BVWire attended the ASA’s 2023 Litigation in Valuation Conference last week, which was the first of its kind offered by the ASA. This was a virtual-only event, and there was a very fine turnout (over 100 attendees). Event chair Kenneth J. Pia (Marcum) assembled an all-star cast of speakers and a list of interesting topics, including marital divorce, business breakups, shareholder disputes, and ESOPs as well as tips on giving expert testimony. Here are a few quick takes (we’ll have details in a future issue of Business Valuation Update):

• Current economic conditions will trigger growth in valuation disputes across the globe;
• Assume every engagement will end up in litigation—and preparation for trial should begin as soon as the engagement begins;
• There is a very substantial need for contractual valuation approaches to avoid business owner disputes and plan for exits, such as buy-sell agreements with solid valuation provisions;
• A dialogue has started between valuers and the Department of Labor over forthcoming ESOP valuation regs, but no one knows yet what they will contain;
• Too many courts have abdicated their gatekeeping responsibility regarding expert testimony—hence the new amendments to Rule 702 that just went into effect; and
• A judge urges valuation experts just to tell a story of the business in simple, plain language, and have absolute mastery of the facts of the business.

This was an excellent event, and you can expect more special-topic valuation conferences like this from the ASA, said Johnnie White, the ASA’s CEO, when he welcomed the attendees. One interesting one they’re developing will be on artificial intelligence, which is planned for spring 2024. We look forward to that one!