The Dirty Dozen: National Emerging Valuation Issues in Divorce

The BVLaw team is just back from the AICPA / AAML National Conference on Divorce in Las Vegas.   The forum provided a solid overview of the very latest BV developments tied to divorce law.    It was also a great opportunity to visit and network with some of the best BV experts in the space.   Thanks to all of you who took the time to visit us in the BVR booth!  

We really enjoyed Gaetano (Guy) Ferro's session entitled Family Case Law Update - The Dirty Dozen: National Emerging Valuation Issues.     As we Tweeted from Vegas, Ferro feels "if there's anything new in business valuation, the courts have not been made aware of it or their opinions do not talk about it."     Ferro pointed out that only 20 divorce cases across all 50 states in the last two years have directly deal with business valuation.  As he sees it, most judicial analysis of BV testimony focuses on the expert's credentials versus the valuation opinion.  He also believes BV may be getting more adversarial and less independent and objective.  He cited a laundry list of cases involving widely varying valuation figures as at least some indication of that trend. 

Ferro provided a rundown of the twelve (and then some) most noteworthy divorce cases involving business valuation.  Here's a quick cheat sheet, and, of course, you can find the full text decisions and related case abstracts  on the BVLaw site. 

Standard of Value

1) Grelier v. Grelier (2008 WL 5265056 (Ala. Civ. App.) 

2) Drumheller v. Drumheller (2009 Vt. 23, 972 A.2d (2009) 

3) Barrup v. Barrup, 2008 WL 3976562 (Vt.)

4) Williams v. Williams, 352 Mont. 198, 217 P.3d 67 (2009)

5) Mazzoco v. Mazzoco, 2009 WL 151566 (Ariz. App.  Div. 10)

6) Sweet v. Sweet, 2009 WL 1110875 (Ohio App. 11 Dist.)

7) Lemmen v. Lemmen, 2010 WL 454959 (Mich App.)

Personal v. Enterprise Goodwill?

Personal Goodwill  

8.  Helfer v. Helfer, 2009 WL 364401 (W. Va.)

9) Dickert v. Dickert, 2010 WL 98698 (S. Car.)

10) McQuay v. McQuay, 217 P.3d 162 (Ok. Civ. App.)

11) King v. King, 2009 WL 2475214 (Ky. App.)

12) Dereschuk v. Schneider, 2009 WL 4142820 (Ariz. App. Div. 1)

Enterprise Goodwill

13) Pearlstein v. Pearlstein, 2009 WL 1272410 (Ohio App. 11 Dist.)

14) Gaskill v. Robbins, 282 S.W.3d 306 (2009)

15) Cummings v. Cumming, 104 Ark. App. 315, 292 S.W.3d 819 (2009)

16) Pellom v. Pellom, 669 S.E. 2d 323 (2008)

Some Personal / Some Enterprise

17) Geyer v. Geyer, 910 N.E. 2d 274, 2009 WL 2176638 (Ind. App.)

Debt

18) Fleishhacker v. Fleishhacker, 2009 WL 1856732 (Miss. App.)

How Not to Perform A Valuation

19) Fusco v. Fusco, 2009 WL 2357996 48 Conn. L. Rptr. 185 (Super. Ct.)

Double Dipping

20) Heller v. Heller, 2008 WL 2588064 (Ohio App.)

To access the full text and case abstracts for these decisions, visit www.businessvaluationlaw.com.  Not a subscriber?  Request a free trial. 

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