trend-spotting for accountants:
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Survey Shows Half of Respondents are Considering Cloud Solutions, and Three Quarters Believe Cloud Strategies Will Be Important for Their Firm’s Success Within 12-18 Months Christine Camara at Accounting Web reports that a majority of top finance executives in US companies foresee Cloud computing lowering costs and helping their businesses succeed in the near future, according to a new survey – The Business Value of Cloud Reporting: A Survey of Senior Finance Executives. More: