Court Dismisses Accounting Expert’s Testimony in Packaging Lawsuit Daubert motions are commonly raised to exclude experts. In this article, the author underscores the importance of questioning a client’s representations and documenting the basis for damages calculations. The failure to do so exposes the expert to challenges on the basis that the opinion is flawed because it is based on speculation and quest ...

A Case Study In this article, the author uses a case study to explore how forensic accountants used analytics to identify discrepancies in financial records and support financial investigations. Introduction While we traditionally think of forensic accounting as the specialized area of accounting that focuses primarily on the investigation of financial crimes, forensic accountants are also well equipped to ...

With ChatGPT 4o An AI prompt to help you create a financial plan. This last week, I presented an AI webinar for NACVA called “AI Prompt Engineering: How to Get Better Results from AI for Your Consulting Practice” I showed attendees all my favorite tricks and frameworks for getting the most from ChatGPT and other LLMs. Someone from the audience asked if AI could create a financial plan but I simply ran out o ...

Galiotos v. Galiotos—The Tale of a Sibling Feud This legal update provides a summary of how the trial and appellate courts addressed a dispute amongst siblings that were co-trustees of trusts holding commercial real estate assets. The case provides valuation and litigation support professionals an opportunity to assess what has happened when an impasse of this nature results in litigation. “If you ever star ...

Conversations with ChatGPT In this article, the author discusses the conversation she had with ChatGPT regarding Bitcoin and Ponzi schemes. This question has been around nearly as long as Bitcoin itself (without the Charles Ponzi qualifier). How could I have a conversation with Charles Ponzi? Perhaps ChatGPT has ingested enough material about the historical figure to do it for me. I initiated a new conversa ...

Trust but Authenticate This 20th article in the Unimpeachable Neutrality series explores why and how valuation and forensic accounting experts may need to evolve toward a new standard: unimpeachable certainty. Neutrality, once the highest standard of expert credibility, must now be supplemented with verifiable authentication practices to ensure that expert conclusions are not built upon fabricated realities ...

Retain and Build Client Relationships Finding good clients can be a challenge. Even with good clients, maintaining the relationship and improving it takes a few easy steps. In this article, the author shares steps a firm can take to improve the relationships and minimize the chance of losing the client. Finding good clients can be a challenge. Even with good clients, maintaining relationships with them can ...

This article reviews 10 ways you can use AI in your consulting firm to improve efficiency. I have a lot of people tell me that AI is pretty cool but ask, how can I use it to boost the efficiency of my consulting practice? It is easy to get caught up in the hype of new technology, but there really are some immediate benefits that you can implement quickly to have more time with family and friends and less ti ...

(With the Help of ChatGPT) In this article, the author provides three versions of a data retention policy that appears compliant with GDPR or NIST. After taking NACVA’s cybersecurity course, a student reached out to me asking for a Data Retention Policy template that would be compliant with the statutes and frameworks discussed in the course, such as the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST ...

The Four Pillar Framework Rod Burkert has been spreading the gospel about BVFLS practice development since 2013. In this article, he discusses a framework that he has developed and can be used to close the gap between the practice you have and the practice you want. The people I talk to all seem to have slightly different ideas about practice development. Here is one definition from a Forbes article that I ...