Litigation Advisory Services

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• No Time Like the Present: Discounting Future Damages
• In Valuation, Timing is Everything
• Business Valuation Glossary

No Time Like the Present: Discounting Future Damages

In commercial cases, plaintiffs often recover lost profits they would have earned in the future but for the defendant's wrongful conduct. In those contexts, valuation experts typically discount future damages to present value. Click...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Goodwill Impairment Analysis - Is Your Goodwill Impaired?
• Emerging from Bankruptcy: Business Valuation is Critical to a Successful Fresh Start
• Buy-Sell Agreements: 4 Business Valuation-Related Pitfalls to Avoid

 Goodwill Impairment Analysis - Is Your Goodwill Impaired?

In the current weakened economic environment, companies are learning that the goodwill that they carry on the balance sheet is impaired...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Owners Compensation: Why Valuation Experts are Nosy about This Number
• Looking Ahead and Behind to Determine Lost Earnings
• The Role of Forensic Skepticism in Lost Profits Calculations
• Valuation Interviews Help Tell the Whole Story

Owners Compensation: Why Valuation Experts are Nosy about This Number

Some business owners feel that when a valuation expert asks them how much they make (and how much they would...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Tiered Valuation Discounts: The Tax Court's Position on the Russian Doll
• Guidance Issued on Valuation of Partial Interests
• Quantifying Economic Losses When Mitigating Circumstances Come Into Play

Tiered Valuation Discounts: The Tax Court's Position on the Russian Doll
By Sean R. Saari, CPA/ABV, CVA, MBA

As little boys or girls, many of us had an opportunity to play with a "matryoshka" doll - also known as...

Fraud and embezzlement cost local organizations millions of dollars annually. Consistent with national trends, organizations with fewer than 100 employees are the primary targets.

And, nationally and locally, there is an increase in financial crimes in which people are colluding with internal or external partners.

Cooperation increases their chances of success, because collusion cases are more difficult to detect, as the perpetrators tend to be more creative than those who work solo. But, they...

The recently enacted 2010 Small Business Jobs Act includes an assortment of changes for small businesses. Listed below are several, but not all, of the tax breaks and incentives, as well as the offsets (revenues and raisers) of the new law.

Tax Breaks and Incentives

• Enhanced small business expensing
• General business credits of eligible small businesses for 2010 allowed to be carried back five years
• General business credits of eligible small businesses in 2010 aren't subject to AMT
• S corporation...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• FAQs About Business Valuations
• Measuring the Intangible: Valuation Issues in Health Care Transactions
• Single Price Quote Supports $10 Million Lost Profits Award
• Skoda Minotti Employee Recognized For Outstanding Report Writing

FAQs About Business Valuations

From business acquisitions to estate planning to shareholder transactions, executives often run into situations in which performing a business valuation...

From business acquisitions to estate planning to shareholder transactions, executives often run into situations in which performing a business valuation is necessary.

The primary pressure point is when it is necessary to determine the value of an ownership interest in a private company (non publicly-traded) for any number of financial and business reasons. Not anything that is traded on exchanges; we’re talking about closely-held companies and small businesses.

In what scenarios would a business...

Identify theft crimes are not going away any time soon.  Actually, the identity theft criminals are becoming more creative as society slowly responds to the traditional identity theft schemes.

The latest identity fraud targets minors – our children.  Specifically, our childrens' social security numbers.  

Selling social security numbers is a business, albeit an illegal one. It exists throughout the US.  Buyers historically are individuals in the US illegally that need to be “legitimate” or those...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• New Expert Discovery Rules Should Reduce Litigation Costs
• Zubulake Revisited: New Guidance on E-Discovery
• How the Recession Has Impacted Business Valuation

New expert discovery rules should reduce litigation costs         

This article discusses proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that will likely have a big impact on the attorney-expert relationship. One of the most significant...

This month’s issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Nonqualified Deferred Conpensation: Independent Appraisals Offer Protection Against 409a Challenge
• Damage Control: Surviving a Business Interruption
• Fair Value in a Troubled Economy
   

Nonqualified deferred compensation: Independent appraisals offer protection against 409A challenge         

Businesses that provide employees with stock options, stock appreciation rights (SARs) and other types...

With apologies to all of you non-basketball fans out there, this blog entry will once again focus on LeBron James and his impending free agency.  After all, it is the primary (only?) sports story in Cleveland this summer.  As my colleague wrote in a previous entry, LeBron’s decision to stay or go this summer will have a dramatic impact the value of the Dan Gilbert’s investment in the Cavaliers.  Here’s another perspective on how LeBron’s decision might be illustrative of the value of...

The Auditing Standards Board recently released six clarified Statements on Auditing Standards related to risk assessment, as part of its clarity project. This project, which will redraft all standards over the next two years, will make the auditing standards easier to read, understand and apply, and falls in line with the Board’s objective to converge all standards with the International Standards on Auditing.
 
Read more about the Auditing Standards Board’s new statements.
 
To discuss the new...

This month’s issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Lucent Sheds Light on Patent Infringement Damages
• Valuing Pass-Through Entities vs. C Corps
• What’s Behind the Veil? Digging for the Truth in Alter-Ego Cases

Lucent Sheds Light on Patent Infringement Damages

Courts are generally loath to disturb a jury’s verdict on damages. But an appeals court threw out a $350 million patent infringement award that wasn’t supported by substantial evidence. This case...

This month’s issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights, includes the following articles:

• Struggling Economy Presents Business Valuation Challenges
• Nonpublic Information Considered in Valuing Securities
• Are Valuations Recyclable?

Struggling Economy Presents Business Valuation Challenges     

In bad times, appraisers may face a disconnect between the income and market approaches, creating a wide gap between valuations. The challenge becomes reconciling these differences. This article explains...

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• IP Valuation Using the Relief From Royalty Method
• Valuation Critical Under New M&A Rules
• Putting a Price on Technology

Advisor Insights

This month, our monthly Advisor Insights column in Smart Business Cleveland Magazine takes a look at lessons learned from the real estate industry.

Having a finite resource as your business's main asset has proved challenging for real estate companies, but it also has necessitated some creative problem solving.

Click here to read the full article, "Lessons learned from the Real Estate Industry."

Administration Outlines 2011 Tax Proposals 

On February 1, 2010, the Treasury...

In the fourth quarter or 2009, Northeast Ohio saw a decrease in vacancy rates and an increase in net absorption, indicating that things may be turning around. When the economy will fully recover, though, has yet to be determined with certainty, and real estate companies are still suffering from various challenges including the absence of credit and the economic loss in the value of underlying real properties. Companies can adapt to these challenges and survive in this market, though; click here...