BVWire is just back from the 2013 Annual Consultants’ Conference held by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts in Washington, D.C. Around 500 attendees were treated to four days of presentations, exhibitors, and networking opportunities for professionals in the field.
The theme of the NACVA conference was “Innovate, Collaborate, Succeed.” The sessions we attended, as well as all of the networking opportunities, certainly lived up to the theme of the conference. Everyone we spoke with had nothing but praise for the conference—the way it was run and the quality of the sessions and speakers.
One of the keynote speakers, Ron Baker (VeraSage Institute), talked about building the firm of the future in part by moving away from a timesheet mentality with respect to billing and moving toward one based on the engagement itself and the value it brings to a client. We asked one attendee who moved to engagement-based billing if he had any trouble with clients over this issue. “No. But you have to sit with the client and explain the billing and what you will be doing for him or her.”
Another attendee said that he does “change orders,” akin to those you may get from, say, a contractor putting an addition onto your house. If the scope of the engagement changes, then you discuss it with the client, show the value-added benefit of the new work, and the corresponding fee that gets added on to the original.
Later on, we heard some interesting nuggets of information. For example, several groups of top valuation professionals and thought leaders have approached the IRS over getting its seal of approval on a sample or template valuation report. This, of course, would be very helpful in that it would take the guesswork out of what to include or not include when writing a report that will come under IRS scrutiny.
Plus, VPS (Valuation Products and Services) unveiled plans for a new DLOM guide and toolkit designed to provide a simpler way to determine and support a DLOM. It’s planned to be released this summer; more details later.
The July issue of Business Valuation Update will have more news and details on the NACVA conference.