Valuation Services

Have you ever been asked the value of your business?

If you are the owner of a closely held business, you may have been confronted with the need to value your ownership interest for purposes such as estate planning, financing, buy/sell agreements, acquisitions, or divorce. However, you may not know the value of this interest because the security is not traded on a public exchange. Since you may have invested significant time and effort in building your business and its value may be your most valuable asset, you should hire a specialist in business valuation who possesses the requisite expertise and experience to determine the business’s value.

Valuation and Forensic Services Department

Our Valuation and Forensic Services Department is now in its 23^rd year and one of the largest practices in Virginia dedicated to providing these specialized services. Our team members collectively possess over 60 years of experience and have performed over 1,500 valuation and forensic projects in more than 220 different industries.

Our valuation services include assisting clients involved in business transactions requiring the valuation of a business, estate, or personal worth. Our experience includes valuations for a variety of purposes, including taxation, financial reporting, transactions, stockownership/option plans, general business, and litigation.

We have developed a national reputation as experts in the field of estate, gift, and income tax valuation. Harold Martin, the Partner-in-Charge of the VFS Department served as a co-author of Financial Valuation: Applications and Models, 1st – 4th ed. which includes a detailed discussion of valuations for tax purposes. This text is used by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for its National Business Valuation School to train CPAs in valuation and Harold serves as one of the national instructors for this program. He also served as a technical reviewer of Discount for Lack of Marketability – Guide and Toolkit by James R. Hitchner, et al., the most comprehensive text on this subject to date. Finally, our VFS Department has significant experience in conducting negotiations with the IRS at the review level and has developed good working relationships and earned the respect of the agents with whom they have dealt. We were also recently retained by the U.S. Department of Justice to serve as a consultant/expert in a litigation matter to be heard before the U.S. District Court.

We also have significant experience as both appraisers and experts in valuations for buy-sell agreements. Our partner, Harold Martin, was an expert witness for the defendant in the Virginia case, Peter F. Dawyot v. Catawba Capital Management, Inc., which resulted in the Court’s decision to set aside the valuation conclusion of a neutral appraiser which was prepared subject to a buy-sell agreement.

Our VFS Department also has experience in performing valuations for a wide variety of clients. Our focus is on closely held businesses and professional firms ranging from small to middle market with local, regional, national, and international operations; however, we have also performed projects for billion dollar private and public companies.