• QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Unprecedented Rise in Life Insurance Costs

    Are Older Insured’s Doomed to Pay More? Why is the Cost of Insurance suddenly rising?! Is there anything that insureds can do? For decades, carriers explicitly said that COI increases were unthinkable. In this article, the author identifies the reasons given by four carriers for COI increases and looks at what some other carriers have done to mitigate COI increases. This is particularly important for older business owners seeking liquidity.

  • QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Dissecting the IRS Job Aid on S Corporation Tax Affecting

    Background and Objectives of the Job Aid (Part 3 of 3) In the third article of this three part series, the author discusses the remaining portions of the Job Aid, specifically, the Discussion and Analysis Section of the Job Aid which addresses: Evidence-Based Valuation Analysis, Theory-Based Valuation Analysis, and Weighting of Factors and Approaches and shares his views on the value and limits of this document. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

  • QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Dissecting the IRS Job Aid on S Corporation Tax Affecting

    Background and Objectives of the Job Aid (Part 2 of 3) In the first of this three-part series, the leading cases involving tax-affecting where analyzed; those cases discussed included: Gross, Wall, Heck, Adams, Dallas, Gallagher, Korbel, and Guistina. This second part analyzes the first two parts of the Job Aid by section, the “Executive Summary” and first three subsections of the “Discussion and Analysis”, ending with “Additional Factors for Consideration”.

  • QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Dissecting the IRS Job Aid on S Corporation Tax Affecting

    Background and Objectives of the Job Aid (Part 1 of 3) The release of this series of Job Aids has been hailed by many as a new era of communication and understanding between the Internal Revenue Service, taxpayers, and practitioners. However, in the opinion of this author, and others, releasing these additional documents in such a formal manner seems to be an attempt to influence practitioner behaviors in specific practice areas without statutory support. As was the case with the earlier Job Aid on Discounts for Lack of Marketability, the newest Job Aid contains little new information. Predictably, the position…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    How Social Media Impacts Business Development

    Not all Social Networks Are Created Equal Has your firm embraced social media? Be ready! The days of ignoring social media are long gone. Professional services firms looking to accelerate their growth need to embrace social media and dedicate the resources needed to create a strategy, implement it, and track it. In this article, the author presents research on the impact and value of social media to professional service organizations.

  • Healthcare - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    The Utilization of the Market Approach

    In Appraising Outpatient Enterprises Healthcare related outpatient enterprises provide services that do not require hospital admission and may be performed outside the premises of a hospital. Similar to valuation of any business, valuations of outpatient enterprises should include consideration of the three general approaches to valuation (i.e., the income approach, the market approach, and the asset/cost approach). The specific valuation methods selected under each engagement will be guided by the facts and circumstances surrounding the hypothetical transaction of the subject property interest (e.g., availability of data, nature of the current transactional marketplace). This article focuses on utilizing a market approach…

  • Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Lost Profits: The Reasonable Certainty Standards and the Modern New Business Rule

    While the vast majority of jurisdictions have moved away from the new business rule and adopted the modern new business rule, by which new/unestablished businesses can recover damages, such adoption does not diminish the requirements under the reasonable certainty standard. Given the lack of historical financial performance data and under the lens of the reasonable certainty standard, estimates of lost profits damages to new/unestablished businesses are subject to a higher level of scrutiny. This article focuses on new/unestablished businesses and the importance of post-incident business-specific data/facts to isolate the effects of the disputed event, and to establish a measure of…

  • Healthcare - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Determination of the Appropriate Standard of Value

    An In-Depth Series on Healthcare Valuation This first installment will discuss Fair Market Value, the most prevalent standard of value in the healthcare industry, and why this is the required standard of value for most healthcare transactions. This article will also discuss the premise of value, which further defines the circumstances of the transaction, and how to determine which methods may be applicable to valuing an outpatient enterprise.

  • QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Probability Based Estimation and the DLOM Calculation

    Refining and Selecting the Appropriate DLOM The discount for lack of marketability (DLOM) is the result of illiquidity. It represents the inability to sell quickly when an investor decides to sell an asset. It is the economic cost of failing to realize gains or to avoid losses during the time period that the investor or closely held business owner is trying to sell the asset or securities. In this article, Marc Vianello describes an approach he describes as more “refined” than other methods for estimating DLOM.

  • Healthcare - QuickRead Top Story

    Common Misconceptions Regarding Healthcare Entity Valuations

    Five Remaining Leading Misconceptions (Part II of II) The following discussion summarizes and responds to common misconceptions many analysts have with regard to the valuation of healthcare entity property and/or services transfers. These analyst misconceptions typically involve a misunderstanding of one or more of the relevant regulatory provisions. These analyst misconceptions typically relate to an erroneous understanding that “the Service only accepts this” or “the Office of Inspector General doesn’t accept that.” These analyst common misconceptions are addressed from the perspective of the regulatory compliance of the valuation analysis. In Part II of II, the article covers the remaining five…

  • Case Law - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Estate of Richmond v. Commissioner

    Guidance on How to Calculate the Built-in Capital Gains Tax?! Estate of Richmond is well known among experienced valuation professionals for at least two reasons. First, the U.S. Tax Court was critical of the experts’ lack of credentials and the fact that the estate submitted an unsigned, marked-up report with the 706. Second, the U.S. Tax Court did not allow a 100 percent BICG tax reduction. Rather, the Court provided guidance regarding the extent of the BICG deduction. The author, an experienced valuation advisor, shares his views on both of these issues.

  • QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Are Family Limited Partnership Discounts About to End for Newly Formed FLPs?

    Is There a Reason to Act Soon? Will the IRS Prevail this Time? The IRS is considering issuing proposed Section (SEC) 2704(b)(4) regulations to limit the availability of discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability. The article highlights the need to communicate with estate and gift tax attorneys that have discussed forming a FLP. While practitioners do not know what is being proposed, the §2704 legislative proposal (last included in the Fiscal Year 2013 Greenbook dated February 2012) includes items considered eight years ago, which includes adding additional disregarded restrictions and restrictions on assignee interests.

  • Financial Forensics - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Fraud Risk Assessments

    The Annual Audit Does not Identify Operational and Financial Risks According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE) 2014 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, an estimated 5% of revenues each year are lost to fraud. What processes can management put in place to identify financial and operational risks? In this article, the author shares his experience and thoughts on that question.

  • Mergers and Acquisitions/Exit Planning - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    Life Insurance Policy Audits

    Dispute Defensible Best Practices, Part 3 of a three-part series In this third part, the last of a three part series, the author stresses that in order for a policy “review” or annual statement to rise to the level of a true “audit”, it needs to incorporate all elements of the above criteria. It needs to do this in a format providing actionable information. Without actionable information, a “review” cannot be meaningful in a dispute. The audit will include a rate class assessment, sustainability review and gathering of policy data. The audit report will include an Executive Summary, an Action…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    The New World of Referral Marketing

    The Growing Importance of Social Media and Marketing Expertise Referrals are an old standard—perhaps the old standard—for growing your practice. For the better part of the last century, firms have worked under a simple assumption: do good work for your clients, network with referral sources such as attorneys and CPAs, and you will win new business through referrals. In this article, the author discusses the viability of this and emerging models.

  • Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Featured - QuickRead Top Story

    The Valuation Analyst’s Role

    In Economic Substance Analyses Valuation analysts and other financial advisers are often called on to perform economic substance analyses in federal income tax challenges. In these cases, the Internal Revenue Service challenges a tax deduction or loss related to a taxpayer transaction by applying the so-called economic substance doctrine. This doctrine allows the Service to disallow a taxpayer transaction if the taxpayer (or the taxpayer’s expert witness) cannot prove that: 1) the taxpayer expected to earn a profit (absent any income tax considerations) on the transaction, and 2) the taxpayer had a reasonable business purpose for entering into the transaction.…