IMGCAP(1)]Accountants considering adding or expanding valuation services in their practice may wonder about the demand for valuation services and what kind of clients can benefit from a valuation or calculation engagement.
According to valuation and forensic specialists queried in the
What’s driving this demand? Apparently, one not-so-upbeat result of the improving U.S. economy is that partners in marriages and businesses who had put off life-changing divorces or company breakups during the recession decide to end these unions as wealth improves in their households and companies.
Charles S. Kennedy Jr., director of tax services for the CPA and advisory firm GT Reilly & Co., said in an
Other business partners might not be married (as the husband and wife in the Bloomberg report were), but if the company was hanging on by a thread during the Great Recession, partners may have been more willing to overlook problems in order to work together to save the business and turn it around.
Now that privately held companies have
In other cases, partners now looking to retire or bring on younger partners to bolster the firm’s future can generate disputes over the current value of the partner’s shares.
According to the Chicago-area law firm
Allegations of breach of contract or allegations that company bylaws or guidelines were violated;
Deadlocks among management over the future of the company (including succession) or other key decisions; and
Disagreements over the sale or purchase of corporate assets;
Given lawyers’ involvement in many of the divorces and shareholder and partner disputes that arise, these professionals can be steady sources of clients for accountants and other financial professionals providing valuation services. One option for cultivating a pipeline of valuation clients is to make sure any lawyers in your professional network know that you are providing valuation services.
Inform them of any specializations, such as divorce cases, that you are pursuing. Networking and marketing to these referral sources can solidify a mutually beneficial professional relationship.
The branding and marketing firm Hinge has found in its
For more information on how accounting firms can take advantage of growth in valuation services, listen to a free on-demand webinar with Sageworks and Paul Wapner, CPA/ABV, CGMA, manager of forensic and valuation services for the AICPA: "
Brad Spence is director of valuation solutions at the financial information company