Many advisers have plans for growth, but does anyone really know what causes above average sustained progress?  After years of experience and study, Glenn Kautt, CFP, EA, AIFA, concluded that leading a firm requires you to have a detailed plan. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: The Growth Plan: Keeping your Practice on Course. ...

We’re quickly approaching the time of year when most contributions are made to IRAs and Roth IRAs.  But there are limits to how much can be contributed to an IRA, and exceeding them can result in costly penalties.  Ed Slott, CPA, tells us what to look out for. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: A Tax Nightmare: Excess IRA Contributions. ...

What risk assets are not near record valuations, aside from assets in a few sectors such as energy and retail?  Investing when multiple expansion occurs over a holding period is a great thing, but multiples cannot expand forever; they also can contract.  Jeff Davis, managing director of Mercer Capital’s Financial Institutions Group, explains. To read the full article in Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting ...

Audit Risk and Use of Defined Value Clauses Estate planning attorneys and their clients are aware of the risk of an audit. Despite knowing this risk, they seek certainty. Business valuation is as much art, as it is science. Estate planning attorneys have devised techniques to hedge the aforementioned risk and provide their clients with a greater degree of certainty. One such technique utilized by estate pla ...

After Actions Reviews A firm’s intellectual capital is the most important source of its long-term wealth creating capacity. It must be constantly replenished and created to build the firm’s invisible balance sheet. Constantly focusing on doing rather than learning, creativity, innovation, and knowledge sharing is the equivalent of eating the firm’s seed corn. In this article, Ron Baker discusses the value o ...

The Internal Revenue Service issued its annual revenue procedure containing inflation-adjusted amounts for the 2017 tax year, affecting more than 50 Code provisions, as well as the new tax-rate tables for individuals and estates and trusts.  Sally Schreiber, JofA senior editor, takes us through the revenue procedure. To read the full article in the Journal of Accountancy, click: IRS Issues 2017 Inflation Ad ...

As cybercriminals become more sophisticated and cast a wider net, tax practitioners should take a number of steps to protect themselves and their clients.  Shannon Smith Retzke, Esq., explains that practitioners need to be careful about everything they do online as cybercriminals proliferate. To read the full article in The Tax Adviser, click: Phishing Scams Target Tax Professionals. ...

2016’s 10 most popular posts from Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Blog.  2016 proved to be an interesting year, both in terms of developments in financial reporting and the range of topics covered on this blog.  We’ve enjoyed sharing our thoughts in this forum over the last three years and look forward to new challenges and opportunities in 2017. To read the full article in Mercer Capital's Financial R ...

Deal Structuring and Workforce in Place Considerations Under IRC and Stark Law What complications arise when two separate transactions are used to structure an asset sale of a physician practice? The key to compliance is to hit a reasonable middle ground under somewhat competing frameworks, and carefully drafting, documenting, and reporting accordingly. Valuators play a key role not only in establishing and ...

Marketing in the New Year In this article, Dr. Frederiksen discusses the importance of thought leadership marketing and how that differs from content marketing. ...

Startup Gives Employees a Way to Trade in Unused Time Off Many employees do not use all of their vacation time, which can create liabilities for the companies they work for. A startup called PTO Exchange is trying to address that problem by allowing employees to exchange unused time off for perks, such as 401(k) contributions or help with college tuition. Jena McGregor introduces us to this fresh concept. T ...

Try This Instead of Traditional Performance Management A technique known as performance motivation may replace traditional performance management among companies interested in inspiring maximum effort and loyalty among employees. Instead of focusing on scoring employees and offering standardized feedback, companies can focus on creating intrinsic motivation to inspire their workers. Christine Comaford expla ...

Boosted by solid consumer spending and improving international trade, the expansion of the U.S. economy rose to 2.9% in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said. Nelson Schwarts reports that economists said the biggest quarterly gain in two years will probably be enough to persuade the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December. Charles Paikert discusses several avenues to take advantage of ...

Brewery Value QuickRead’s Technical Editor, Roberto Castro, reviews BVRs What It’s Worth: Brewery Value.  This is a market niche that is highly regulated, segmented, and one where new business models are cropping up. ...

The New Revenue Recognition Standard and Accounting for Licenses Wiley author, Joanne Flood, looks at how the new revenue standard affects reporting of licensing revenue. Copyright Wiley, 2016. To be published in February 2017 in the book: Wiley Revenue Recognition plus Website: Understanding and Implementing the New Standard (Wiley Regulatory Reporting). ...

With 10-year yields up 22 basis points in October, economists anticipate an end to the Treasury bond sell-off.  "Now it's a good time to buy," said Hideo Shimomura, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management's chief fund investor.  Anooja Debnath and Wes Goodman explain. To read the full article in Bloomberg, click: Treasury Selloff is About to End if Consensus Forecast is Right. ...

Restaurateur Scott Richards is opening an eatery with a clear understanding that his employees will work there for no more than three years.  His goal is to use a special development program to help employees connect with mentors and achieve career objectives.  Katie Toussaint explains this innovative concept. To read the full article in CharlotteFive, click: Why a Restaurant CEO Wants His Employees to Leav ...

Boosted by solid consumer spending and improving international trade, the expansion of the U.S. economy rose to 2.9% in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said.  Nelson Schwarts reports that economists said the biggest quarterly gain in two years will probably be enough to persuade the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December. To read the full article in The New York Times, click: U.S. Ec ...

Professional Obligations for the Expert Witness Computing Damages What can a court reasonably expect of value experts? What are value experts able to contribute to the proceedings? What about mitigation of damages, i.e., how should value experts address mitigation and do so when the retaining counsel is disinterested in discussing mitigation of damages? In this article, Dr. Kreuter, a Marks Paneth, LLP part ...

A Case Study (Part II of II) This is the second of a two-part article. In the first part, Dr. Needham provided factual background regarding this commercial damages case where he served as plaintiff’s damages expert—the case ultimately went to trial. In this second part, Dr. Needham describes the financial data, discovery challenges, the Daubert motion to disqualify him, how the case was decided, and then se ...