Despite the inhospitable IPO climate, one tech company managed to brave the market with just the right mix of novelty and disruption to garner attention and reap rewards. Madeleine Harrigan, senior financial analyst with Mercer Capital, explains what happened when Twilio, a cloud communications platform designed to help developers add messaging, voice, and video to web and mobile applications, went public o ...

IRS Wins, Business Founders and their Families Lose Is cheap debt good for closely held families? Are closely held business overleveraged? Are FLP discounts about to come to an end? Why aren’t business founders and their families doing more to counter the proposed regulations that would target family business transfers? What should valuation professionals do in this environment? Dr. Sheeler answers these qu ...

Ways 1 through 15 (Part I of II) This is the first of a two-part article, where Edward Mendlowitz shares fifteen of the thirty ways to structure a transfer of a business to a successor. Mendlowitz stresses that a succession plan is important and too often overlooked by business owner(s) involved in day-to-day operations. Capturing the value and having a strategy in place provides ongoing cash flow, a degree ...

Strategies to Generate Tax-Free Income From making contributions to Roth individual retirement accounts to renting out their homes for 14 days or less, Sean Williams explores seven tactics that clients can use to generate tax-free income. To read the full article in the The Motley Fool, click: 7 Ways You Can Earn Tax-Free Income. ...

Start Your Succession Plan Decades in Advance Engaging in a decades-long succession-planning process can ensure that clients are taken care of and a practice continues to thrive after its founder retires.  Recruiting young advisers can bring new ideas to your practice and help keep it going.  Mike Lockwood, representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., explains. To read the full article in Wealth ...

In August 2016, Pfizer announced it would acquire Medivation for $14 billion.  The transaction made headlines for how the size of the deal escalated over a period of approximately six months prior to the announcement.  In Part I of this series, Sujan Rajbhandary, senior member of Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group, presented a broad outline of the PFE-MDVN transaction.  Part II will delve ...

Part III of III This is Part III of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners, and factors a firm’s managing partner should consider before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense, and, where possible, bringing the controversy to conclu ...

Copyright Protection and the “First-Sale” Exception In 1997 Supap Kirtsaeng, a citizen of Thailand, moved to the United States to study mathematics at Cornell University. He paid for his education with the help of a Thai Government scholarship which required him to teach in Thailand for ten years on his return. Kirtsaeng successfully completed his undergraduate courses at Cornell, successfully completed a P ...

The Psychological Reasons Why People Fail to Save "Present bias"—the concept that people would rather have a smaller sum of money now than a larger sum of money in the future—is one cognitive bias that keeps people from saving, according to a new paper.  Another problem is "exponential-growth bias," which refers to a failure to understand compound interest.  Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, ex ...

“Most important, pensions should be required to uphold their original intent: to keep retirees who can no longer support themselves out of poverty."  Industry leaders weigh in on retirement news your clients may be thinking about. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: How to Save Public Pensions, no Federal Bailout Needed: Retirement Scan. ...

In August 2016, Pfizer announced it would acquire Medivation for $14 billion.  The transaction made headlines for how the size of the deal escalated over a period of approximately six months prior to the announcement.  Sujan Rajbhandary, senior member of Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group, presents in this blog post (and Part II) a broad outline of the transaction and explore what a potent ...

in a Divorce Proceeding Not all is fair in love and war when it comes to the fight for business records within a matrimonial action. When one spouse is denied adequate discovery, his or her case can quickly begin to unravel. Usually, some records are available either because the spouse had some previous access or there was a partial document production. Business appraisers should consider all appropriate me ...

Part II of III This is Part II of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners and the factors a firm’s managing partner should take into consideration before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense and, where possible, bringing the contro ...

Looking Beyond the 401(k) to Save for Retirement If proposals to curb the size of individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s take effect, clients with large IRAs and 401(k)s will need to consider alternate methods of saving for retirement.  Darla Mercado, Personal Finance Writer, discusses a few options including, deferred compensation plans, health savings accounts, and after-tax contributions to 401(k)s. ...

Startup Ecosystems Allow Entrepreneurs to Help One Another Almost all of the more than 360 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. have an ecosystem in which startups support one another through funding and other types of assistance, according to the Kauffman Foundation.  These networks may help entrepreneurs receive psychological and social support as well as monetary backing.  John F. Wasik of The New York T ...

It is clear that the DOT/IRS are attempting, through Proposed Changes to Section 2704 of the Internal Revenue Code, to eliminate minority interest discounts and marketability discounts (DLOMs), even though those terms are not mentioned at all.  To address the valuation side of things, Chris Mercer, founder and CEO of Mercer Capital, wrote a whitepaper outlining his thinking on valuation implications in some ...

Part I of III This is Part I of a three-part series discussing the basic components of a professional liability lawsuit brought against an accounting firm and its partners; and the factors a firm’s managing partner should consider before and during this type of litigation for utilizing applicable insurance coverage, maximizing effectiveness of defense and, where possible, bringing the controversy to conclus ...

What to Ask and Look for When You Need a Forensic Expert In today’s legal environment, it is not sufficient to present unsubstantiated evidence. Many subject matter experts do not properly substantiate their findings. When hiring a subject matter expert, careful screening is crucial to choose an expert with superior skills and credibility. This article presents methodologies by which you can perform proper ...

When Employees Ask for Promotions Before They're Ready Eager, ambitious employees sometimes ask for promotions or raises before they are ready.  Rebecca Knight discuses that managers should handle these requests with transparency and should coach their employees to help them reach the next level. To read the full article in the Harvard Business Review, click: What to Do When Your Employee Asks for a Raise T ...

Life Insurance Loan Can Have Tax Consequences When life insurance is surrendered or lapses, its remaining value is used to repay any loans that have been taken out on the policy—a situation that can create unexpectedly large tax bills, as the taxable gain on the policy is calculated without considering the presence of the loan.  Michael Kitces explains that clients can avoid this "tax bomb" by holding on to ...