While we enjoy attending the major valuation conferences, we also look forward to attending local state CPA society conferences that focus on valuation. They represent “hidden gems” that offer excellent speakers and interesting topics. And, since the pandemic triggered more usage of streaming technology, these local events are now beamed all over the world. Such an event was the recent Forensic and Valuation Services Conference hosted by the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA). Hosted by Roy Kvalo, director of litigation and valuation services at The Curchin Group (Red Bank, N.J.), the event was excellent—and here is some of what we picked up:

• The easiest way to get sued for malpractice is by filing a collection lawsuit against a client—they will countersue and find an expert to say you fouled up;
• More calculation reports are showing up in divorce courts—one side does it, so the other side follows suit, and the judges understand the need to save money;
• If the IRS audits your valuation, check the agency’s math—one expert finds math errors 30% to 40% of the time, which can be used against them;
• Using Excel and its regression add-on for lost profits analysis should be fine for court (the tools are widely used and accepted), but it’s how you use them that counts;
• DeFi is the new source of crypto theft on the market—in 2021, it accounted for 76% of all thefts; and
• Getting a lot of subpoenas to produce documents and bringing in your liability insurer does not raise your malpractice premium—your insurer is happy to handle them.

We’ll have detailed coverage in a future issue of Business Valuation Update.