Highlights
What's a Recession? Is Minnesota in One?
Accountants, journalists, politicians, business owners -- everyone has a personal mental model of what an economic recession looks like. Your perspective – and your clients’ perspectives – are shaped by life experiences, geographic location and other variables. Economists have their own take on what a recession looks like, and it might surprise you. Learn from a practicing economics professor who has more than 20 years of experience forecasting local business cycles. Explore key indicators to gauge economic activity and look at data on Minnesota’s economy that will shed light on its current position. Learn about basic business cycle analysis, the data that reveals meaningful economic information and how to weigh casual anecdotes against facts. Come away with a better understanding of whether Minnesota is in (or facing) a recession and more solid answers to your clients’ questions.
Litigation Best Practices: What to Watch For and What to Watch Out For
After roughly 100 testimony experiences, Jim Hitchner has the expertise and guidance you need to tackle the tough issues, nuances and gray areas. See what he has to share and uncover helpful details related to testimony for depositions, bench trials, jury trials and trials before arbitrators and mediators. Find out how to prepare for these types of trials, how to prepare for administrative hearings and how to avoid report language missteps. Learn how business valuation standards can either help or hurt your testimony, and explore the limits of opinions offered after a report has been reviewed by another expert. Plus, come away with practical sample documents, including a sample cross-examination Q&A, a mock testimony and a deposition preparation checklist.
Gift Tax Valuation Considering Changing IRS Rules and Approaches
Look at recent court cases that highlight how the IRS is approaching gift tax business valuation issues so you can apply the latest requirements and lessons to your work in this space. Get an overview of the current IRS situation as it relates to the estate and gift tax program, with an emphasis on non-cash charitable valuations and the updated non-cash contributions regulations. Using federal court case examples, explore which issues the IRS is focusing on and what it means for your valuation work. Plus, get tips to effectively work through conflict, which can be helpful if you’re subject to an IRS audit.
ESOP Best Practices: How Valuation Professionals Can Work Effectively With Trustees and Attorneys
Life experience is oftentimes the best teacher. Learn valuable lessons from the experiences of others in this dynamic panel discussion focused on employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuations. Explore best practices for conducting an ESOP valuation based on real examples and the perspective of practitioners who conduct more than 50 of these appraisals annually. Gain guidance on how the valuation professional works with company representatives, the ESOP trustee and the ESOP attorney to conduct an effective valuation process. Look at common DOL challenges related to ESOP valuations and learn how to avoid common mistakes. Review the outcomes of recent court cases involving challenges to the valuation and come away with solid practices to ensure your current process is bullet proof.
Best Practices in the Income Approach
In this essential session, take a look at optimal approaches to the capitalized cash flow (CCF) method and the discounted cash flow (DCF) method. Explore new best practices to both methods and learn strategies to better defend your cost of capital calculations, including weighted average cost of capital, the build-up method and the modified capital asset pricing model. Discover alternative cost of equity capital data, new sources of long-term growth rates and normalization adjustments. Gain guidance on what to do with undistributed cash, mid-year convention application for the CCF method, exit multiples in a DCF model, weighting historical earnings, working capital assumptions, depreciation, capital expenditures and other relevant topics affecting your work.
M&A Market Trends
Timing is everything in the sale of a business. Make sure you understand the current state of the market, trends in purchasing and selling businesses and the factors driving those trends so you can better assess and guide clients on when to sell their business. Gain guidance on whether now (or the near future) is a good time to consider selling a business, and if not, when would be more ideal. Examine the latest trends in valuations and other key items important to clients who are considering selling their business.
Court Case Update
With 2022 quickly coming to a close, it’s time for an annual review of court cases that have impacted your work in business valuation and litigation support. Dig into cases on a wide range of topics, including shareholder disputes, family law, trust disputes, lost profits and tax issues. Gain insight on what the courts look for and examine recent locally significant decisions affecting the way you approach your work.