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  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss xmlns:a10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title>BVWire News</title><link>https://www.bvresources.com/</link><description>BVWire News brings you current news from the buzz of the latest professional conference or the best new financial research resources, to the impact of last week's tax case. </description><category>cost of capital</category><a10:contributor><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:contributor><a10:link rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="https://www.bvresources.com/feeds/bvwire-news" /><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:6400b452-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/04/17/valuation-experts-make-the-first-forbes-top-200-cpas-list</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Valuation Experts Make the First Forbes Top 200 CPAs List</title><description>The Forbes top 200 CPAs list is out. Let's take a look at which valuators made the list.</description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:38:28 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/top-cpas/?sh=5ffdf15a628e"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;inaugural &lt;em&gt;Forbes&lt;/em&gt; Top 200 CPAs list&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; includes several practitioners who are credentialed in business valuation (ABV, CVA, or ASA). They are: &lt;/p&gt;
  2. &lt;ul&gt;
  3.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vic Alexander, CPA, ABV, CFF,&lt;/strong&gt; is chief manager, KraftCPAs (Nashville, Tenn.);&lt;/li&gt;
  4.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tony Argiz, ASA, ABV, CPA, CFF, CFE, CGMA,&lt;/strong&gt; managing principal, South Florida, BDO USA (Miami);&lt;/li&gt;
  5.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Larry Autrey, CPA, ABV,&lt;/strong&gt; managing partner, Whitley Penn (Fort Worth, Texas);&lt;/li&gt;
  6.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shelly Bedford, CPA, MST, CVA,&lt;/strong&gt; managing partner, Dennis, Gartland &amp;amp; Niergarth (Traverse City, Mich.);&lt;/li&gt;
  7.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Allen Carroll, CPA, ABV, CFF, CVA,&lt;/strong&gt; partner, Wilkins Miller (Mobile, Ala.);&lt;/li&gt;
  8.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Richard Craig, CPA, ABV, CFF, CVA, MAFF, CITP, MCP,&lt;/strong&gt; managing partner, 415 Group (Canton, Ohio);&lt;/li&gt;
  9.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brian Lang, CPA, CVA, CEPA,&lt;/strong&gt; CEO, SSC CPAs (Topeka, Kan.);&lt;/li&gt;
  10.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Karen Lascelle, CPA, CVA, CFE,&lt;/strong&gt; managing director, John G. Burk &amp;amp; Associates, CPAs (Keene, N.H.);&lt;/li&gt;
  11.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harold Martin, CPA, ABV, CFF, ASA, CFE,&lt;/strong&gt; director, Keiter CPA (Glen Allen, Va.);&lt;/li&gt;
  12.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mike McCarthy, CPA, CVA,&lt;/strong&gt; managing partner, Hancock Askew (Savannah, Ga.);&lt;/li&gt;
  13.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV,&lt;/strong&gt; partner, Withum (East Brunswick, N.J.);&lt;/li&gt;
  14.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stacey Udell, CPA, ABV, CFF, CVA,&lt;/strong&gt; principal, HBK CPAs &amp;amp; Consultants (Cherry Hill, N.J.);&lt;/li&gt;
  15.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Joel Valentine, CPA, CVA, CM&amp;amp;AA, CGMA,&lt;/strong&gt; CEO, Wessel (Johnstown-Somerset, Pa.);&lt;/li&gt;
  16.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lance Weiss, CPA, CVA,&lt;/strong&gt; owner, SFW Partners (St. Louis);&lt;/li&gt;
  17.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kevin Yeanoplos, CPA, ABV, CFF, ASA, &lt;/strong&gt;shareholder/director, Brueggeman &amp;amp; Johnson Yeanoplos (Tucson, Ariz.); and&lt;/li&gt;
  18.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bruce Zicari, CPA, CVA, &lt;/strong&gt;CEO, The Bonadio Group (Rochester, N.Y.).&lt;/li&gt;
  19. &lt;/ul&gt;
  20. &lt;p&gt;BVR is pleased that several of its editorial board members, Harold Martin and Kevin Yeanoplos, made the list. Also, Stacey Udell will be doing a &lt;a href="https://sub.bvresources.com/TrainingEvent.asp?WebinarID=1834"&gt;webinar for BVR on cannabis valuations&lt;/a&gt; on April 18. &lt;/p&gt;
  21. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Common thread:&lt;/strong&gt; In addition to their obvious technical skills, all these professionals have given back to the community and the profession in some way. They serve on committees and boards at various local groups as well as accounting and valuation professional organizations. Other efforts include speaking at conferences and on webinars, writing books and articles, and teaching (some are adjunct professors). These endeavors are crucial in advancing the valuation profession. &lt;/p&gt;
  22. &lt;p&gt;BVR congratulates all the professionals who made the &lt;em&gt;Forbes&lt;/em&gt; list!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:17c5b352-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/04/15/sneak-peek-guide-to-physician-practice-finance-and-valuation-4th-edition</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Sneak Peek: Guide to Physician Practice Finance and Valuation, 4th Edition</title><description>BVR’s Guide to Physician Practice Finance and Valuation, 4th Edition, is out now and features a completely reworked look at the key issues impacting healthcare valuation. Check out this sneak peek of Part I.</description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:49:00 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/bvr-s-guide-to-physician-practice-finance-and-valuation-fourth-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BVR&amp;rsquo;s Guide to Physician Practice Finance and Valuation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;, &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/bvr-s-guide-to-physician-practice-finance-and-valuation-fourth-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4th Edition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;,&lt;/strong&gt; is out now and features a completely reworked look at the key issues impacting healthcare valuation. Enjoy this sneak peek of Part I.&lt;/p&gt;
  23. &lt;h5&gt;Introduction&lt;/h5&gt;
  24. &lt;p&gt;Defining the &amp;ldquo;market&amp;rdquo; for healthcare enterprises is no easy task. It is one of the most highly regulated sectors of the economy, subject to antireferral legislation as well as emerging antitrust enforcement. At the same time, much of healthcare remains fragmented and ripe for consolidation, at least in the view of investors. Physician practices are increasingly targeted by private equity, as well as challenged by investor-owned urgent care and other clinics that raid the patient base of traditional primary care practices.&lt;/p&gt;
  25. &lt;p&gt;Inflation is affecting all areas of the economy, and physician practices are no exception. Due to the decades-old pattern of nominal increases in physician payment rates, physicians generally respond to more intensive coding of procedures, which is described in Chapters 8 and 14.&lt;/p&gt;
  26. &lt;p&gt;Much of the competition in the market for physicians is between private-practice settings and hospitals/health systems. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) play an important role in many of the procedural specialties because an ownership&lt;br /&gt;
  27. interest can result in significant income enhancement for the physician, whereas hospital employment generally leads to procedures being done in the outpatient surgery department and all profits go to the employer.&lt;/p&gt;
  28. &lt;h5&gt;Current Recruiting Data&lt;/h5&gt;
  29. &lt;p&gt;Data for 2023 on annual recruiting engagements from Merritt Hawkins indicate that the specialties in highest demand include nurse practitioners, family medicine physicians, and radiology, the same specialties as the 2022 report. The demand for primary care physicians reflects a long-standing need for it, not only for patient care, but also for claiming patients for accountable care organizations and similar risk-based undertakings. The number of physicians in the U.S. increased at a compound rate of only 1.2% between 2000 and 2023.&lt;/p&gt;
  30. &lt;p&gt;Take advantage of the experience of&amp;nbsp;renowned healthcare valuation thought leader Mark Dietrich's more than 45 years of experience through groundbreaking research, real-world examples, and in-depth explanations throughout the recently updated publication. &lt;/p&gt;
  31. &lt;h5&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/bvr-s-guide-to-physician-practice-finance-and-valuation-fourth-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get your copy now &amp;gt;&amp;gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h5&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:87beb352-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/04/10/tax-planning-with-rcreports</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Tax Planning With RCReports</title><description>Tax planning is an essential aspect of financial management for businesses and individuals. However, with a complex and ever-changing tax landscape, it can be challenging to navigate these waters effectively, which is where RCReports can be a game-changer.</description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2024 14:42:18 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This blog was originally published on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://rcreports.com/blog/the-role-of-rcreports-in-tax-planning-tools-and-strategies-for-success/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;RCReport's blog on Jan. 16, 202&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;4&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  32. &lt;p&gt;Tax planning is an essential aspect of financial management for businesses and individuals. Properly managing your tax obligations can lead to significant savings and financial security. However, with a complex and ever-changing tax landscape, it can be challenging to navigate these waters effectively. This is where tools like RCReports come into play, providing valuable assistance and support in your tax planning journey.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  33. &lt;p&gt;In this blog post, we&amp;rsquo;ll explore the role of RCReports in tax planning, the tools it offers, and the strategies you can employ for tax planning success.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  34. &lt;h4&gt;Understanding RCReports&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h4&gt;
  35. &lt;p&gt;RCReports is a specialized software tool designed to assist tax professionals, accountants, and business owners in determining reasonable compensation for S corporation shareholders and guiding entity selection. Reasonable compensation, in this context, refers to the appropriate salary or wage that business owners should receive for their services within the company. Failing to establish reasonable compensation can lead to potential tax issues, such as IRS audits.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  36. &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: 700; font-family: Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: #333333;"&gt;The Key Features of RCReports&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  37. &lt;p&gt;RCReports offers several key features that make it a valuable tool in tax planning:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  38. &lt;ol&gt;
  39.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Reasonable compensation studie&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;s:&lt;/em&gt; The software conducts detailed surveys to assess the tasks, time allocation, and proficiency of shareholder employees. By gathering this information, it helps in determining the appropriate salary amount, minimizing the risk of IRS-related concerns.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  40.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Entity planner:&lt;/em&gt; RCReports provides an entity planner tool, which enables tax professionals to run various scenarios for entity selection. This aids in understanding the tax implications and compliance requirements for different business structures, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and S corporations.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  41.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Data sets and comprehensive wage data:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Users have access to a robust data set, including comprehensive wage data. These data can be instrumental in making informed decisions about entity selection and reasonable compensation calculations.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  42.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Detailed reports:&lt;/em&gt; The software generates detailed reports that outline the methodology used, the recommended salary amount, and other essential information. These reports are vital for record-keeping and supporting tax-related decisions in case of IRS audits or inquiries.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  43. &lt;/ol&gt;
  44. &lt;h4&gt;Tax Planning Strategies With RCReports&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h4&gt;
  45. &lt;p&gt;Now that we understand the capabilities of RCReports, let&amp;rsquo;s explore how it can be effectively employed in tax planning:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  46. &lt;ol&gt;
  47.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Reasonable compensation analysis:&lt;/em&gt; The first and foremost use of RCReports is to perform reasonable compensation studies for S corporation shareholders. This process ensures that business owners receive an appropriate salary, avoiding potential IRS disputes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  48.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Entity selection guidance:&lt;/em&gt; RCReports&amp;rsquo; entity planner allows for the comparison of various pass-through entity types and their tax implications. This helps in making informed decisions about the most suitable business structure for your needs.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  49.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;State and federal tax compliance:&lt;/em&gt; By using RCReports, tax professionals can help businesses ensure compliance with both state and federal tax regulations. It minimizes the risk of audits, penalties, and other tax-related issues.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  50.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Tax savings and optimization:&lt;/em&gt; The comprehensive wage data available in RCReports assist in optimizing tax savings. For instance, knowing the reasonable compensation amount can determine the right mix of salary and distributions for S corporation shareholders, potentially reducing tax liabilities.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  51.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Advanced tax planning:&lt;/em&gt; RCReports facilitates advanced tax planning strategies, such as optimizing Section 199A deductions and tax-free fringe benefits. These strategies can lead to significant tax savings for businesses and their owners.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  52.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Scenario analysis:&lt;/em&gt; The software allows for scenario analysis, enabling tax professionals to run multiple entity and compensation scenarios. This capability is especially valuable when clients have unique circumstances or financial goals.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  53. &lt;/ol&gt;
  54. &lt;h4&gt;The Value of RCReports in Tax Planning&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h4&gt;
  55. &lt;p&gt;In today&amp;rsquo;s ever-evolving tax landscape, the importance of accurate and compliant tax planning cannot be overstated. Businesses and individuals alike benefit from employing tools like RCReports to ensure that their tax strategies align with their financial goals while adhering to legal requirements.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  56. &lt;p&gt;The ability to establish reasonable compensation, select the most suitable business entity, and leverage advanced tax planning strategies are all made more accessible and efficient with RCReports. By doing so, you can not only achieve tax savings, but also secure your financial future.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  57. &lt;p&gt;Tax professionals find RCReports to be an indispensable asset in their practice. It streamlines the process of determining reasonable compensation, eases entity selection decisions, and enhances overall tax planning capabilities. This, in turn, allows tax professionals to provide greater value to their clients and safeguard them against potential tax-related complications.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  58. &lt;p&gt;In conclusion, RCReports is more than just a software tool; it&amp;rsquo;s a key enabler of tax planning success. By leveraging its features and capabilities, individuals and businesses can navigate the complexities of the tax system with confidence, optimizing their tax strategies and securing their financial well-being.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  59. &lt;h4&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/demo-request/rcreports"&gt;Request A Demo Now &amp;gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
  60. &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:7eb6b352-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/04/04/is-cpa-mobility-in-jeopardy</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Is CPA Mobility In Jeopardy?</title><description>On Dec. 14, 2023, the Journal of Accountancy published an article titled "AICPA Issues Guidance on Potential Mobility Changes." The article caught my eye immediately.</description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Apr 2024 14:47:39 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;On Dec. 14, 2023, the &lt;em&gt;Journal of Accountancy&lt;/em&gt; published an article titled "AICPA Issues Guidance on Potential Mobility Changes."&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;The article caught my eye immediately. I flashed back to years past when CPA expert witnesses always had to be aware of whether or not they could &amp;ldquo;practice&amp;rdquo; as a CPA in a state where they were not licensed without obtaining a temporary license. I have been a CPA since 1969, 54 years, and a testifying witness since 1980. Even as late as the 1980s, some states still did not have full mobility.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  61. &lt;p&gt;Marta Zaniewski, vice president, AICPA State Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, and her colleague, James Cox, graciously allowed me to discuss this perhaps burgeoning issue with them. Some states are considering legislation that might change the requirements to become a CPA in that state. Apparently most of the currently considered changes would modify or lessen the current requirements (see below).&lt;/p&gt;
  62. &lt;p&gt;According to the article, &amp;ldquo;CPAs in good standing with their state boards of accountancy presently benefit from practice mobility&amp;mdash;a licensing system that allows CPAs to practice across state lines without having to acquire an additional license.&amp;rdquo; Mobility is currently guided by the concept of &amp;ldquo;substantial equivalency.&amp;rdquo; The concept is outlined in the article as follows:&lt;/p&gt;
  63. &lt;p style="margin-left: 40px;"&gt;Currently, to meet substantial equivalency standards, CPAs typically must have completed 150 credit hours of undergraduate or graduate-level studies, successfully passed the Uniform CPA Exam, and have accrued at least one year of relevant experience. CPAs who meet the standards for education, exams, and experience can practice both in person and virtually outside of the state in which they are licensed.&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  64. &lt;p&gt;The mobility issue could become serious if a person is licensed as a CPA in a state&amp;nbsp; under rules that are less than the current &amp;ldquo;substantial equivalency&amp;rdquo; requirements, noted above. Most other states have more stringent requirements for a person licensed as a CPA who currently wants to practice in those states. So, in the near term, this issue might be a problem for newer CPAs. However, if more states diverge from the current rules, it could become a more widespread issue for valuation and litigation experts. It might revert to the old rules where, as experts, we had always to be aware of whether we needed a license to practice as a CPA in a state other than our state of residence and licensure. I remember having to obtain a temporary license in a couple of instances in order to testify.&lt;/p&gt;
  65. &lt;p&gt;Let us hope that &amp;ldquo;substantial equivalency&amp;rdquo; does not become a thing of the past. I would urge you all to stay aware of any proposed legislation regarding CPA licensure in your state and make it known to the legislators what the issue is if &amp;ldquo;substantial equivalency&amp;rdquo; goes away. I am not suggesting you oppose a legislative change to the CPA rules but that you emphasize the need to keep mobility not only for your state&amp;rsquo;s CPAs, but also for CPAs from other states doing business in your state. For valuation purposes, it is more than just if you are testifying in a matter. My understanding is that &amp;ldquo;virtual&amp;rdquo; practice would also be covered if you are engaged to prepare a valuation in another state even though you never leave your home state to perform the work. If you are putting yourself out as a CPA, then you technically would need to be licensed in that other state in order to perform the work as a CPA. If you performed the engagement and failed to get a license and the valuation became involved in some controversy or litigation, it could be detrimental to your defense if you failed to get a license in that other state.&lt;/p&gt;
  66. &lt;p&gt;To help CPAs with mobility issues that might arise, the AICPA has developed a website (&lt;a href="https://www.aicpa-cima.com/news/landing/protecting-cpa-mobility" target="_blank"&gt;aicpa-cima.com/news/landing/protecting-cpa-mobility&lt;/a&gt;) that explains further this issue and will be updated to keep you informed on issues that might arise regarding mobility.&lt;/p&gt;
  67. &lt;p&gt;If you have any questions or comments on this article, please contact me at info@bvresources.com.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  68. &lt;hr /&gt;
  69. &lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;Mari Sagedal, "AICPA Issues Guidance on Potential Mobility Changes," &lt;em&gt;Journal of Accounting,&lt;/em&gt; Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, Dec. 14, 2023.&lt;br /&gt;
  70. &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;It is my understanding that current mobility allows licensed CPAs from a state to meet the &amp;ldquo;substantial equivalency&amp;rdquo; test as long as they met the requirements of their state on the date at which they were granted a license in that state.</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:1074b352-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/03/12/update-on-ai</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Update on AI</title><description>The issues regarding the shake up at OpenAI settled down, seemingly, as quickly as they fired up. The parent not-for-profit governing organization replaced most or all of its board of directors, but it remains to be seen what structural changes will ultimately result from shake up.</description><pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:29:26 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The issues regarding the shake up at OpenAI settled down, seemingly, as quickly as they fired up. The parent not-for-profit governing organization replaced most or all of its board of directors, but it remains to be seen what structural changes will ultimately result from the shake-up. For now, things seem to be quiet on the OpenAI front from an internal standpoint. The same cannot be said for outside events impacting OpenAI as we will see.&lt;/p&gt;
  71. &lt;p&gt;That cannot be said for AI as a whole. There are so many things going on that it is next to impossible even to gather them all together, let alone make any cohesive sense of them. I do my best to keep track of them and will try to use these blog posts going forward to focus on a particular AI activity or event that is of particular interest to our blog readers.&lt;/p&gt;
  72. &lt;p&gt;Keeping that in mind, this post will focus on litigation regarding AI. Specifically, the &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; has filed suit against Microsoft and OpenAI alleging copyright infringement. Three paragraphs from the complaint&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;the &lt;em&gt;Times&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;filed provide a summary of the issues in the case:&lt;/p&gt;
  73. &lt;p style="margin-left: 40px;"&gt;The Times objected after it discovered that Defendants were using Times content without permission to develop their models and tools. For months, The Times has attempted to reach a negotiated agreement with Defendants, in accordance with its history of working productively with large technology platforms to permit the use of its content in new digital products (including the news products developed by Google, Meta, and Apple). The Times&amp;rsquo;s goal during these negotiations was to ensure it received fair value for the use of its content, facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem, and help&amp;nbsp;develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public.&lt;/p&gt;
  74. &lt;p style="margin-left: 40px;"&gt;These negotiations have not led to a resolution. Publicly, Defendants insist that their conduct is protected as &amp;ldquo;fair use&amp;rdquo; because their unlicensed use of copyrighted content to train GenAI models serves a new &amp;ldquo;transformative&amp;rdquo; purpose. But there is nothing &amp;ldquo;transformative&amp;rdquo; about using The Times&amp;rsquo;s content without payment to create products that substitute for The Times and steal audiences away from it. Because the outputs of Defendants&amp;rsquo; GenAI models compete with and closely mimic the inputs used to train them, copying Times works for that purpose is not fair use.&lt;/p&gt;
  75. &lt;p style="margin-left: 40px;"&gt;The law does not permit the kind of systematic and competitive infringement that Defendants have committed. This action seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times&amp;rsquo;s uniquely valuable works.&lt;/p&gt;
  76. &lt;p&gt;BV Resources Chief Content Officer, Elizabeth Petersen, who has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, gave her thoughts on the matter: &amp;ldquo;Artificial intelligence will certainly change how we parse, analyze, and consume information. But the question of copyright, intellectual property, and content ownership is a significant one and will require new legal precedence. In my mind, &amp;lsquo;transformation&amp;rsquo; of content shouldn&amp;rsquo;t automatically grant fair use, and far more work needs to be done to protect intellectual property. But we may be in for a new definition of content ownership and creation.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
  77. &lt;p&gt;This case will be a landmark case relative to what AI can and cannot use. We have stated previously that tools such as ChatGPT cannot go behind pay walls. I reviewed the 69-page complaint briefly. It did not seem to talk about pay walls at all but emphasizes that the defendants collected volumes of data from the &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; website. I went on that website and found that, while one might be able to get some articles for free, they are limited, and then you have to subscribe. I did not see any indication in the complaint that the defendants subscribed and then copied subscribed information in its memory banks. So we will see as the case progresses what the reality is.&lt;/p&gt;
  78. &lt;p&gt;As Elizabeth Petersen noted above, &amp;ldquo;we may be in for a new definition of content ownership and creation.&amp;rdquo; Stay tuned.&lt;/p&gt;
  79. &lt;hr /&gt;
  80. &lt;sup&gt;1&amp;nbsp;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;em&gt;The New York Times Company Civil Action No. ________ Complaint Jury Trial Demanded Plaintiff v. Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI, INC., OpenAI LP, OpenAI GP, LLC, OpenAI, LLC, OpenAI OPCO LLC, OpenAI Global LLC, OAI Corporation, LLC, and OpenAI Holdings, LLC, Defendants;&lt;/em&gt; United States District Court Southern District of New York; Filed Dec. 27, 2023.</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:d227b352-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/02/23/how-ccpro-enhances-your-valuation-reports</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><category>cost of capital</category><title>How CCPro Enhances Your Valuation Reports</title><description>Getting accurate cost of equity and WACC estimates and CRSP size premia can be a big job. However, thanks to Cost of Capital Professional, developing your cost of equity estimates has gotten so much more streamlined. Let's take a look at some of the most beneficial features of this cost-effective and easy-to-use platform.</description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:18:01 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;Getting accurate cost of equity and WACC estimates and CRSP size premia can be a challenging endeavor. However, thanks to Cost of Capital Professional, developing your cost of equity estimates has gotten so much more efficient. Let's take a look at some of the most beneficial features of this cost-effective and easy-to-use platform.&lt;/p&gt;
  81. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Thoroughly Vetted Data&amp;mdash;&lt;/b&gt;The CCPRO platform is built on a solid framework with data that are sourced from highly credible information sources such as Aswath Damodaran, Salvidio &amp;amp; Partners, CRSP, and the Federal Reserve. Furthermore, CCPro uses data going back as far as 1928.&amp;nbsp;This enables you to build highly effective analyses that can paint a more vivid picture of market trends over time.&lt;/p&gt;
  82. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Data Transparency&amp;mdash;&lt;/strong&gt;Any claim you make has to be verifiable, and CCPro makes that easy by enabling you to see all the components of your cost of capital calculations including citations for all of the sources that were used in the calculations. Given that Business Valuation Resources is not affiliated with any financial institution, you can be sure that the methodologies and results are independent and objective, as expected by courts, the Internal Revenue Service, and professional standards of practice such as USPAP, IVS, and VS100 (SSVS-1).&lt;/p&gt;
  83. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Save Money&amp;mdash;&lt;/strong&gt;One of the most important elements of CCPro is its affordability: A year-long subscription comes in at just one-third of the price point of other comparable platforms.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  84. &lt;p&gt;Cost of Capital Professional Is a powerful resource for business valuators and analysts that provides a simple and transparent way to estimate cost of capital at a highly competitive price point, and the best part is that you can give it a try for free! Don't miss out on this practice-enhancing tool!&lt;/p&gt;
  85. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong style="color: #333333; font-family: Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:sales@bvresources.com"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sign up for the &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;free trial here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:62ffb252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/02/07/preview-business-valuation-update-yearbook-2024-part-2</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Preview: Business Valuation Update Yearbook 2024, Part 2</title><description>With a maxed-out capacity, the ASA New York Fair Value Conference was the place to be for anyone interested in valuation. Get a look behind the curtain at this event!</description><pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:32:50 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The year 2023 was defined by unexpected economic events, new valuation conferences, and more. To kick off a new year, BVR has just released the &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update Yearbook, &lt;/em&gt;2024 edition, with 404 pages of the biggest events in valuation from the last year. Enjoy this coverage from the record-breaking ASA New York Fair Value Conference.&lt;/p&gt;
  86. &lt;p&gt;In-person capacity was sold out, and virtual attendance brought the total to about 300 for the ASA Spring Fair Value Conference in New York City May 4&amp;mdash;a new attendance record. Topics included inflation impacts on valuation, audit targets, the new AICPA business combinations guide, ESG, PE valuations, and more. Bill Johnston (Empire Valuation Consultants) gave the welcome remarks and thanked co-sponsor Eisner Amper, in whose offices the conference was held. The first session was the popular panel session of large accounting and valuation firms that is a hallmark of this conference.&lt;/p&gt;
  87. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Big Four perspectives.&lt;/strong&gt; Myron Marcinkowski (Kroll) acted as moderator for a panel that included Josh Putnam (Ernst &amp;amp; Young), Manish Choudhary (Deloitte), Martin Mazin (KPMG), and Adam Smith (PricewaterhouseCoopers). The panel made the following points:&lt;/p&gt;
  88. &lt;ul&gt;
  89.    &lt;li&gt;There have been no major changes to the long-term growth rates being used&amp;mdash;the current economic picture is seen as transitory&amp;mdash;and the general range is 2% to 2.5% (of course, it depends on industry).&lt;/li&gt;
  90.    &lt;li&gt;There is more scrutiny on management forecasts (businesses don&amp;rsquo;t know how to bake inflation into forecasts). One way is to compare performance to market participants&amp;mdash;if all other firms are down, why is your firm up?&lt;/li&gt;
  91.    &lt;li&gt;In the wake of the banking debacle, there was initial panic on the part of auditors, but that went away when the government came to the rescue. Stiffer regs will come as a result but not right away, given the pace of change by Congress.&lt;/li&gt;
  92.    &lt;li&gt;The Big Four are eyeing AI (&amp;ldquo;you can&amp;rsquo;t fight machines&amp;rdquo;), but they must learn how to harness it. They don&amp;rsquo;t see its use in business valuation rising to the level that it has with real estate appraisals.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  93.    &lt;li&gt;The new AICPA business combination guide will not &amp;ldquo;widely change&amp;rdquo; practice in this area. Guides like this reflect best practices&amp;mdash;they don&amp;rsquo;t establish best practices.&lt;/li&gt;
  94.    &lt;li&gt;Although the Certified in Entity and Intangible Valuations (CEIV) credential will sunset, the Mandatory Performance Framework will endure (a new streamlined version is in the works), and some VPOs will incorporate it into certification training.&lt;/li&gt;
  95.    &lt;li&gt;Expect audit pushback to heat up over valuations of common stock that are way different than prices realized from secondary transactions.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  96. &lt;/ul&gt;
  97. &lt;p&gt;Most attendees had not heard that the CEIV credential was being discontinued. The CEIV credential was a collaborative effort of the AICPA, ASA, and RICS that began in 2014, and the credential was launched in 2017. The Big Four, as well as smaller firms, embraced the program but stopped short of credentialing their people pending the resolution of several concerns, most importantly the confidentiality of client information. There was also a companion credential, the Certified in the Valuation of Financial Instruments (CVFI), which apparently will also be discontinued.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  98. &lt;p&gt;Make sure that you are up to date on all the most important valuation events from 2023 with this must-read book. Learn more about this essential read here; while you&amp;rsquo;re at it, make sure that you&amp;rsquo;re up to date on all the most impactful valuation law cases of 2023 by checking out the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/business-valuation-update-yearbook-2024-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Business Valuation Update Yearbook,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;2024&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;edition.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:88cfb252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/01/19/coe-estimates-from-leading-data-sets-are-all-very-close</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>COE Estimates From Leading Data Sets Are All ‘Very Close’</title><description>Find out why the Cost of Equity estimates from so many sources ended up being so similar.</description><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2024 19:35:04 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;div&gt;&amp;ldquo;Kroll, BVResources, and Pepperdine discount rates were very close,&amp;rdquo; writes Jim Hitchner (Financial Valuation Advisors Inc.) after putting the three data sets through their paces in a case study.&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; They all produced a cost of equity (COE) rate in the range of 18% to 19% for a valuation date of Jan. 1, 2022. Hitchner also used a fourth data set, from Dr. Aswath Damodaran (New York University), in the same case study, and the results were an &amp;ldquo;outlier&amp;rdquo; because the professor adjusts cash flows instead of adjusting the discount rate for size and company-specific risk.&lt;/div&gt;
  99. &lt;p&gt;The results reinforce a similar case study Hitchner did a few years ago, when he used the Kroll (then Duff &amp;amp; Phelps) Navigator and BVR&amp;rsquo;s Cost of Capital Professional for the same valuation and the discount rate output was &amp;ldquo;not that much different,&amp;rdquo; he said at the time.&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; Hitchner is a veteran valuation expert, thought leader in the profession, and author of one of the seminal valuation texts, &lt;em&gt;Financial Valuation Applications and Models.&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  100. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Survey of usage.&lt;/strong&gt; At the Virginia Society of CPAs&amp;rsquo; Forensic and Valuation Conference this past September, Hitchner presented the results of a survey he conducted in July 2022 that asked about the data sets practitioners use. The question was: What cost of equity data do you currently use? (pick all that apply)&lt;/p&gt;
  101. &lt;ol&gt;
  102.    &lt;li&gt;Kroll Navigator&amp;mdash;79%;&lt;/li&gt;
  103.    &lt;li&gt;BVResources COC Pro&amp;mdash;23%;&lt;/li&gt;
  104.    &lt;li&gt;Damodaran&amp;rsquo;s data and analyses&amp;mdash;18%;&lt;/li&gt;
  105.    &lt;li&gt;Pepperdine survey data&amp;mdash;11%; and&lt;/li&gt;
  106.    &lt;li&gt;Other or none of the above&amp;mdash;9%&lt;/li&gt;
  107. &lt;/ol&gt;
  108. &lt;p&gt;A little bit of background here. Both the Kroll Navigator and BVR&amp;rsquo;s Cost of Capital Professional are Web-based applications designed to help estimate the cost of capital of private firms. The Navigator launched in early 2018 and was the result of the transitioning of the then Duff &amp;amp; Phelps &lt;em&gt;Valuation Handbook&lt;/em&gt; series from print to an interactive online application. The Navigator has a massive amount of data, methodologies, and output, and Kroll has stated that using it is just like having its cost of capital experts &amp;ldquo;sitting right at your side.&amp;rdquo;&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  109. &lt;p&gt;BVR&amp;rsquo;s Cost of Capital Professional launched in late 2018 as a simple, less costly, independent alternative designed to enhance professional judgment, flexibility, and common sense in a process that is in danger of becoming a complex &amp;ldquo;black box&amp;rdquo; of applied mathematics. The platform integrates data from multiple sources, including the University of Chicago&amp;rsquo;s Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) database, Damodaran&amp;rsquo;s data library, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. The platform has certain default options, but users have the freedom to decide whether to use those options.&lt;sup&gt;5&lt;/sup&gt; Damodaran&amp;rsquo;s website provides (free of charge) an extensive amount of free data on risk-free rates, equity risk premiums (ERPs), corporate default spreads, corporate tax rates, country risk premiums, and more. He uses an &amp;ldquo;implied&amp;rdquo; ERP, a forward-looking method as opposed to the &amp;ldquo;historical&amp;rdquo; ERP. He calculates the implied ERP by backing it out from the current market prices and expected future cash flows, which gives an internal rate of return for equities that is analogous to the yield to maturity on a bond.&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  110. &lt;p&gt;The Pepperdine survey is an ongoing project at the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School that conducts an annual survey of expected rates of return with respect to private companies. Respondents include senior lenders, asset-based lenders, mezzanine funds, private equity groups, venture capital firms, angel investors, privately held businesses, investment bankers, business brokers, limited partners, and business appraisers.&lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  111. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Case study results.&lt;/strong&gt; In Hitchner&amp;rsquo;s case study, the Kroll calculations resulted in an 18% discount rate, while the BVR Cost of Capital Professional calculations resulted in a 19% discount rate. The Pepperdine calculations (from the 2021 report) resulted in a discount rate of 18%. The Damodaran discount rate was 8%, but, as mentioned above, this does not include adjustments for size or company-specific risk factors. &lt;/p&gt;
  112. &lt;p&gt;In the &lt;em&gt;Hardball&lt;/em&gt; publication, Hitchner goes into great detail about all four data sets and the results of the case study.&lt;/p&gt;
  113. &lt;hr /&gt;
  114. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;"New Cost of Equity Capital Case Study: Kroll vs. Business Valuation Resources vs. Damodaran vs. Surveys," &lt;em&gt;Hardball With Hitchner,&lt;/em&gt; Issue 24, October 2022; &lt;a href="https://www.valuationproducts.com/hardball-with-hitchner/" target="_blank"&gt;valuationproducts.com/hardball-with-hitchner&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  115. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; &amp;ldquo;BVR and Duff &amp;amp; Phelps Cost of Capital Platforms Go Head-to-Head at VSCPA,&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update, &lt;/em&gt;Vol. 25, No. 11, November 2019.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  116. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/financial-valuation-applications-and-models-website-4th-edition" target="_blank" style="background-color: #ffffff;"&gt;bvresources.com/products/financial-valuation-applications-and-models-website-4th-edition&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  117. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.kroll.com/en/cost-of-capital" target="_blank"&gt;kroll.com/en/cost-of-capital&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  118. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;5&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/cost-of-capital-professional" target="_blank"&gt;bvresources.com/products/cost-of-capital-professional&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  119. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/data.html" target="_blank"&gt;pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/data.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  120. &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.privatecap.org/pcm_report" target="_blank"&gt;privatecap.org/pcm_report&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:36ceb252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/01/17/robert-bob-kleeman-dies</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Robert “Bob” Kleeman Dies</title><description>Robert “Bob” Kleeman, CPA/ABV, ASA, a longtime member of the business valuation community, passed away on Saturday evening, Jan. 13, 2024. </description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Jan 2024 22:32:09 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvlaw/kleeman.jpg?sfvrsn=f3e5d9b2_0&amp;amp;MaxWidth=200&amp;amp;MaxHeight=&amp;amp;ScaleUp=false&amp;amp;Quality=High&amp;amp;Method=ResizeFitToAreaArguments&amp;amp;Signature=F5D4A30C5A50B84D83D80B56769C6A9826A1A1F9" data-displaymode="Custom" alt="kleeman" title="kleeman" data-method="ResizeFitToAreaArguments" data-customsizemethodproperties="{'MaxWidth':'200','MaxHeight':'','ScaleUp':false,'Quality':'High'}" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 15px;" /&gt;Robert &amp;ldquo;Bob&amp;rdquo; Kleeman, CPA/ABV, ASA, a longtime member of the business valuation community, passed away on Saturday evening, Jan. 13, 2024. Bob was one of the top BV professionals beginning in the early days of BV, the 1970s.&amp;nbsp;Bob was wellknown in the BV community and was very generous in sharing his time to help other BV professionals whether they were experienced or just beginning. Bob taught and spoke at many conferences throughout the country.&lt;/p&gt;
  121. &lt;p&gt;In 1997, Bob was the chairman of the AICPA&amp;rsquo;s FVS Conference in San Diego. I attended that conference and made it known to Bob that I was leaving Blue &amp;amp; Co. in Indianapolis and needed a place to go. He jumped on it and championed me with Clifton Gunderson LLP. He was there when I needed a place to land.&amp;nbsp; We were partners at CG together from May 1998 to June 2005. Bob was a loyal friend.&lt;/p&gt;
  122. &lt;p&gt;Bob was one of the pioneers in developing the ABV credential and a true pioneer of the BV profession. Bob will be missed. Rest in peace.&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:3e8db252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2024/01/12/preview-business-valuation-update-yearbook-2024</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Preview: Business Valuation Update Yearbook 2024</title><description>The year 2023 was defined by unexpected economic events, new valuation conferences, and more. To kick off a new year, BVR has just released the Business Valuation Update Yearbook, 2024 edition, with 404 pages of the biggest events in valuation from the last year.</description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:13:11 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The year 2023 was defined by unexpected economic events, new valuation conferences, and more. To kick off a new year, BVR has just released the &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update Yearbook, &lt;/em&gt;2024 edition, with 404 pages of the biggest events in valuation from the last year. Enjoy this preview taken from the chapter "How to Use the Latest DLOM Study for the Johnson/Park Empirical Method."&lt;/p&gt;
  123. &lt;p&gt;Over a quarter (27%) of valuation practitioners surveyed say they use the Johnson/Park empirical&amp;nbsp; method for determining discounts for lack of marketability (DLOM) in the valuation of interests&amp;nbsp;in privately held entities.&lt;sup&gt;1&amp;nbsp;&lt;/sup&gt;The recently released &amp;ldquo;2022 Discount for Lack of Marketability (DLOM) Study&amp;rdquo; provides current DLOM rates of return to use when implementing the method.&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  124. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In a nutshell.&lt;/strong&gt; The method is based on the fundamental financial concept of risk and reward, i.e.,&amp;nbsp; when risk increases, an investor will demand a higher return. But just how much higher? The&amp;nbsp; Johnson/Park empirical method provides a basis to determine how much of an increase in the rate&amp;nbsp; of return is required to compensate investors for the lack of marketability of a subject interest. The&amp;nbsp; method involves making an analytical adjustment (applying a DLOM) to increase the rate of return&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
  125. of the investment to compensate for the additional risks an investor is exposed to when holding&amp;nbsp;a nonmarketable interest. The application of the DLOM results in an increase in the effective rate&amp;nbsp; of return of the investment.&lt;/p&gt;
  126. &lt;p&gt;Three research studies are used (published annually): &amp;ldquo;Private Equity vs. Public Equity Returns,&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;Restricted Stock Transactions,&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;LT vs. ST Bond Horizon Risk.&amp;rdquo; This methodology was introduced in 1995 and has been used in several tax court cases including the first family limited&amp;nbsp; partnership (FLP) case to go to trial.&lt;/p&gt;
  127. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/figure1.jpg?sfvrsn=4ea5d9b2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="figure1" title="figure1" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  128. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2022 rates.&lt;/strong&gt; The three annual studies the 2022 report examines show that investors continue to&amp;nbsp;demand 30% to 45% higher rates of return for the additional risk of holding a nonmarketable investment or being exposed to increased risk over the holding period. Comparing the 2022 findings with the research that has been conducted since 2006 indicates a similar range of results for the&amp;nbsp;average increase in the required rate of return (see Exhibit 1).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  129. &lt;p&gt;Make sure that you are up to date on all the most important valuation events from 2023 with this must-read book. Learn more about this essential read here; while you&amp;rsquo;re at it, make sure that you&amp;rsquo;re up to date on all the most impactful valuation law cases of 2023 by checking out the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/business-valuation-update-yearbook-2024-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Business Valuation Update Yearbook,&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt; 2024 &lt;em&gt;edition.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  130. &lt;hr /&gt;
  131. &lt;p&gt;
  132. 1. &amp;ldquo;BVR Survey on Methods Used for Estimating a Discount for Lack of Marketability (DLOM)&amp;rdquo;&amp;mdash;July 2021; free download available
  133. at: &lt;a href="https://sub.bvresources.com/defaulttextonly.asp?f=downloads" target="_blank"&gt;bvresources.com/downloads&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  134. &lt;p&gt;2.&amp;nbsp;Available at &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/2022-discount-for-lack-of-marketability-study" target="_blank"&gt;bvresources.com/products/2022-discount-for-lack-of-marketability-study&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:6444b252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/12/06/bv-insights-who-does-the-marketing</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>BV Insights: Who Does the Marketing?</title><description>With the 2023 BVR Benchmarking Survey closed and the full results having been released, let's take a look at some of the insights regarding practice management.</description><pubDate>Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:58:23 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/business-valuation-firm-benchmarking-guide-2023-edition"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2023 BVR Benchmarking Survey&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; was produced to collect the most comprehensive data on operations, financial metrics, compensation, staffing, marketing, billing, tools and resources used, and more. With the survey closed and the full results having been released, let's take a look at some of the insights regarding practice management.&lt;/p&gt;
  135. &lt;h4&gt;Who has primary responsibility for your firm&amp;rsquo;s marketing?&lt;/h4&gt;
  136. &lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s been said that business valuation is as much of an art as a science. We believe marketing is as much of a science as it is an art. So, while partners/owners continue to take primary responsibility for marketing, the use of full-time and part-time marketing professionals and outside contractors or consultants is becoming more common. Office managers and administrative assistants were most frequently mentioned in the &amp;ldquo;other&amp;rdquo; category.&lt;/p&gt;
  137. &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/blog-exh-37.jpg?sfvrsn=d26fd9b2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Blog Exh 37" title="Blog Exh 37" style="text-align: center;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  138. &lt;h4 style="text-align: left;"&gt;Marketing budgets&lt;/h4&gt;
  139. &lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;Business valuation firms employ many approaches to bring in new business. And the responses to this question must recognize that different firms may classify different expenses in different accounts (but, hopefully, under a marketing &amp;ldquo;parent&amp;rdquo; account). The 2022 mean spend on marketing is down 1% from 2018, while the median is up 2% from 2018. In addition, many respondents said they spent 0% on marketing in 2021-2022, perhaps reflecting the abundance of valuation work and the effectiveness of &amp;ldquo;aggressively waiting for the phone to ring.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
  140. &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/blog-exh-38.jpg?sfvrsn=c16fd9b2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Blog Exh 38" title="Blog Exh 38" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  141. &lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;Overall, business valuation professionals understand the need for promotion and invest in it. Based on the results for 2021-2022, it seems safe to conclude that a good marketing budgeting benchmark is 0% to 5% of firm revenues.&lt;/p&gt;
  142. &lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;Looking for more insights? The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/business-valuation-firm-benchmarking-guide-2023-edition"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Business Valuation Firm Benchmarking Guide: 2023 Edition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;is replete with data on a range of topics from current staffing levels to critical issues impacting the industry itself, and all the answers are sourced directly from BV firms. Get your copy, and see what your peers are saying now!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:3b39b252-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/11/15/sneak-peek-valuing-jewelry-stores</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Sneak Peek: Valuing Jewelry Stores</title><description>Stay apprised of all the latest business considerations in the jewelry industry! The report explains how jewelry stores operate, the nature of their revenue streams, and more. Read on to explore Chapter 2 of the guide.</description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Nov 2023 21:59:47 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/what-it-s-worth-valuing-jewelry-stores"&gt;What It&amp;rsquo;s Worth: Valuing Jewelry Stores&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;is the latest in BVR's series of special reports and is an ideal and timely resource for anyone looking for insight into what drives value in the jewelry industry. With that in mind, let's take a look at Chapter 2, "Macro Drivers of Profit in the Retail Jewelry Industry."&lt;/p&gt;
  143. &lt;h5&gt;Attracting New Customers&lt;/h5&gt;
  144. &lt;p&gt;Jewelry stores face competition for new customers from other jewelry stores and other channels, including department stores, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, and online retailers. Companies invest in store furnishings and fixtures to create a distinctive ambience that attracts shoppers. They may also invest in branded jewelry lines from celebrities or organizations to attract new customers. Marketing via direct mail, local advertising, and social media is often used prior to major holidays to help drive store traffic and reach out to new customers.&lt;/p&gt;
  145. &lt;h5&gt;Building Repeat Business&lt;/h5&gt;
  146. &lt;p&gt;Jewelry stores often rely on repeat purchases from wealthy customers to generate steady revenue. By providing attentive service and developing trust, stores encourage buyers to return for additional purchases during major holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays. Developing a customer information system that tracks purchases and personal information, such as birthdays and anniversaries, allows stores to provide personalized communications to customers and provide better recommendations on gift purchases that complement previous purchases.&lt;br /&gt;
  147. Customer loyalty programs that provide discounts and other rewards can also encourage repeat purchases.&lt;/p&gt;
  148. &lt;h5&gt;Increasing Average Sales Size&lt;/h5&gt;
  149. &lt;p&gt;Besides increasing the number of customer transactions through higher traffic, jewelry stores can grow revenue by growing the average sales size. Sales staff are typically trained to offer &amp;ldquo;upsell&amp;rdquo; opportunities by showing more expensive pieces as options to buyers. They are also trained to recommend complementary add-on purchases, such as earrings to match a new necklace. Stores can encourage multiple-item sales by displaying jewelry in sets and may even offer a discount on buying multiple items at a time.&lt;/p&gt;
  150. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/what-it-s-worth-valuing-jewelry-stores"&gt;What It&amp;rsquo;s Worth: Valuing Jewelry Stores&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/em&gt;gives you the big picture on the unique considerations in the jewelry industry and tackles important topics such as: trends impacting the industry; the key internal, external, and qualitative drivers; and important questions to ask management when preparing your valuation.&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:2beeb152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/10/13/what-do-interest-rates-have-to-do-with-it</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>What Do Interest Rates Have to Do With It?</title><description>As business valuators, we know well that interest rates can impact the value of a business in a number of ways. So what do interest rates have to do with it?</description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Oct 2023 20:27:22 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;So what do interest rates have to do with it? With what, you say?&amp;nbsp;As business valuators, we know well that interest rates can impact the value of a business in a number of ways. The first and most obvious is that the required rate of return (ROR) on an investment in a business rises and falls in relation to the interest rates in the economy. As the ROR increases, the present value of cash flows to the business goes down. The interest rate itself is not an indicator of risk in the investment, which is an important factor in determining a business&amp;rsquo;s estimated value. It is more a determination of cost of an investment.&amp;nbsp;As Ron DiMattia, CPA/ABV, CMA,&amp;nbsp;pointed out in an article in the recent &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update&lt;/em&gt; newsletter,&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;[t]here are many ways that an analyst can deal with matters of perceived risk in their valuation assumptions.&amp;rdquo;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; He was pointing out that one of the areas that arguably does not include risk is the determination of the risk-free rate.&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; But we know that rate does fluctuate with changes in the prime rate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  151. &lt;p&gt;Of course, the most recognizable impact of changes in the prime interest rate is in the cost to borrow money. As consumers, we know that firsthand. Mortgage rates are higher, credit card rates can go higher, personal loan rates are higher, etc. To the value of a business, this also changes the dynamic and the value. The capital structure of a business is made up of equity investments and borrowing, or leverage. There is a balance between those two elements, and the cost of borrowing can impact that balance. Higher interest rates mean less cash flow to equity investors. The lower the cash flow, the lesser the value of the business. With a current prime rate of 8.50% versus years of the prime rate hovering at about 3.25%, one can see that the dynamic in both the value of a business and in how to structure a business has changed.&lt;/p&gt;
  152. &lt;p&gt;So why are we talking about this subject? It is pretty basic, isn&amp;rsquo;t it? Well, yes and no. I was talking to my 36-year-old nephew this morning. He is a managing director at KPMG in the M&amp;amp;A group. I said to him that he probably has never seen interest rates high like this in his lifetime. He admitted that he had not. If he were to ask his mother about high rates, he would find that, when she and his father bought their first house, the interest rate on their mortgage was 17%!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  153. &lt;p&gt;Young people from age 22 to 40 are either starting in business or, like my nephew, already very experienced in business and have never had to deal with interest rate. They are finding out in a hurry that interest rates are a material consideration in valuing, buying and selling, and operating a business in times of volatile changes in interest rates. Welcome to the laboratory of life.&lt;/p&gt;
  154. &lt;hr /&gt;
  155. &lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; Ronald D. DiMattia, "&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/articles/business-valuation-update/practical-considerations-in-normalizing-the-risk-free-rate"&gt;Practical Considerations in Normalizing the Risk-Free Rate&lt;/a&gt;," &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update,&lt;/em&gt; Vol. 29, No. 10, October 2023; Business Valuation Resources, LLC, Portland, Ore.&lt;br /&gt;
  156. &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; The risk-free rate equivalent is, by consensus, equal to the 20-year yield rate on a U.S. Treasury Bond.&lt;br /&gt;
  157. &lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:78eab152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/10/11/factset-review-the-largest-u.s.-corporate-acquisitions</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>FactSet Review—The Largest U.S. Corporate Acquisitions </title><description>The FactSet Review is the cornerstone of every mergers and acquisitions library and a must have for anyone who needs historical M&amp;A data. Get a sneak peek at some historical data points from the 2023 FactSet Review.</description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Oct 2023 17:49:33 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The annual &lt;em&gt;FactSet Review&lt;/em&gt;, available exclusively through BVR, is the must-have source for data and analysis on the merger and acquisition (M&amp;amp;A) market. Every edition gives you valuable data points that you can use to validate your reports and provide much needed support to your opinions. This excerpt from the 2023 &lt;em&gt;FactSet Review&lt;/em&gt; comes from "Part Five&amp;mdash;Historical Review,"&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;which features this chart and others that take a deep dive into major mergers over the last 20 years.&lt;/p&gt;
  158. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/largest-mergers.jpg?sfvrsn=b5c1dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Largest Mergers" title="Largest Mergers" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  159. &lt;p&gt;Don't miss out on the latest data on topics such as&amp;nbsp;transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies, premiums paid over the target's enterprise values, top 100 global deals, and more! Make sure you have the information you need to ace your valuations and wow your clients. Get your copy of the &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/factset-review-2023"&gt;2023 FactSet Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:8493b152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/09/20/make-the-most-out-of-bvresearch-pro</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Make the Most Out of BVResearch Pro</title><description>BVResearch Pro is a great way to upgrade your BV research methodology  on a broad range of BV topics from thought leaders in the business valuation and legal fields. However, with so much information at your fingertips, it can be overwhelming, so let's look at some ways to streamline your use of this amazing resource!</description><pubDate>Wed, 20 Sep 2023 19:59:22 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/bvresearch"&gt;BVResearch Pro&lt;/a&gt; is a great way to upgrade your BV research methodology on a broad range of BV topics from thought leaders in the business valuation and legal fields. However, with so much information at your fingertips, it can be overwhelming, so let's look at some ways to streamline your use of this amazing resource!&lt;/p&gt;
  160. &lt;p&gt;BVResearch Pro surfaces more than 15,000 pieces of content. Your search will surface content from BVR&amp;rsquo;s ezines;&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;BVU;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;BVLaw;&lt;/em&gt; training transcripts; BVR books, guides, and special reports; ASA &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Review&amp;trade;;&lt;/em&gt; and other partner content (icons to the left of each article indicate where the content comes from). You can sort by relevance or date. When you find what you are looking for, simply click on the headline or title and you will be directed to the article or content.&lt;/p&gt;
  161. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-pro1.jpg?sfvrsn=8bb8dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVResearch Pro1" title="BVResearch Pro1" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  162. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Search default is Boolean logic.&lt;/strong&gt; Please note that the default search in BVResearch Pro is the Boolean operator, &amp;ldquo;AND.&amp;rdquo; When searching for a specific phrase, you should include quotation marks around the phrase in order to return only documents that contain the specified phrase. Boolean operators (e.g., AND, NOT, OR) can be used in conjunction with phrases as long as quotation marks are used to separate phrases. If no quotation marks are used around a group of words, the search engine will assume an AND should have been placed between each word.&lt;/p&gt;
  163. &lt;p&gt;
  164. Examples:&lt;/p&gt;
  165. &lt;ul&gt;
  166.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;minority discount&amp;rdquo;&amp;mdash;will return only those documents that have the specific phrase &amp;ldquo;minority discount&amp;rdquo;;&lt;/li&gt;
  167.    &lt;li&gt;minority discount&amp;mdash;will return all documents that contain the word &amp;ldquo;minority&amp;rdquo; and the word &amp;ldquo;discount&amp;rdquo;; and&lt;/li&gt;
  168.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;minority discount&amp;rdquo; NOT &amp;ldquo;restricted stock&amp;rdquo;&amp;mdash;will return all documents that have the specific phrase &amp;ldquo;minority discount&amp;rdquo; but do not contain the specific phrase &amp;ldquo;restricted stock.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
  169. &lt;/ul&gt;
  170. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narrow your search.&lt;/strong&gt; You can narrow your search by &amp;ldquo;Article Collection.&amp;rdquo; This means that the article or content was originally published in one of the &amp;ldquo;Article Collections&amp;rdquo; below.&lt;/p&gt;
  171. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-2.jpg?sfvrsn=9cb8dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 2" title="BVresearch 2" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  172. &lt;p&gt;You can also search by &amp;ldquo;Content Property&amp;rdquo; (see more about &amp;ldquo;Content Properties&amp;rdquo; later in this document). Note that you can search by article collection, content property, or legal property at the same time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  173. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-3.jpg?sfvrsn=6db8dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 3" title="BVresearch 3" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  174. &lt;p&gt;Additionally, you can search for legal content exclusively with the &amp;ldquo;Legal Properties&amp;rdquo; search. Please note that the fields that have a downward-facing arrow contain a selection list rather than a free form text search.&lt;/p&gt;
  175. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-4.jpg?sfvrsn=5cb8dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 4" title="BVresearch 4" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  176. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other ways to search.&lt;/strong&gt; In addition to using BVResearch Pro to search content available with your BVR subscription(s), you can search from the &lt;a href="http://www.bvresources.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BVR main home page&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  177. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/default-album/bvresearch-5b.jpg?sfvrsn=febfdab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 5b" title="BVresearch 5b" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  178. &lt;p&gt;From here, you can drill further into the content using the &amp;ldquo;Content Types&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Content Properties&amp;rdquo; drop-down menus.&lt;/p&gt;
  179. &lt;h5&gt;Content Types:&lt;/h5&gt;
  180. &lt;ul&gt;
  181.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Articles&amp;rdquo; include content from &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update, BVLaw, BVWire,&lt;/em&gt; training transcripts, ASA &lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Review&amp;trade;,&lt;/em&gt; and other partner content;&lt;/li&gt;
  182.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Products&amp;rdquo; include the products that BVR carries;&lt;/li&gt;
  183.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Blog posts&amp;rdquo; include all BVR blog articles;&lt;/li&gt;
  184.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Documents&amp;rdquo; include some of BVR&amp;rsquo;s FAQ pages, publication excerpts, and product information brochures; and&lt;/li&gt;
  185.    &lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Site pages&amp;rdquo; include each of the web pages on BVR&amp;rsquo;s website.&lt;/li&gt;
  186. &lt;/ul&gt;
  187. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-6b.jpg?sfvrsn=edbfdab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 6b" title="BVresearch 6b" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  188. &lt;h5&gt;Content Properties:&lt;/h5&gt;
  189. &lt;p&gt;Simply start typing in any of the &amp;ldquo;Content Properties&amp;rdquo; fields, and the system will suggest terms if they exist within the content library.&lt;/p&gt;
  190. &lt;ul&gt;
  191.    &lt;li&gt;Categories are broad business valuation-related topics including terms such as economic damages and lost profits, marital dissolution/divorce, discounts, etc.;&lt;/li&gt;
  192.    &lt;li&gt;Tags are more general business valuation-related topics;&lt;/li&gt;
  193.    &lt;li&gt;Authors include anyone who has written an article, book, or blog post that is in BVResearch Pro; and&lt;/li&gt;
  194.    &lt;li&gt;SIC codes and NAICS codes are based on the 2017 industry designations from the U.S. government.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  195. &lt;/ul&gt;
  196. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/bvresearch-7.jpg?sfvrsn=fb8dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="BVresearch 7" title="BVresearch 7" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  197. &lt;p&gt;With these tips, you'll be a &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/bvresearch"&gt;BVResearch Pro &lt;/a&gt;expert in no time! Give it a try. You'll be amazed at the insights you can gain from this great tool!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:4f83b152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/09/07/7-reasons-why-vertical-iq-adds-value-to-your-valuations</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Seven Reasons Why Vertical IQ Adds Value to Your Valuations</title><description>Vertical IQ is designed to help valuation practitioners like you get the most actionable industry intelligence for your valuation engagements. Let's take a look at some of the key reasons Vertical IQ can be an invaluable asset to your business.</description><pubDate>Thu, 07 Sep 2023 21:57:26 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;Vertical IQ is designed to help valuation practitioners like you get the most actionable industry intelligence for your valuation engagements. Let's take a look at some of the key reasons Vertical IQ can be an invaluable asset to your business.&lt;/p&gt;
  198. &lt;ol&gt;
  199.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Timely&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;Vertical IQ delivers the current insight you need now to help your clients respond to and course correct in response to changing impacts on their industry.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  200.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Detailed&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;Risk-adverse bankers and credit underwriters&amp;nbsp;require detailed, independent, trustworthy industry intelligence for due diligence, to re-evaluate loans, to extend or retract lines of credit, and retain documentation as time goes on.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  201.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Relevant&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;Focused industry- and client-specific information&amp;nbsp;makes your emails, calls, and video chats unmissable in the ever-expanding and evolving virtual business environment.&lt;/li&gt;
  202.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Effective&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;Actionable insights&amp;nbsp;set Vertical IQ apart from traditional call preparation solutions, and it comes with an entire team of banking and sales professionals ready to show you exactly how to use its curated content through every stage of prospect or customer engagement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  203.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Evolving&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;Vertical IQ&amp;nbsp;continually delivers new value&amp;mdash;such as improving its coverage of more than 97% of the economic revenue in the U.S. and Canada through more than 3,400 local economic reports&amp;mdash;to help platform users and their clients navigate their businesses through the most trying of times.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  204.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Focused&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;In-depth industry-specific intelligence&amp;nbsp;across more than 920 industries can help you as well as your clients. Use it to find new&lt;br /&gt;
  205.    opportunities, explore new industries, diversify your outreach, and expand your customer base, even when times are tough.&lt;/li&gt;
  206.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Impactful&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;These insights&amp;nbsp;allow you and your customers to think outside the box, identifying the broader reach of industry and economic shifts, for example, how do dental practices address the effect new preventative treatments are having on demand for corrective procedures such as implants, root canals, and crowns, which are more profitable than preventative care?&lt;/li&gt;
  207. &lt;/ol&gt;
  208. &lt;p&gt;Vertical IQ helps you understand the industries most susceptible to economic headwinds and makes it easy to prioritize which clients to reach out to first when resources are limited. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/verticaliq" target="_blank"&gt;Learn more&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; about how this platform can save you time and attract new clients.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:5455b152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/08/29/bv-insights-a-look-at-bvr's-2023-benchmarking-survey</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>BV Insights: A Look at BVR's 2023 Benchmarking Survey</title><description>Curious about the latest insights from the 2023 BVR Benchmarking Survey? Look no further!</description><pubDate>Tue, 29 Aug 2023 14:46:19 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The 2023 BVR Benchmarking Survey was produced to collect the most comprehensive data on operations, financial metrics, compensation, staffing, marketing, billing, tools and resources used, and more. With the survey closed and the full results pending, we thought we'd give you a sneak peek of what to expect from the full survey.&lt;/p&gt;
  209. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/benchmarking-q5a.jpg?sfvrsn=ee7ddab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Benchmarking Q5a" title="Benchmarking Q5a" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  210. &lt;p&gt;Based on a sample of 192 respondents,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;47.40%&lt;/strong&gt; selected more than 50 litigation support engagements in their respective firms.&lt;/p&gt;
  211. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/benchmarking-q11a.jpg?sfvrsn=dd7ddab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Benchmarking Q11a" title="Benchmarking Q11a" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  212. &lt;p&gt;According to survey responses, the top three areas of practice growth were:&lt;/p&gt;
  213. &lt;ol&gt;
  214.    &lt;li&gt;Income/gift/estate tax: &lt;strong&gt;26.23%;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  215.    &lt;li&gt;Transaction/M&amp;amp;A: &lt;strong&gt;22.95%; &lt;/strong&gt;and&lt;/li&gt;
  216.    &lt;li&gt;Divorce/matrimonial: &lt;strong&gt;18.85%.&lt;br /&gt;
  217.    &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  218. &lt;/ol&gt;
  219. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/benchmarking-q13a.jpg?sfvrsn=cc7ddab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="Benchmarking Q13a" title="Benchmarking Q13a" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  220. &lt;p&gt;Based on your responses,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;66.13%&lt;/strong&gt; of BV firms don't have billable hours targets for their staff.&lt;/p&gt;
  221. &lt;p&gt;This is just a small selection of questions from the survey. There are 73 more waiting for you! Stay tuned for the full survey and more in next month's &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/business-valuation-update" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Business Valuation Update&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:bc02b152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/08/14/look-inside-economic-outlook-update-q4-2019</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Look Inside: Economic Outlook Update Q4 2019</title><description>The Economic Outlook Update provides monthly and quarterly digests designed to give you the most defensible economic data available at your fingertips when you need it. This excerpt comes from the Q4 2019 issue.</description><pubDate>Mon, 14 Aug 2023 15:21:30 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/economic-outlook-update" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Economic Outlook Update&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;provides monthly and quarterly digests designed to give you the most defensible economic data available at your fingertips when you need it. This excerpt comes from the Q4 2019 issue.&lt;/p&gt;
  222. &lt;p&gt;The Consumer Confidence Index decreased 0.3 point in December, to 126.5, although the report did include an upward revision to the November score, improving the figure by 1.3 points. The decline in December marked the fourth&lt;br /&gt;
  223. decline in the past five months, with the report noting there is little to suggest that growth, and in particular consumer spending, will gain momentum in early 2020. Consumers&amp;rsquo; assessment of current conditions increased 3.4 points, to 170.0 points, but the expectations component decreased 2.9 points, to 97.4. The Consumer Sentiment Index improved 2.5 points in December, to 99.3 points. The December level was 1.0% higher than the score from one year ago. The score came in a tick higher than the 99.2 points Reuters forecasted. The survey noted that the impeachment hearings had a barely noticeable impact on economic expectations, as just 2% of all consumers mentioned it in the December survey. At its peak, consumer sentiment levels averaged 105.3 from 1997 to 2000. &lt;/p&gt;
  224. &lt;p&gt;The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Report published its fourth-quarter survey, which highlighted the continued optimism small-business owners expressed regarding their businesses and the U.S. economy. The survey reached a new record high, 142, after rising 6.0 points. The latest survey findings suggest that small-business owners continue to feel confident about the economy and the future of their businesses. Fifty-eight percent of the survey respondents noted that their revenues increased over the past 12 months, which is up 6.0 percentage points. The Present Situation score of the report increased 3.0 points for the quarter, to 67.0 points, and the Future Expectations score increased 3.0 points from last quarter, to 75.0 points.&lt;/p&gt;
  225. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/eou-sample.jpg?sfvrsn=5329dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="EOU Sample" title="EOU Sample" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  226. &lt;p&gt;Since August 2003, the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index has surveyed small-business owners on current and future perceptions of their business&amp;rsquo;s financial&amp;nbsp;situation. The Small Business Index is published once a quarter. This index consists of owners&amp;rsquo; ratings of their business&amp;rsquo;s current situation and their expectations for the next 12 months, measured in terms of their overall financial&lt;br /&gt;
  227. situation, revenue, cash flow, capital spending, number of jobs, and ease of obtaining credit. Before the recession and financial crisis of 2008-2009, Small Business Index scores were generally in triple digits. The Small Business&lt;br /&gt;
  228. Index reached its peak of 114.0 in December 2006 and hit a low of -28.0 in July 2010.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  229. &lt;div&gt;Anchor your valuations with the most valuable tool in your arsenal: knowledge.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/economic-outlook-update" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/economic-outlook-update" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe to the&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;EOU&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and stay up to date with the latest insights from authoritative sources from across the BV sphere.&lt;/div&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:0d02b152-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/08/04/look-inside-closed-end-fund-report</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Look Inside: Closed-End Fund Report</title><description>The 2023 Closed-End Fund Report—Fixed Income Securities, written by experts Bruce A. Johnson and James R. Park, provides valuation experts just like you with comprehensive data points featuring data on discount for lack of control  in FLPs, municipal bonds, government bonds, and more! let's take a closer look at the bonds discussed in this report.</description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:30:12 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The&lt;em&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/closed-end-fund-report-fixed-income-securities" target="_blank"&gt;2023 Closed-End Fund Report&amp;mdash;Fixed Income Securities&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;written by experts Bruce A. Johnson and James R. Park, provides valuation experts just like you with comprehensive data points featuring data on discount for lack of control&amp;nbsp; in FLPs, municipal bonds, government bonds, and more! In that vein, let's take a closer look at a couple of the government/mortgage bonds discussed in this report.&lt;/p&gt;
  230. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BlackRock Income Trust Inc. (NYSE: BKT)&lt;/strong&gt; is a diversified, closed-end&lt;br /&gt;
  231. management company. The fund was formed in 1988 with the objective of managing a portfolio of high-quality securities and achieving high monthly income consistent with the preservation of capital. The fund declares and pays dividends to common shareholders monthly from net investment income, net realized short-term capital gains, and other sources. Net long-term capital gains, if any, in excess of loss carryforwards may be distributed annually. At least 65% of the fund&amp;rsquo;s assets are to be invested in mortgage-backed securities backed by U.S. government agencies (such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae). The remainder is normally invested in asset-backed securities. The fund may engage in hedging transactions and short sales, investing in restricted or illiquid securities, making forward commitments, entering into reverse repurchase agreements, and lending its portfolio securities. Through borrowing, the fund may leverage up to one-third of its assets. The average annual price-to-NAV ratios at which interests in the fund historically traded are shown below. In 2018, the fiscal year-end of the fund was changed from August 31 to December 31. Selected financial highlights as of each fiscal year-end traded are shown below. &lt;/p&gt;
  232. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/black-rock-2.jpg?sfvrsn=d229dab2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="black rock 2" title="black rock 2" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  233. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First Trust Mortgage Income Fund (NYSE: FMY)&lt;/strong&gt; is a diversified, closed-end management investment company formed in 2005. The primary investment objective of the fund is to seek a high level of current income; its secondary objective is to preserve capital. The fund pursues its objectives by investing primarily in mortgage-backed securities representing part ownership in a pool of either residential or commercial mortgage loans that offer an attractive combination of credit quality, yield, and maturity. The fund distributes to common shareholders monthly dividends of all or a portion of its net income after the payment of interest and dividends in connection with leverage, if any. Distributions of any net long-term capital gains earned by the fund are distributed at least annually.&lt;/p&gt;
  234. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/closed-end-fund-report-fixed-income-securities" target="_blank"&gt;2023 Closed-End Fund Report&amp;mdash;Fixed Income Securities&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; is 39 pages filled with the latest data on bonds and debt securities that can help you stay on top of the latest trends! Get your copy today!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:96e9b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/07/28/sneak-peak-cannabis-industry-accounting-and-appraisal-guide</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Sneak Peak: Cannabis Industry Accounting and Appraisal Guide</title><description>The regulation history of cannabis in the United States is a complex one, as are the valuation issues that stem from its status at the federal level. The following excerpt delves into some of the recent reforms on the legislative side of things.</description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Jul 2023 20:23:21 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The cannabis industry has been steadily growing for years and, with it, an ever-expanding plethora of unique accounting and regulatory concerns. But where did this all start? Let's take a step back and peer into the past of cannabis regulation. The following excerpt comes directly from the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/cannabis-industry-accounting-and-appraisal-guide-2nd-edition" target="_blank"&gt;Cannabis Industry Accounting and Appraisal Guide, 2nd edition&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  235. &lt;h5&gt;Recent Cannabis Reform Efforts&lt;/h5&gt;
  236. &lt;p&gt;U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchley first introduced the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in 2001 to protect medical cannabis businesses from the DOJ by restricting DOJ funding for cannabis enforcement. Annual renewal is required. The House passed the&amp;nbsp;bill after six attempts in May 2014 and for a second time in June 2015. In January 2017, U.S. Representative Sam Farr retired and Representative Earl Blumenauer took over as lead co-sponsor. By 2018, the House voted on this bill nine times, and it remains part of the U.S. spending bill. Controversy continues to surround cannabis, as indicated by the numerous pieces of legislation introduced to Congress since 2013, such as the following:&lt;/p&gt;
  237. &lt;ul&gt;
  238.    &lt;li&gt;Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013 (H.R.499);&lt;/li&gt;
  239.    &lt;li&gt;Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2013 (H.R. 1523);&lt;/li&gt;
  240.    &lt;li&gt;States&amp;rsquo; Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2013 (H.R. 689);&lt;/li&gt;
  241.    &lt;li&gt;Truth in Trials Act of 2013 (H.R. 710);&lt;/li&gt;
  242.    &lt;li&gt;National Commission on Federal Marijuana Policy Act of 2013 (H.R. 1635);&lt;/li&gt;
  243.    &lt;li&gt;No Welfare for Weed Act of 2014 (H.R. 4142);&lt;/li&gt;
  244.    &lt;li&gt;Unmuzzle the Drug Czar Act of 2014 (H.R. 4046);&lt;/li&gt;
  245.    &lt;li&gt;Charlotte&amp;rsquo;s Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014 (H.R. 5226);&lt;/li&gt;
  246.    &lt;li&gt;Clean Slate for Marijuana Offenses Act of 2015 (H.R.3124);&lt;/li&gt;
  247.    &lt;li&gt;Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2015 (H.R.1013);&lt;/li&gt;
  248.    &lt;li&gt;Marijuana Tax Revenue Act of 2015 (H.R. 1014);&lt;/li&gt;
  249.    &lt;li&gt;States&amp;rsquo; Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 262);&lt;/li&gt;
  250.    &lt;li&gt;Veterans Equal Access Act of 2015 (H.R. 667);&lt;/li&gt;
  251.    &lt;li&gt;Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 (S. 134); and&lt;/li&gt;
  252.    &lt;li&gt;Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2015 (S. 987)&lt;/li&gt;
  253. &lt;/ul&gt;
  254. &lt;p&gt;On Jan. 4, 2018, then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo. Many in the industry felt the Cole Memo offered a certain level of security, protecting them and their businesses from federal intervention. Strengthening the 10th Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act (S. 3032) was initially introduced by Senators Cory Gardner and Elizabeth Warren in 2018. The STATES Act would have amended the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 to exempt from federal enforcement individuals or corporations in states not in compliance with state cannabis laws.&lt;/p&gt;
  255. &lt;p&gt;This is just the beginning when it comes to the recent history behind cannabis reform. Learn how this complex and fascinating history weaves its way into modern regulations with the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/cannabis-industry-accounting-and-appraisal-guide-2nd-edition" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cannabis Industry Accounting and Appraisal Guide, 2nd edition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:2ee9b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/07/24/look-inside-economic-outlook-update-march</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Look Inside: Economic Outlook Update—March</title><description>The Economic Outlook Update monthly and quarterly reports digest expansive research from the leading authoritative sources into one convenient and cost-effective report. Get a peek behind the curtain at the March 2023 issue.</description><pubDate>Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:35:42 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/economic-outlook-update#downloads" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Economic Outlook Update&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;provides monthly and quarterly digests designed to give you the most defensible economic data available at your fingertips when you need it. This excerpt comes from the March 2023 monthly issue.&lt;/p&gt;
  256. &lt;p&gt;The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI) for the U.S. increased by 0.2% in March, to 110.2, after an increase of 0.2% in February. The CEI rose by 0.8% over the six-month period from September 2022 to March 2023, somewhat lower than the 1.0% rise over the prior six months. The CEI&amp;rsquo;s component indicators&amp;mdash;payroll employment, personal income less transfer payments, manufacturing trade and sales, and industrial production&amp;mdash;are included among the data used to determine recessions in the U.S.&lt;/p&gt;
  257. &lt;p&gt;The Conference Board Lagging Economic Index (LAG) for the U.S. decreased by 0.2% in March, to 118.3. The LAG is up 1.1% over the six-month period from September 2022 to March 2023, compared with growth of 4.4% over the&lt;br /&gt;
  258. previous six months. Indicators included in the LAG are average unemployment duration, the ratio of manufacturing and trade inventories to sales, change in manufacturing labor costs per unit of output, average prime rates, commercial and industrial loans outstanding, the ratio of consumer installment credit outstanding to personal income, and the change in the Consumer Price Index for services.&lt;/p&gt;
  259. &lt;p&gt;The LEI is a leading American economic indicator intended to forecast future activity. The Conference Board, a nongovernmental organization, calculates the index from the values of 10 key variables:&lt;/p&gt;
  260. &lt;ul&gt;
  261.    &lt;li&gt;Average weekly hours in manufacturing;&lt;/li&gt;
  262.    &lt;li&gt;Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance;&lt;/li&gt;
  263.    &lt;li&gt;Manufacturers&amp;rsquo; new orders, consumer goods and materials;&lt;/li&gt;
  264.    &lt;li&gt;Institute for Supply Management&amp;rsquo;s Index of New Orders;&lt;/li&gt;
  265.    &lt;li&gt;Manufacturers&amp;rsquo; new orders, nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft orders;&lt;/li&gt;
  266.    &lt;li&gt;Building permits, new private housing units;&lt;/li&gt;
  267.    &lt;li&gt;Stock prices, 500 common stocks;&lt;/li&gt;
  268.    &lt;li&gt;Leading Credit Index;&lt;/li&gt;
  269.    &lt;li&gt;Interest rate spread, 10-year Treasury bonds less federal funds; and&lt;/li&gt;
  270.    &lt;li&gt;Average consumer expectations for business conditions.&lt;/li&gt;
  271. &lt;/ul&gt;
  272. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/eou-graph.jpg?sfvrsn=c5c2dbb2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="EOU Graph" title="EOU Graph" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  273. &lt;p&gt;Anchor your valuations with the most valuable tool in your arsenal: knowledge.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/economic-outlook-update" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Subscribe to the&lt;em&gt; EOU&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and stay up to date with the latest insights from authoritative sources from across the BV sphere.&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:0be0b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/07/14/2023-factset-review-top-10-largest-m-a-announcements</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>2023 Factset Review: Top 10 Largest M&amp;A Announcements</title><description>The 2023 Factset Review is out now! This must-have publication is filled with valuable insights on M&amp;A activity. Get a sneak preview of a selection of data from Part 5 of the guide.</description><pubDate>Fri, 14 Jul 2023 20:25:34 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/factset-review-2023" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/factset-review-2023" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2023 Factset Review&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is out now!&amp;nbsp;This must-have publication delivers comprehensive rosters, data, and statistics on merger and acquisition (M&amp;amp;A) transactions that involve U.S. companies, including privately held, publicly traded, and cross-border transactions and so much more. The following excerpt comes from Part 5 of the guide: &lt;em&gt;Historical Review.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  274. &lt;p&gt;During the second half of the 1980s, we witnessed the consolidation of multibillion-dollar corporations with record-setting transaction values. This trend collapsed with the beginning of the 1990s but returned in 1996 and peaked in 1999. After the dot-com bubble, momentum returned from 2006 to 2008, but the financial crisis in 2009 halted the momentum, and the trend slowed. Despite a slowdown in M&amp;amp;A activity due to the coronavirus outbreak, five transactions broke into the top 100 rankings for transactions over the last 20 years in 2022.&lt;/p&gt;
  275. &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/top-10-announcements.jpg?sfvrsn=68cbdbb2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="top 10 announcements" title="top 10 announcements" style="vertical-align: middle;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  276. &lt;p&gt;In those 20 years the number of annual announcements have varied considerably, ranging from just a single announcement in 2003 to an impressive 12 announcements in 2016. It's also worth noting that, in that 20-year time frame, there wasn't a single year that went without an announcement.&lt;/p&gt;
  277. &lt;p&gt;This chart is just a small sample of the data and in-depth insights that can be found in this publication!&amp;nbsp;Add the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/factset-review-2023/" target="_blank"&gt;2023 Factset Review to your library today!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; As an added bonus, you will automatically be subscribed to the&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Flashwire US Monthly,&lt;a href="https://data.bvresources.com/FactsetMonthlyReview.asp#MonthlyReviews" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;which helps you stay up to date on all the latest M&amp;amp;A trends as they happen!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:6bc9b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/07/05/finding-the-right-approach-to-determine-reasonable-compensation</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Finding the Right Approach to Determine Reasonable Compensation</title><description>Although there are general guidelines to help you pick the best approach to determine reasonable compensation, there are no hard and fast rules. For the overwhelming majority of your clients, one of two common approaches that rely on comparability data should do the trick. For occasional clients who just don’t seem to fit any molds, there is an approach for them, too.</description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:37:00 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;Paul S. Hamann and Jack Salewski originally wrote and posted this on the RCReports blog page on Nov. 1, 2018. Their full blog page can be &lt;a href="https://rcreports.com/blog/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;found here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  278. &lt;p&gt;Although there are general guidelines to help you pick the best approach to determine reasonable compensation, there are no hard and fast rules. For the overwhelming majority of your clients, one of two common approaches that rely on comparability data should do the trick. For occasional clients who just don&amp;rsquo;t seem to fit any molds, there is an approach for them, too.&lt;/p&gt;
  279. &lt;p&gt;What we caution against is not using a recognized approach, commonly referred to as guessing or ballparking. These approaches (if we can even call them approaches) will leave your client vulnerable to an IRS reasonable compensation challenge, with no defensible position.&lt;/p&gt;
  280. &lt;p&gt;The three generally accepted approaches (from the IRS Job Aid: Reasonable Compensation) used to determine reasonable compensation are:&lt;/p&gt;
  281. &lt;ol&gt;
  282.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The cost approach,&lt;/em&gt; aka "many hats" approach: Generally works best for small businesses where the owner wears multiple hats;&lt;/li&gt;
  283.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The market approach,&lt;/em&gt; aka the industry comparison approach: Generally works best for medium-sized businesses where the owner performs predominantly managerial tasks; and&lt;/li&gt;
  284.    &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The income approach,&lt;/em&gt; aka the independent investor test: Generally works best for outliers.&lt;/li&gt;
  285. &lt;/ol&gt;
  286. &lt;p&gt;The cost approach (aka "many hats" approach)&amp;mdash;Breaks the duties of the business owner into its components such as company administration, accounting, finance, marketing, advertising, engineering, purchasing, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
  287. &lt;p&gt;The cost approach breaks down the time spent by the business owner on the various duties performed and quantifies the amount of time devoted to the different duties. Next, salary surveys are used to determine a comparable wage for each job duty performed by the business owner, then adds them up to arrive at the total &amp;ldquo;cost&amp;rdquo; to replace the services of the business owner.&lt;/p&gt;
  288. &lt;p&gt;The cost approach generally works best for small businesses where the business owner provides multiple services for the business (wears many hats).&lt;/p&gt;
  289. &lt;p&gt;The market approach (aka industry comparison approach)&amp;mdash;Compares the business owner&amp;rsquo;s compensation to compensation within the same industry. The market approach focuses as much as possible on the owner&amp;rsquo;s business and the specific position being analyzed (often the CEO or general manager who also owns the business). The question to be answered is: How much compensation would be paid for this same position, held by a nonowner in an arm's-length employment relationship, at a similar company?&lt;/p&gt;
  290. &lt;p&gt;The market approach generally works best for medium and large businesses where the business owner provides only one duty: management of the business.&lt;/p&gt;
  291. &lt;p&gt;The income approach (aka independent investor test)&amp;mdash;Seeks to determine whether hypothetical investors would be satisfied with their return on investment when looking at the financial performance of the business in conjunction with the compensation level of the owner.&lt;/p&gt;
  292. &lt;p&gt;The income approach can only be correctly applied when the fair market value (FMV) of the company is available for each year that compensation is examined.&lt;/p&gt;
  293. &lt;p&gt;The rationale behind the independent investor test is that investors pay employees to work to increase the value of the assets entrusted to their management. A high rate of return indicates that the assets&amp;rsquo; value increased and that the employee provided valuable services. Thus, if investors obtain returns above what they should reasonably expect, an employee&amp;rsquo;s salary is presumptively reasonable.&lt;/p&gt;
  294. &lt;p&gt;The income approach generally works best when there are no comparability data available.&lt;/p&gt;
  295. &lt;p&gt;Choosing the approach that best fits the facts and circumstances of your clients and their business enables you to help them accurately determine a defensible reasonable compensation figure.&lt;/p&gt;
  296. &lt;p&gt;For more information on the IRS job aid on reasonable compensation,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/Reasonable%20Compensation%20Job%20Aid%20for%20IRS%20Valuation%20Professionals.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;click here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; To view a case study of all three approaches,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ect7SSizseYGXd5t79PgbWlFfoF6Gi_w/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;click here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  297. &lt;p&gt;Situations like this can be a major headache for business owners and valuators. Make sure you have all the information you need for your reasonable compensation calculations with an&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/rcreports" target="_blank"&gt;RCReports subscription&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:17d0b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/06/29/sneak-peek-the-dealstats-value-index</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Sneak Peek: The DealStats Value Index </title><description>The DealStats Value Index is BVR's quarterly publication that gives you a window into the latest insights on private-company acquisitions with important data analysis drawn directly from the DealStats database. This excerpt comes from the latest issue for the first quarter of 2023 and is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the index!</description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jun 2023 16:32:33 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;DealStats Value Index&lt;/em&gt; is BVR's quarterly publication that gives you a window into the latest insights on private-company acquisitions with important data analysis drawn directly from the DealStats database. This excerpt comes from the latest issue for the first quarter of 2023 and is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the index!&lt;/p&gt;
  298. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NET SALES MULTIPLES FOR PRIVATE-BUYER/PRIVATE-SELLER TRANSACTIONS RISE IN 2022&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  299. The median net sales multiple in the all-transactions category rose to 0.55x in 2021 and 0.58 in 2022, after being at 0.47x in 2020, the lowest value in the period analyzed. In 2020, private buyers and public buyers paid a multiple for public sellers of 2.00x and 2.93x, respectively. In 2021, the net sales multiple rose more closely to historical norms, when private buyers and public buyers paid 2.47x and 4.36x, respectively, for public targets. Generally, in 2022, almost all types of transactions faced a downward trend except for private buyer/private seller transactions, where the multiple increased by 5% compared to its previous figure in 2021.&lt;/p&gt;
  300. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.bvresources.com/images/default-source/blog-images/bvwire/dvi-example.png?sfvrsn=b3fbdbb2_0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="DVI Example" title="DVI Example" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  301. &lt;p&gt;Want to see even more data? Subscribe to &lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/dealstats"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DealStats&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/a&gt;and access reports on a massive number of private and public companies&amp;nbsp;The annual subscription includes up to 1,000 unique transaction exports within one month and 500 unique transaction exports within a 24-hour period, and, best of all, the &lt;em&gt;DealStats Value Index&lt;/em&gt; is included with your subscription! Not sure if you want to try out DealStats yet? Subscribe to the &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/ezines"&gt;DVI Digest &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;for free, and get a peek at what the full &lt;em&gt;Value Index&lt;/em&gt; can offer!&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">urn:uuid:0c84b052-002b-6b40-82e1-ff0000eee7a0</guid><link>https://www.bvresources.com/blogs/bvwire-news/2023/06/09/field-guide-to-business-valuation-the-market-approach</link><a10:author><a10:name> </a10:name></a10:author><title>Field Guide to Business Valuation: The Market Approach</title><description>One element of a valuation report that can be incredibly confusing is the market approach, which is required in every business valuation. Luckily for us, the field guide is here to demystify it for us!</description><pubDate>Fri, 09 Jun 2023 18:42:43 Z</pubDate><a10:content type="text">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/a-field-guide-to-business-valuation" target="_blank"&gt;A Field Guide to Business Valuation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;delivers essential context for anyone looking to learn a little more about business valuation. It includes insightful tips that will help make valuations much less daunting. One element of a valuation report that can be incredibly confusing is the market approach, which is required in every business valuation. Luckily for us the field guide is here to demystify it for us!&lt;/p&gt;
  302. &lt;p&gt;There are two primary market approach methods: the guideline completed transaction method and the guideline public company method. The guideline completed transaction method relies on the prices of recently sold similar companies, as illustrated in the example above. The guideline public company method uses the stock prices of similar publicly traded companies. By summing up the market value of all outstanding stock and debt, valuation analysts calculate the total value of publicly traded companies from the disparate ownership interests.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
  303. &lt;p&gt;In both the guideline completed transaction method and the guideline public company method, the analyst performs the following steps:&lt;/p&gt;
  304. &lt;ol&gt;
  305.    &lt;li&gt;Identify sales of similar companies or calculate the value of similar publicly traded companies;&lt;/li&gt;
  306.    &lt;li&gt;Calculate relevant valuation multiples by dividing the value of each guideline company by a denominator such as revenue, operating income, EBITDA, or other value drivers; and&lt;/li&gt;
  307.    &lt;li&gt;Select an appropriate valuation multiple(s) from the range of indicated multiples and multiply it by the subject company financial fundamentals, indicating business value.&lt;/li&gt;
  308. &lt;/ol&gt;
  309. &lt;p&gt;There are many nuances to valuing a business using the market approach, but these steps summarize the basic market approach framework. The following chapters discuss the application of each of these two methods.&lt;/p&gt;
  310. &lt;p&gt;This discussion of the market approach is just the beginning when it comes to understanding how to compile your valuation report. Don't miss out on what you need to know by getting your copy of&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.bvresources.com/products/a-field-guide-to-business-valuation" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Field Guide to Business Valuation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</a10:content></item></channel></rss>

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