Understanding Simplified Employee Pensions
Setting up and maintaining a SEP for your Maine-based business is probably easier than you think. The sooner you get started saving, the more secure your retirement will be, plus your business can gain tax advantages right away. SEP Basics The SEP is a stripped-down...
Court validates expert’s ‘aggressively skeptical’ disaggregation analysis
In a post-trial bid to upset the outcome in Liberty Media Corp. v. Vivendi Universal, S.A., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19485 (Feb. 12, 2013), Vivendi argued that no jury "should have been permitted to base a verdict" on the unreliable loss causation and damages testimony...
Court Accepts Cost Approach to Calculate Value of Lost Business
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals considered how to measure damages for a facility with no real market when it reviewed the district court's $3.8 million award to the plaintiff related to a destroyed waste treatment plant. The defendants owned and operated a Texas oil...
Valuation of Family Business Survives Expert’s Deviation From Industry Standards
Russell v. Russell, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 151 (Feb. 27, 2013) The husband challenged the trial court's valuation of a family business, claiming there was no credible evidence to show it had a "fair market value" independent of the company's founder—his stepfather. At...
Urge to converge upends lease accounting and reporting
Valuation experts will never look at income statements and balance sheets the same way again under proposed changes designed to unite lease accounting around the world. Almost all companies will be affected by the changes introduced by the agreement between the...
Attempt to Base Lost Profits on Infringer’s Sales Alone Fails
Brighton Collectibles, Inc. v. RK Texas Leather Mfg., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24644 (Feb. 12, 2013) The plaintiff's expert claimed $115 million in damages from lost sales, but the defendants argued the testimony was inadmissible under Daubert for many reasons, including...
Court Seeks ‘Fit’ Between Lost Business Value Calculation and Facts
Christou v. Beatport, LLC, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9034 (Jan. 23, 2013) In a suit (D.C. Colo.) involving dueling dance club owners and their businesses, the defendants filed a Daubert motion to exclude expert testimony regarding lost profits and lost enterprise value....
Expert’s Valuation Method Precludes Improper Inclusion of Goodwill
Sharp v. Sharp, 2013 Neb. App. LEXIS 58 (April 9, 2013) One of the principal issues in this divorce case was the trial court's valuation of two medical practices in which the husband had varying interests. On appeal, the husband objected that one valuation wrongly...
Florida may join Daubert states
On April 26, the Florida legislature passed a bill that requires courts to evaluate expert testimony under the Daubert standard. If the governor signs it, the law will go into effect on July 1, and Florida will join the majority of state courts and the federal courts...
New FASB guidance highlights valuation in the face of liquidation
Companies on the brink of collapse must now use the liquidation basis of accounting, according to new guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Financial statements will now have to be prepared that show the values of assets and liabilities in terms of...