In Valuing Fractional Interests in Real Estate 2.0, with a wealth of practical knowledge, Dennis Webb has created a complete resource for anyone looking to apply the income approach better in their next valuation. The following excerpt comes from the book’s first chapter, "Fractional Interests and Valuation." Read more >>

In this exciting new edition of Understanding Business Valuation, Gary Trugman takes his characteristic talent for simplifying the technical and complex to even greater heights. In his easy-to-read and -understand style, he covers all the bases with valuation approaches, methods, and techniques. Trugman identifies critical points in his callout notes throughout the publication. Read more >>

The year 2021 was a year of change not only for the broader world, but also for the legal landscape; the U.S. ushered in a new administration with promises to increase taxes in a broad spectrum of areas, including reviving the estate tax levels to years gone by. This and the increase in litigation activity, perhaps also rebounding from the pandemic, have created an increase in the demand for business valuations and litigation services. Read more >>

The year 2021 was defined by unexpected economic events; from the GameStop Rebellion to changes in how goodwill cases are handled in Florida, 2021 certainly was an interesting time to be in the valuation profession. Read more >>

The bestselling Business Valuation and Bankruptcy: Case Law Compendium is out now and is in its third edition. This must-have resource is replete with hard-won insights into the often challenging intersection of law and valuation. It summarizes case law and provides insightful analysis on a range of bankruptcy topics. Read more >>

Is anything “company-specific” per se? Company-specific risk is not an ideal name for this risk. All firms face company-specific risks, many of which are somewhat similar across industries and companies. For example, how many firms have you valued that had to deal with the risk of customer concentration? Read more >>

The 2021 Discount for Lack of Marketability Study provides objective rate of return measures to implement the Johnson/Park empirical method for determining a discount for lack of marketability (DLOM) for the valuation of interests in privately held corporations and partnerships. This report instantly provides you with the most current DLOM rate of return information including a thorough explanation and example on how to apply these data. Read more >>

Valuing intangible business assets can be overwhelming at times. Between the different approaches and the myriad factors that go into each, it’s easy to miss a step. BVR’s recently released third edition of Benchmarking Identifiable Intangibles and Their Useful Lives in Business Combinations seeks to provide context to this dizzying array of factors with a look at the different approaches for valuing intangible assets—as well as empirical data from actual valuations. Read more >>

BVR’s recent survey on methodology and practice for estimating a discount for lack of marketability (DLOM) garnered over 200 responses. After analyzing the results, we identified several red flags that were worthy of further exploration. Read on to learn more! Read more >>

BIZCOMPS, a comprehensive online database with financial details on small, Main Street private companies, has been recently updated with new transactions, and the current BIZCOMPS/BVR Deal Review (BDR), exclusively for subscribers, is now available. This special publication analyzes general trends, valuation multiples, and operating ratios for transactions in the database. Get a sneak peek at the Summer 2021 issue with highlights including harmonic mean and median sale price, median SDE/rent, and more. Read more >>

One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis is that a coherent narrative is more important than ever in business valuation, says Dr. Aswath Damodaran, of New York University Stern School of Business, who gave the keynote address at the CBV Congress 2021. A valuation needs a marriage of narrative and numbers, Damodaran says. In a good valuation, the numbers are “bound together” by a coherent narrative, and storytelling is kept grounded with numbers. Too much emphasis on numbers can make valuations mere “plug-and-point exercises” that may be perceived to be sales pitches or a confirmation of preconceived values. Read more >>

In BVR’s recent webinar, Cryptocurrency Fraud and Forensics: What Valuation Professionals Need to Know, forensic and cryptocurrency experts Katerina Gaebel and Mark DiMichael, both of Citrin Cooperman, covered various hot topics on fraud and forensic accounting issues in digital assets and how they affect the business valuation profession. Here, we summarize five key areas where one would find proof of crypto asset fraud in a marital dispute, including interviews, tax returns, bank accounts, credit card statements, and more. Read more >>

In the May issue of the Economic Outlook Update (EOU), the publication added data highlighting the wholesale trade segment of the U.S. economy, putting a spotlight on the data the U.S. Census published. The report highlights the sales totals of merchant wholesalers for April 2021, which included adjustments for seasonal variations and trading day differences. The report showed an improvement in wholesale trade in April 2021 when compared to March 2021 and from one year ago. In April, total sales were $570.8 billion, or 0.8% higher than the revised March level and 43.6% higher than the level from one year ago. Read more >>

For years, the valuation profession has debated the definition of a control premium, including its distinction from an acquisition premium. What began years ago as a relatively simple question—if there is a control premium, what should it be?—now includes analyzing such concepts as invested capital premiums and equity-based premiums, transaction synergies and strategic values, marketability, and levels of control. All are “key points” to keep in mind throughout the quantification of a control premium, say Tim Meinhart and Nate Novak (both of Willamette Management Associates), who led a webinar on this topic titled Evaluating and Applying Control Premiums earlier this year. Read more >>

The conference season is well underway, and Business Valuation Update has been on the virtual road, collecting the latest insights on a wide variety of topics. Here are some interesting takeaways from the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPA) Business Valuation and Litigation Services Conference, held May 17. Topics included emerging issues (SPACs, cryptocurrency, Zoom as a practice-builder) and some new perspectives on evergreen topics (estate valuations, cannabis, distressed firms, and collaborations). Read more >>

Recent developments have put the spotlight squarely on projected financial information (PFI). The perception is that too many valuation experts simply accept projections and forecasts they’re given without applying enough scrutiny—or any scrutiny at all. Fortunately, there is some new guidance on how to examine and substantiate PFI you get from management or other third parties in BVR’s new Guide to Management Projections and Business Valuation: Analysis and Case Law. The following is an excerpt from that chapter. Read more >>

With the COVID-19 pandemic putting a stranglehold on the U.S. economy for most of 2020 and causing an unprecedented economic impact on small businesses, DealStats Value Index (DVI) captured the 12-month snapshot on how earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) multiples have trended. Read more >>

Financial experts may be subject to standards of professional practice from a number of sources when they measure lost profits damages and give related expert testimony. The sources can include governmental regulators as well as professional membership organizations and societies. In addition, a technical community may establish professional standards of practice in other ways. Read more >>

A number of issues have emerged that analysts will encounter when performing a valuation in a bankruptcy context. Valuation analysts who become involved in bankruptcy-related assignments should expect their work to come under a great deal of scrutiny because most of these engagements are done within a litigation or some other adversarial context, cautioned Robert Reilly, a managing director at Willamette Management Associates, during a BVR webinar back in 2017. While his remarks were made a few years ago, they continue to resonate, and a chapter from Business Valuation and Bankruptcy: Case Law Compendium, 3rd edition, contains more of his timeless advice on how to handle the challenges valuation experts will face. Read more >>

Business interruption insurance claims are on the rise, and analysts need to be on the lookout for misrepresentations. Michael Haugen, CPA, CFF, CFE (JS Held) conducted a session on this at the recent AICPA FVS Conference, and it’s an area where valuation experts would do well to bolster their knowledge and skills in financial forensics. During his session, Haugen gave some tips on how to “sniff out” misrepresentations in these claims. In the recent Business Valuation Update (BVU) article, “14 Ways to Detect Misrepresentations in Business Interruption Claims,” Haugen classifies specific techniques to detect misrepresentations in business interruption claims. Read more >>