What’s it worth to you?
Accounting firms see booming demand for valuation services
BY Bill carlino
Valuation services, once performed on an ad hoc basis with
calculations often scribbled on the back of an envelope or errant
sheets of paper, have, over recent years, morphed into one of the
most in-demand services and soaring growth areas for firms.
As an example of the recent rise in engagements, business valuations were cited as the
No. 1 niche service in growth among
Accounting Today’s 2011 Top 100 Firms, as the call for
specialists and those holding specialty valuation credentials widens.
The American Institute of CPAs reported
that nearly 3,000 members are holders of its
Accredited in Business Valuation designation, while the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts said that nearly 5,000
have earned its Certified Valuation Analyst,
Accredited Valuation Analyst and Certified
Forensic Financial Analyst designations.
Other valuation credentials include the Certified Business Appraiser from the Institute of
Business Appraisers.
And in a proactive push to prepare college
students for the valuation field, a number
of universities currently offer a valuation
curriculum as part of their accounting pro-
grams, including Florida Atlantic University.
More recently, the Vanderbilt Owen School
of Management announced a Master of Ac-
countancy program that focuses on careers in
valuation services for an international public
accounting firm, with the first classes starting
in August 2012.
‘GIFTS ARE ON SALE’
Paulikens and others point to a confluence
of events that have generated that rising de-
mand for valuation services.
THANK THE BOOMERS
“The economy has caused happy and unhap-
py situations,” said Joseph Thornton, head of
the valuation department for Mitchell Wig-
gins & Co. in Richmond, Va. “Some people
are seeing an upturn in business, but because
of the economy, some senior generations are
either delaying retirement or accelerating it
and gifting shares of the company.”
Thornton, who was a member of a task
force for the Virginia Society of CPAs that de-
veloped the content for a two-day valuation
conference, said that each day for the next 19
years, there will be Baby Boomers reaching
the age of 65, and that has spurred a slew of
planning and subsequent valuation engage-
ments for the firm.
Because of the high demand, the firm is
marshaling more of its staff to get involved
in valuations. “We’re going to need more
resources,” Thornton said. “We have a big
inventory.”
Jack Knight, a partner at Birmingham, Ala.-
based Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith, said
that because of the rise in valuation requests,
including a jump in next-generation transfer
work, his firm is training some of the younger
professionals to bolster resources.
“When I first began [in valuations] eight
years ago, there was a good bit of activity, but
when the economy went south, a lot of those
projects came to a halt. We’re getting back
into it now. When we began the valuations
division here, we started it in-house with sev-
eral of the existing partners. But now we’re
working with some of the younger staff and
gravitating toward that. We’ve identified it as
a very good niche for our firm.”
Explained Sihota of Citrin Cooperman,
“This is still a relatively young industry, and
readers of valuation reports have become
more sophisticated in terms of valuation
methodologies and research, and want more
folks with accreditation, and practitioners
need to be prepared. The traditional accoun-
tant doing one valuation per year doesn’t fly
anymore.” AT
