In a Utah divorce case, both the joint valuation expert and the expert the husband engaged agreed to the amount of personal goodwill in the husband’s consulting business. In Utah, personal goodwill is not subject to distribution in divorce.

Bad data: The estimate was based on an understanding of how the company acquired contracts. But, at trial, it was determined that the husband provided faulty information about this, and the court reduced the amount of personal goodwill by half. The husband appealed, but the appellate court affirmed.

There were other valuation issues, including the choice of valuation date and built-in capital gains taxes. The case is Rothwell v. Rothwell, 2023 UT App 50; 2023 Utah App. LEXIS 51; 2023 WL 3360879, and a case analysis and full court opinion are on the BVLaw platform.