There was a good crowd of about 400 attendees (including virtual) at the NACVA Business Valuation & Financial Litigation Super Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last week. While the weather outside was not very agreeable, the climate inside the conference was very agreeable—there were excellent sessions, top speakers, and opportunities to network face to face. Here are a few pieces of advice and takeaways from a few of the sessions we attended:

• A beta version of a DLOM calculator developed by Dr. Ashok Abbott (West Virginia University) using option modeling is available at dev.optionmodeldlom.com;
• A disturbing statistic from a BVR survey is that 82% of valuation firms polled do not solicit any feedback from clients on how satisfied they are with the work product;
• There was much talk about AI and some eye-opening examples of how to use it to make the valuation process much more efficient;
• Research shows that growth rates are different for companies at different points in their life cycle, lending support to the multistage DCF;
• The Van Vleet model is showing up in more cases regarding tax affecting S corps (which is not a settled matter, as some may think), and the IRS has used it in recent cases;
• Resolve to make at least one call a day to client prospects—and leave a voicemail if there’s no answer;
• It’s now more important to provide full details behind any analysis you present in court;
• Young BV practitioners need their firms to be flexible with work schedules to promote a work/life balance; and
• Judges say it’s just as important how you say something in court as what you say.

Detailed coverage of the conference will be in an upcoming issue of Business Valuation Update.