Is your valuation work biased?

Here's a way to see if your valuation is not objective, recommended by Jim Hitchner at the wrap-up session at the AICPA BV Conference:

"List all of the assumptions you've made to come to your conclusion of value.   You know what they are.   Then, evaluate whether each assumption leads to a higher value or a lower value.  If they all lean in the same direction, your valuation is probably biased."

In a profession that prides itself on objectivity, this kind of review makes a lot of sense.   As one appraiser recently told BVWire last week, "I'd really like to know that every appraisal I complete would have the same number at the bottom whether I was doing the work for the party that benefits from a high value or the party that benefits from a low value.  That's the standard I try to hold myself to in this business.   Do I achieve that standard?  Well..."