Focus on Value Management In this article, the author discusses the importance of using business value as the baseline driver of business performance and how we use it as a measurement of success. ...

Defining Rights and Establishing Control to Protect Your Firm and Clients In this article, the authors propose best practices used to establish acceptable use policies (AUP). These AUPs define rights and establish controls that protect the firm and client information. ...

How to Tell the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth The often-unspoken truth is that many deposition or cross-examination questions that expert witnesses in the field of forensic accounting, business valuation, or matrimonial litigation will be asked are written to make the truth sound like a lie and a lie sound like the gospel. This second article of the Unimpeachable Neutrality series offers proactive t ...

What Your Expertise is Worth When pursuing new engagements, financial consultants often face competition from others who are willing to accept below-market rates. This fee-based competition can be demoralizing and frustrating, but the tips shared in this article may help. ...

Funeral Service Retirement Challenges The funeral industry is dynamic and one where often the directors “build to serve” and overlook the importance of “build to sell”. The authors here provide an overview of the valuation and consulting opportunities. ...

What Physicians Don’t Know About Their Agreements Could Hurt Them Nearly 45 years after the enactment of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, it is still not uncommon to hear of physicians facing bribery allegations, large settlement amounts, and even jail time for breaking the statute’s anti-fraud measures. While evolving case law has certainly added to the complexities and prevalence of the statute’s enforc ...

The Case for Use of a Risk-Adjusted Rate in Damages Cases Robert Dunn and Everett Harry laid out a process for modeling and discounting future lost profits to present value in their article, Modeling and Discounting Future Damages. Not all experts agreed with the position presented by Dunn and Harry. In March, we revisited modeling and its level of acceptance. This article revisits the more controversial po ...

Context Matters This is the second of a two-part article. The first part, which addresses the efficient market hypothesis, is titled Proponents of the Efficient Market Hypothesis Always Want More Cowbell. Although many valuation practitioners are generally indifferent to context when valuing a business or asset, in litigation, as well as other areas that require valuation services, context matters. In this ...

Ascertaining the Financial Status of a Business in a Few Quick Glances The 60-Second Method is a system of ascertaining the financial status of a business or other entity in a few quick glances. It is a training tool that can be used to demonstrate how financial analysis works, or instruct decision-makers beginning to read and understand financial statement content. ...

The Objective and Subjective Tests Used to Determine Foreseeability To recover lost profits in a commercial damages case, three standards must be met. They are proximate cause, foreseeability, and reasonable certainty. Of these three, foreseeability is the lost profits standard in which a financial expert will have the least involvement. But this does not mean the expert’s work would not benefit the trier-o ...

Always Want More Cowbell The More Cowbell skit can be repurposed to explain debates over the efficient market hypothesis. Many proponents of the efficient market hypothesis may initially find it annoying that nonbelievers do not share their view. However, believers’ faith in the efficient market hypothesis is dependent on nonbelievers continuing to try, but inevitably failing, to ‘beat the market.’ The effi ...

Unsystematic Risk Premia in Privately Held Companies How does a valuation professional quantify and defend the unsystematic risk premia (URP)? Is the latter a factor that helps explain why CAPM is less frequently used valuing a privately held company? As for Total Beta, is that any better than the use of Beta? In this article, the author suggests if one accepts that imperfect diversification (ID) explains t ...

Its Approach to Approving Franchise Loan Applications This article summarizes changes implemented that affect SBA lending in the franchise context and that became effective in 2017. Within the franchise industry, financing backed by the SBA is one of the most important sources of funding for franchisees who wish to establish or grow a franchise. However, since the beginning of 2017, SBA funding within the f ...

Effective Opening Statements in Mediation What is an effective opening statement? How does one prepare such a statement? In this article, Nancy Neal Yeend, an experienced mediator, shares the steps and processes that lead to an effective opening statement and how that statement can lead to resolution of disputes. ...

Apply the Key Person Discount Is there any evidence that a key person discount exists? In this article, Steven Egna, shares his views on the subject matter and provides an illustration of the statistical basis for supporting such a discount. ...

How to Silence the Hired Gun While evidentiary rules and ethical codes issued by professional bodies like the NACVA and AICPA prohibit accounting and valuation experts from taking an advocate position, the adversarial nature of the U.S. legal system creates a market which at times demands a “hired gun” expert witness who caters their opinion of damages or business value to that which most convincingly favor ...

For Calculating Future Lost Profits Robert Dunn and Everett Harry published their oft cited Modeling and Discounting Future Damages in 2002. The article laid out the process for assessing future lost profits and discounting them to present value. They argued modeling future losses reduced the uncertainty related to the loss calculation and therefore reduced the risk premium to be included in the discount ra ...

The Adjusted Net Asset Value Method This discussion is the fifth part in a series regarding the asset-based business valuation approach. Previous discussions described the theory and application of the Asset-based Approach. And, previous discussions described the theory and application of the asset accumulation (AA) method. This discussion describes the theory and application of the adjusted net asset value ...

Asset Accumulation Illustrative Example The previous discussion in this series, part III, described the typical methodology and application of the asset accumulation (AA) method of the asset-based business valuation approach. This discussion presents an illustrative example of an AA method business valuation analysis. ...

Assess Change, Communication, Control, and Emotions before Implementing Changes Exploring change, communications, control issues, and emotions is often the best way to begin to understand what is causing conflict in the workplace, and what can be done to curb or control the situation. Once there is a basic understanding of these elements, it is much easier to develop a management strategy that constructivel ...