Franchise Business Valuation: How Franchised Units Are Valued (and Why They’re Different)
Quick answer: A franchised business is valued with the same three approaches used for any company — income, market, and asset — but the franchise
Forensic Accounting for Trust & Estate Disputes: When Beneficiaries Need an Accounting
When a beneficiary suspects that a trustee or personal representative has mishandled money, the dispute almost always turns on one document: the accounting. A fiduciary
How to Value a Tobacco or Wholesale Distribution Company
Quick Answer A tobacco or cigarette distribution business is valued mainly on its normalized earnings, but the analysis has to account for what makes wholesale
How Real Estate Is Handled in a Business Valuation
Quick Answer When a business owns real estate, the value of that real estate is usually separated from the value of the operating business and
How to Value a Paving or Asphalt Contractor
Quick Answer A paving or asphalt contractor is valued the way most construction companies are — primarily on its normalized earnings under the income approach,
ESOP Valuation: How Independent Appraisers Value Employee Stock Ownership Plans
An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a qualified retirement plan that holds stock of the sponsoring company on behalf of its employees. Because the
Ponzi Scheme Forensic Accounting: Net Winners, Clawbacks, and How the Money Is Traced
Quick Answer When a Ponzi scheme collapses, its books are fiction — the account statements show profits that were never earned, paid out of other
The Expenditures Method (Cash-T): How a Forensic CPA Reconstructs Income From What a Person Spends
Quick Answer The expenditures method — built on a Cash-T analysis — reconstructs a person’s true income by measuring everything they spent during a period
Loss of Household Services: How a Forensic CPA Values Unpaid Domestic Labor in Injury and Wrongful-Death Cases
Quick Answer Loss of household services is the economic value of the unpaid work — cooking, cleaning, childcare, home and vehicle maintenance, shopping, errands, and
The Bank Deposits Method: How a Forensic CPA Reconstructs Income From Deposit Activity
Quick Answer The bank deposits method is an indirect technique a forensic CPA uses to reconstruct a person’s income from the money that moved through
Lifestyle Analysis in a Florida Divorce: Proving the Marital Standard of Living and Detecting Unreported Income
Quick Answer A lifestyle analysis is a forensic accounting study that quantifies a couple’s actual standard of living during the marriage by analyzing their spending
The Net-Worth Method of Income Reconstruction: How Forensic CPAs Prove Hidden and Unreported Income
When someone earns more than they report — or hides income behind cash, undisclosed accounts, and assets held in other names — there is often