We attended the ASA 2023 International Appraisers Conference in New Orleans but could not get to every session we wanted. Fortunately, the ASA makes recordings of the sessions available if you click here. Here are a few things we learned from listening to some of the recordings:

• A new study shows that customer concentration does not automatically mean higher risk—it depends on the strength of the relationships with those customers;
• When thinking about hypothetical buyers for a going-concern business, the likely buyers are those with the greatest expected synergies;
• The tax break from identifying personal goodwill when a business is sold is so significant that the IRS automatically red flags transactions that make a personal goodwill election;
• Don’t assume your business as a sole practitioner does not have value, even with nonrecurring revenue—and there are alternate payment arrangements that can be done with the buyer;
• Buy-sell agreements represent a “vast opportunity” for appraisers to help draft certain provisions and to perform valuations when needed; and
• How useful are ESG ratings in valuation? Anheuser-Busch would have received high ESG scores for embarking on its woke promotion for Bud Light, but look what happened (Kellogg’s Froot Loops is the latest brand to come under fire for its wokery).

Of course, being in-person at the conferences is the optimal experience (we learn a lot outside of the actual sessions), but the recordings are the next best thing. Next year’s ASA conference will be in Portland, Ore., Sept. 15-17, 2024.