On July 16, 2020, Mr. Achille Ekeu, who is the State Chapter President of NACVA in Maryland and Washington DC and also the President and CEO of The Washington Valuation Group, moderated a Zoom conversation on the topic of "Business Valuation and Wealth Planning During Tumultuous Times".
This webinar that lasted an hour was organized by Rosen, Sapperstein & Friedlander, LLC (RS&F), one of the region’s leading business consulting and accounting firms, in partnership with the law firm Stein Sperling Bennet De Jong Driscoll, the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) and The Washington Valuation Group (WVG). The objectives of the webinar were to uncover wealth planning strategies, best practices, and discuss the challenges brought on by COVID-19. The panelists for that conversation were:
Andrew Runge
Biography: Andrew Runge is RS&F’s Director of Forensic and Valuation Services. Runge has over 25 years of experience in forensic accounting/investigation, economic damages, insurance, and litigation support services, as well as business valuations. He has been deposed and testified in court or other judicial proceedings many times throughout his career and has consulted on thousands of economic damage, construction delay, lost income, bodily injury, wrongful death, employee dishonesty, construction, and other insurance claims exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States and abroad. Runge also has prepared numerous business valuations of privately held companies as a whole and as partial interests.
David S. De Jong
Biography: Chair of Stein Sperling’s nationally regarded tax law group, David De Jong is a recognized and highly sought industry authority with more than 40 years of experience. Raised in Montgomery County, David always intended to practice law in his hometown. He has been instrumental in maintaining Stein Sperling’s collegial, small-firm feel while helping its tax department grow into a regional powerhouse. David brings a high level of expertise, creativity, sound judgment, and personal attention to help solve his clients’ tax, estate, and business matters.
The Moderator's Questions were:
1- What’s your opinion on the article I published this week in QuickRead titled:
Where Do You Stand on EBITDAC?
EBITDAC = Earnings Before Interests Taxes Depreciation Amortization and Coronavirus
Here is the link to the article: https://bit.ly/322A8en
2- How has COVID-19 affected the market values of private businesses? What
additional steps are being used to assess the uncertainty in the market and how are
those being addressed in valuation reports?
3- In leasing and commercial real estate is there an anticipated decline in long-term
activity and/or renewals? How will those declines impact the valuation of commercial
real properties?
4- What Possible changes in ordinary income and capital gain rates do you foresee?
5- What’s your perspective on possible estate freezes as well as changes to federal
and state estate tax exemptions?
6- How can depressed valuations be used to maximize estate planning?
7- Retirement Plans: Discuss
a- The temporary ability to borrow or receive greater distributions from
retirement plans.
b- The conversion of Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.
c- The minimum distributions from retirement plans and IRAs now starting
after age 72.
8- Will we see more goodwill and other asset impairment in the foreseeable future?
What are the pros/cons of asset impairment?
9- How Important are financial powers of attorney and medical directives today?
10- The IRS recently changed the review requirements of appraisals, what are your
thoughts about the potential effect? What steps should appraisers take to mitigate
challenges to client’s returns and avoid penalties?
11- Your comments on some of the more recent Tax Court rulings, specifically
regarding the one that permitted the 35% discount.
Here is the video of that conversation: