Ex ante, Ex post, and Hybrid Methodologies January 2019 will be the twentieth anniversary of one of the seminal articles written on discounting lost profits, Peter Schulman’s Economic Damages: Discounting Concepts and Alternatives. This article addresses the concepts and complexities of discounting lost profits that were discussed in the Schulman article and advances and additional methodology for discounti ...

Marketplace Platform for Aspiring and Experienced Litigation Support Professionals There is no disputing the influence that expert witnesses have on litigation outcomes—this much we know for sure. Their expertise is often relied upon by the court in rendering decisions, weighing the opinions, methodology, and, indeed, the credibility of the competing expert witnesses involved for each party to the legal dis ...

Technology This article provides a peek at one of the six-part healthcare installments and provides an overview of the due diligence imperative for valuation professionals, in the context of the Four Pillars of Healthcare Value, i.e., Reimbursement, Regulatory, Technology, and Competition. The second, third, and fourth installments, already published, reviewed the due diligence process related to the reimbu ...

Often the Link Between Damages and Causation Even with established liability, a plaintiff seeking damages must be able to calculate damages with reasonable certainty and demonstrate a causal link between the defendant’s acts and the plaintiff’s injury. The concept of causation is simple—did a defendant’s wrongful act cause the plaintiff’s damages? Proving causation, however, is not always as simple. Many ti ...

Industry Experience and Value-Added Tips In this article, the author discusses how one may go about distinguishing his or her firm from other competitors. ...

Referral Marketing Strategy The author discusses how professionals should go about creating a customized referral marketing strategy. It begins by choosing a focus. Next, it involves the creation and posting of educational content that creates a clear connection between prospects’ challenges and your firm’s expertise. The key is creating the funnel content. The author describes the steps to create such funn ...

When Values Collide—Redux Valuing a business that owns real estate presents the business appraiser with a number of conundrums. In this article, the author discusses the concept of a fair investment return and how that may impact the value of the business being sold with the real estate. ...

Highlighting Recent Delaware Court Cases In this Case Law Update, three recent Delaware Court cases are reviewed. Two cases focus on whether the deal value is fair value and the third focuses on matters discovered following approval of a merger and who has standing to sue and what remedy, if any, is available to the disgruntled plaintiffs. The first two cases also delve into the role of experts, inputs that ...

Now How Do I Obtain Work? Earning a professional accreditation, such as the CVA is an accomplishment. Getting engagements thereafter is another matter. In this article, the author shares what he thinks newly minted CVAs may want to consider to develop their practice niche and brand. ...

Grow Your Practice and Presence So You Are Noticed If you want to grow your network of leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources, then LinkedIn is probably the best social media platform to jump into. Most of you are already playing in that sandbox anyway, and with a few tweaks, you can do better. Much better. ...

This is the final installment of the four-part series highlighting some of the key investigation issues and findings of the Examiner’s report.  In this article, the author explores the claim that CEC inappropriately elected to close the Showboat Atlantic City casino and diverted its customers to Harrah’s Atlantic City casino. ...

Impact on Expert Witness Testimony Expert witness testimony has played a vital role in both criminal and civil trials in the United States. Testimony from expert witnesses constantly helps judges and jurors reach conclusions in controversial and complex cases. Therefore, the Daubert Standard is important to know and understand in general, and especially as an expert witness. The Daubert Standard helps court ...

Business Valuation Comparison Charts A quartet of present and former Standards Board chairs for the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) were on hand to harmonize about valuation standards during the 2018 NACVA and the CTI’s Annual Consultants' Conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. During NACVA’s Industry Standards and Ethics Update, and the Around the Valuation Worl ...

Competition (Part Four of a Six-Part Series) The first part of this six-part series provided an overview of the due diligence imperative for valuation professionals, in the context of the Four Pillars of Healthcare Value, i.e., Reimbursement, Regulatory, Technological, and Competitive environments. The second and third installments reviewed the due diligence process related to the reimbursement and regulato ...

Our Top Seven Ideas for Accounting and Financial Services The author discusses findings from a Hinge Research Institute (HRI) conducted with 523 professional services firms regarding why firms do not get more referrals. One interesting finding was why firms do not get more referrals. HRI found that in 72% of cases, the answer is simple: no one asked them. HRI also learned that 81.5% of service providers hav ...

Knowing the Business is Critical to Effective Risk Oversight In this article, the author shares excerpts of a speech he presented to board members regarding the importance of managing risk and sources of risk. ...

Odds as a Financial Ratio in Business Valuation Theory Every business transaction involves a bet of sort. This is also evidenced in the price of put and call options. Can we draw some insight from sports betting to help us calculate the value of a business? Perhaps. Odds in sports betting is a common expression communicating the change and return of winning a bet. Odds as a ratio in business valuation theor ...

Is Not Debatable This article explains why the undiscounted terminal value as of a future date must be discounted back by (a) N – 0.5 years when the traditional perpetuity method with a mid-period convention is used, (b) N years when the traditional perpetuity method with an end-of-period convention is used, or (c) N years when an exit multiple is used. ...

Are You Properly Insured? Expert witnesses face many of the same risks other businesses face; from first-party losses such as damage to property, to third-party losses from legal liability. While the nature of a business dictates specific insurance needs, most businesses carry a portfolio of insurance that includes property and business interruption, commercial general liability and excess liability, automo ...

Mike Gregory Discusses the Newly Released Five in One Book on Business Valuations and the IRS In this article, Michael Gregory provides some thoughts of how the official IRS rules of engagement are different from the unofficial rules of engagement and introduces how to work with the IRS. The 38 examples in the book provides additional insight. Mike Gregory recommends the book to all business valuation firms ...