Valuation & Litigation Advisory Blog

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

• Smooth Sailing How to Make Sure Your Business Valuation Engagement Runs Smoothly
• Valuing a Business With Significant Real Estate Assets
• Marketability Discounts for Controlling Interests?

Smooth Sailing: How to Make Sure Your Business Valuation Engagement Runs Smoothly

We have all had to tackle tasks that just seem to grind and clunk along without much direction or urgency, which can be frustrating for all...

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

• Why the Valuation Date is so Important
• How Calculation Engagements Can Provide an Indication of Value
• Chemtura Addresses Business Appraisals in a Volatile Economy

Why the valuation date is so important

When one considers how the value of an asset will be determined in a matter, it’s common to think about what method the appraiser will use or whether discounts may apply. But a critical factor that may not...

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

• When it's time to calculate damages: How to ensure a reasonable discount rate
• Patent infringement damages: Federal Circuit gives thumbs down to "25% rule"
• Start early, end strong: Tax planning in litigation

When it's time to calculate damages: How to ensure a reasonable discount rate

Consider this scenario: A company goes to court to recover the lost profits it likely would have earned in the future had an...

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

• International Business Valuation Standards: A Forecast for U.S.-Based Business Valuation Experts
• Is the Price Right? Ask an Expert.
• How Contingencies Affect a Business's Value

International Business Valuation Standards: A Forecast for U.S.-Based Business Valuation Experts

I feel completely surrounded—like the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae, chronicled in the movie 300 and elsewhere. Rather than...

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...

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

• What Are the Options When Valuing Share-Based Compensation?
• The Expert's Role in Accountant Liability Cases 
• Skoda Minotti Employee Book Review Published in National Business Valuation Publication

What are the options when valuing share-based compensation?

Recently, employee stock options (ESOs) have lost some of their allure as a compensation tool. Mandatory expensing of ESOs highlights the importance of...

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...

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...

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 Department...

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

• Constructing a Claim for Lost Productivity Damages
• Marketability Discounts
• Clues Abound

Constructing a Claim for Lost Productivity Damages           

Quantifying the cost of lost productivity when a construction project is disrupted through no fault of the contractor is a difficult challenge. An unanticipated disruption of the project typically causes the contractor to work less efficiently, which can lead...

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...

With the recent declines in the real estate market, it is important that you ensure your commercial property is valued correctly for real estate tax purposes. In 2009, many Ohio counties reappraised or updated their real property values for the tax year. These new valuations apply through 2012.

Despite the declining real estate market, it is our understanding that most tax values for commercial properties were not lowered for the 2009-2011 tax years in many Ohio counties. Owners of...

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

• Finding the Appropriate Valuation Standard
• How Valuators Assess the Rising Risk of Fraud
• Lost Profits or Lost Value?

Finding the Appropriate Valuation Standard           

Valuation isn't static and can change depending on the purpose of the valuation. This article looks at the three most common standards of value: fair market, investment and fair. It briefly defines each standard and discusses the...