The 2022 ASA NY Fair Value Conference was held in hybrid form (online and in-person from Hoboken, N.J.) on June 16, and here are some takeaways:

• The FASB has removed from its active agenda its project that was considering whether annual goodwill impairment tests should be done away with for public companies in favor of a new model that would include amortization (see last week’s issue for details);
• The most common mistake in developing cost of capital for a foreign entity is a mismatch between the discount rate and the currency underlying the forecast;
• There is currently no empirical support for including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in the cost of capital—any impacts should be reflected in cash flows;
• It is believed that the new AICPA guide to business combinations will be released before the end of this year;
• Guidance is being developed for estimating a discount rate for fair value measurements for intangible assets;
• Inflation estimates for the U.S. over the long-term rose from 2.0% in June 2020 to 2.6% in May 2022; and
• Recent SEC guidance on SPAC warrant classification have put these entities under the microscope and resulted in a number of restatements.

More details on the sessions will be included in the August issue of Business Valuation Update.