Who knew the risk-free rate would be getting so much attention these days? (See, for example, BVWire #85-4 and the report on Professor Damodaran’s address at the most recent ASA national BV conference.) Likewise, in their session at the AICPA BV conference in San Francisco, presenters Stacy Collins, Jim Harrington, and Don DeGrazia agreed that appraisers should look to the actual, historical rates to calculate a risk-free rate for use in current engagements.

Just in time: Try the new Risk-Free Rate Lookup™ tool, now available at BVR. Using the latest data from the Federal Reserve Board, BVR’s Risk-Free Rate Lookup provides nine risk-free rates commonly used to develop a discount rate. To retrieve the risk-free rates for a specific day, simply enter the “As of” date and then click on Get Rates—it’s that fast, and it’s free.