Business Valuation

Business Valuation – The process can be very complex and time-consuming, and takes quite a lot of experience to do well. There are a number of valuation methods that business appraisers have at their disposal, and even choosing the correct method (or sometimes, the correct combination of methods) to use in a given situation is more of an art than a science.  Business valuation methods fall into the following categories, depending upon their major focus:

  • business assets, including book value and liquidation value methods
  • historical earnings, including debt-paying ability, capitalization of earnings or cash flow, gross income multipliers, and dividend-paying ability methods
  • a combination of assets and earnings
  • the market for similar businesses, including comparable sales
  • future earnings, namely, discounted future cash flow or earnings methods

There is no substitute for an appraisal and valuation by a qualified profession.

Business appraisers are utilized to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, marital dissolution, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners’ ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate/probate disputes.  In some cases, the court may appoint a forensic accountant as the joint expert doing the business valuation.

TERRI LASTOVKA IS YOUR VALUATION SPECIALIST AT VLC

She is a Certified Public Accountant and an Attorney. She is also an Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers with the additional credential of Appraisal Review & management. Terri has more than 35 years of experience where she has consulted in the areas of business practices, financial considerations, and tax issues as well as collateral monitoring, business succession, workout, and corporate financing. She also spent several years in the industry as CFO of a chemical distributor. Click here for more information on the ASA.

Her valuation experience includes resolution of a multitude of issues in a wide range of industries, having performed valuations of companies for the following reasons:

TAX RELATED VALUATIONS

  • Estate and Gift Taxes
  • Estate Planning
  • Family Partnerships and LLC’s
  • Charitable Contributions

TRANSACTION RELATED VALUATIONS

  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Corporate Redemptions
  • Shareholder Buy-Outs
  • Corporate Financial Planning

DISPUTE RESOLUTION VALUATIONS

  • Litigation / Arbitration / Mediation
  • Dissenting Shareholder Actions
  • Marital Dissolution
  • Business Damages / Lost Profits
  • Income Analysis for Support Issues

EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP VALUATIONS

  • Profit Sharing and Stock Bonus Plans
  • Stock Options
  • Buy/Sell Agreements
  • Key-man Insurance