My First Use of AI for a Work Assignment Recently, the author received an assignment which called for him to make a calculation that he had not performed in the past. With great hesitance, he decided to ask AI for help. In making the leap to enter the AI pool, he found the answer he needed and confidence to “try it again.” He has found a new tool to put in his litigation support tool kit. In this article, h ...

Ensuring Accurate Valuations with Real-World Testing One of the key assumptions valuation professionals must make is about a company's capital structure. This article explores factors valuation professionals should consider as they arrive at the debt and equity used to value the entity. Business valuation and financial modeling involve navigating a wide range of assumptions, and for the resulting values pro ...

A Forensic Investigation Opens IRS-Floodgate! In this article, the author critiques the IRS Participant Guide for Marijuana Companies. This 200-page guide provides general instructions to the service on the valuation of cannabis farms. The author argues that the compliance guide is completely inaccurate concerning the audit of cannabis cultivation. The author proposes that forensic and valuation professiona ...

From a Forensic Accountant’s Viewpoint Forensic accountants are frequently retained to evaluate economic damages arising from a multitude of circumstances. These engagements require a set of specialized knowledge unique to the facts of the case. In many cases, a forensic accountant will be retained to evaluate lost income arising from a business interruption loss. This article compares a forensic accountant ...

Awaiting Proposed ESOP Regulations In April of this year, the author wrote “Adequate Consideration” Defined? for QuickRead. Since then, the author has regularly checked for updates from the Department of Labor (DOL) with respect to the definition of adequate consideration as it pertains to section 408(e) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and employee stock ownership plans. Although ther ...

The Maggard v. Commissioner Tax Court Opinion S Corporations are required to have one class of stock. In this article, the author discusses the recent Maggard v. Commissioner U.S. Tax Court opinion and addresses whether a disproportionate distribution violates the one class of stock requirement. In any financial analysis of a company, we must consider potential tax liabilities. Since many small businesses o ...

Approaches, Standards, and Terms Although machinery and equipment appraisals differ from business valuations as a distinct branch of the appraisal practice, many overlapping concepts reinforce and support the key factors needed to establish a reliable and defensible opinion of value for the subject assets. This article provides a primer on the subject matter.   "In the world of valuation, the most important ...

A Meandering in the Mind(s) of ChatGPT (Part III of III) In the first two articles of this three part series, the author introduced a brief history of her own word processing software use and preferences, then used several models within an AI tool, ChatGPT, to generate an article with a single prompt. There are some issues with prompts. For instance, the author found that the tools sometimes interpreted the ...

A Meandering in the Mind(s) of ChatGPT (Part II of III) This is the second article of a three-part series. In the first article, the author introduced a brief history of her own word processing software use and preferences then used several models within an AI Tool, ChatGPT, to generate an article with a single prompt, “The article must be between 4750 and 5250 words, not including subtitles. The article mu ...

Rethinking How to Connect Effectively on LinkedIn While LinkedIn provides professionals an opportunity to connect, not all connections are desirable. In this article, Rod Bukert shares his views on how to effectively connect. I imagine you count many business valuation (BV) colleagues among your LinkedIn (LI) connections. But unless they’re sending you work, it’s not your best move. You see, if you are conn ...