• Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Is the Risk-Free Rate Really Risk Free?

    February 18, 2026

    Deconstructing the Idea of the Risk-Free Rate To evaluate future risk factors, analysts should understand the composition of the risk-free rate and consider the data influencing U.S. Treasury Bond yields. This article analyzes the criteria for evaluating the risk-free rate for use in engagements involving business valuations and economic damages. The general notion of a “risk-free rate” is the return available as of the valuation date on a security that the market generally regards as free of the risk of default.[1] U.S. Treasuries have fit this profile for decades, providing minimum, safe alternatives for risk-averse investors. They also provide a…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Understanding IPCPL Theory, Evidence, and Application

    June 26, 2024

    Empirical Evidence Supporting IPCPL Theory (Part III) In this third article, the authors present the empirical evidence supporting use of the IPCPL theory. In the second article in this series, it was shown that the general empirical implications of implied private company pricing line (IPCPL) theory are that buyers of privately owned businesses pay higher transaction costs in exchange for higher returns on their investments. The IPCPL theory treats transaction costs (TC) as a proportion or percentage of transaction price (P) stated as a decreasing convex function of P. (The higher the price, the lower the percentage transactions costs are…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    New Detailed Cost of Capital Case Study: Step-by-Step Comparison of the Kroll Cost of Capital Navigator, BVR Cost of Capital Pro, Damodaran Data, and Surveys

    January 25, 2023

    VPS StraightTalk Webinar, October 20, 2022 This summer and fall 2022, within the business valuation profession, one of the most contentious issues has been “which cost of capital should business valuation professionals use when valuing a small business?” First, Dr. Damodaran advocated the implied equity risk premium with the capital asset pricing model without adding a size premium or company specific risk. He adjusts for other risk factors (size and company specific risks) by adjusting the forecasted cash flows. Next, James Hitchner, CPA, ABV, CFF, responded to Dr. Damodaran’s criticism. Shortly thereafter, Eric Nath, founder of Eri Nath & Associates,…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    A Hybrid Approach to Determining Company-Specific Risk

    January 11, 2023

    Using Weights and Factors to Quantify Risk This is a condensation of the author’s article, originally published in The Value Examiner, July/August 2022. The author proposes an alternative way of calculating the company specific risk premium. This is a condensation of my article originally published in The Value Examiner, July/August 2022. Most of us who value businesses are not valuing businesses in the middle market or the size of businesses that the major writers and instructors on business valuation are valuing. We generally value businesses with revenues under $3,000,000, if not $1,000,000. Not only is there a substantial difference between…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Business Valuations

    April 28, 2021

    for SBA Lending Programs Despite the pandemic, the number of small businesses started continues to increase. This article discusses the various Small Business Administration (SBA) programs and the value of serving these lenders. “Success is a full-time job.” Grant Cardone Any entrepreneur or a small business owner would agree that running a successful small business is a full-time job. To run it well requires an enormous commitment of time and dedication. Over the last few years, the number of small businesses in the United States has continued to climb up. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA),…

  • Financial Forensics - QuickPress

    Corporate investigation may lack the glamour of Bond and Bourne, but the two worlds aren’t so far removed.

    May 25, 2012

    Corporate investigation may lack the glamour of Bond and Bourne, but the two worlds aren’t so far removed.  Former Kroll analyst Chris Morgan Jones tells The Independent’s Tim Walker why.  Due diligence and forensic accounting don’t set the pulse racing like, say, the trailer for the latest 007 movie, so it’s quite a feat for Morgan Jones to have conceived a thriller about business intelligence that is genuinely thrilling. His debut novel, An Agent of Deceit, sees corporate investigator Ben Webster sent to explore the dealings of a shady Russian oligarch. Like vintage Le Carré, it takes the reader on…