BVR has an ongoing webinar series of Power Panels, consisting of veteran practitioners and thought leaders covering recent trends and issues. The latest program was last week and featured Ken Pia (Marcum)—who also acted as moderator—Jeff Tarbell (Houlihan Lokey), Neil Beaton (Alvarez & Marsal), and Michelle Gallagher (Adamy Valuation). Here are a few key points they made:

• In litigation, make sure you know what the other expert will bring to court—you don’t want to show up with a few documents while the other expert brings a full-blown report;
• Credentialed business valuers can qualify in court as experts in reasonable compensation, but consider using a specialist for certain niche sectors or if the issue creates a huge gap between opposing experts;
• The trend is for more cases to head to mediation, and experts are getting calls directly from mediators to act as consultants;
• Make sure staff—especially younger staff—get training in soft skills, such as how to communicate with clients, network, make presentations, build a book of business, etc.
• Guidance is in the works on company-specific risk that will “move the needle” but will not provide a silver bullet for estimation purposes; and
• The issue of control is not a black-or-white matter; it is a spectrum that requires an analysis of all the elements of control to estimate an adjustment (if you cannot use cash flows, that is).

Next quarter, the BVR Power Panel will be back with more thought-provoking discussions. A recording of the webinar is available if you click here (free for holders of the BVR Training Passport Pro).