Estate Planning and Tax

We provide sound, defensible valuations to business owners and high net worth individuals for tax purposes.

Regulatory authorities have heightened their scrutiny of valuations for taxation purposes. SVG professionals have extensive experience successfully providing and defending valuation opinions to the IRS. We mitigate the risk of audit by providing thoroughly thought-out and documented valuations, supported by empirical evidence, and utilizing relevant and proven valuation theory and methodologies. We perform tax compliance and reporting valuations for:

  • Wealth Transfer & Estate Tax Planning
  • Closely-Held Businesses
  • Family Limited Partnerships
  • Limited Liability Companies
  • Fractional Interests in Real Property
  • C to S Corporation Conversions
  • Stock Options and Deferred Compensation (IRC 409A)
  • IP Donations, Charitable Contributions of Stock
  • Noncompete Agreements
  • Determination of Basis
  • Tax Restructurings and Reorganizations
  • Goodwill and Asset Allocation to Legal Entities
  • Joint Venture Formation
  • Net Operating Loss (NOL) Limitation and Built-in Gains
  • Like-Kind Exchanges
  • Contribution in Kind Transactions

Transaction Advisory

Our valuation experts provide transaction opinions to boards of directors to assist them in fulfilling fiduciary duties and curtailing risk.

Business transactions are complex and full of potential pitfalls. SVG’s professionals provide a broad range of transaction advisory valuations. We form independent opinions based on extensive research and analysis that provide our clients with the tools they need to make difficult financial decisions. We perform transaction advisory analyses for:

  • Fairness & Solvency Opinions
  • Financing & Recapitalizations
  • Transaction Consideration Valuation
  • Preliminary Purchase Accounting
  • Financial Modeling

Litigation Support

We provide expert testimony related to a broad range of legal matters involving valuation.

Litigation has become increasingly complex in today’s world. Our analytical expertise and technical sophistication in finance, accounting, and law are the foundation for a broad range of services to support every step of the litigation process. Working as consultants and strategists, SVG interacts with clients and their counsel from early stages of a case and trial development through the evaluation of the opposition’s work product and the cross-examination of opposing experts. SVG offers a full range of financially related investigative procedures with an emphasis on detail by skilled professionals. We provide litigation consulting and expert testimony for:

  • Business Valuations
  • Shareholder Disputes
  • Marital Dissolutions
  • Bankruptcy Litigation
  • Solvency Analysis
  • Economic Damages
  • Intellectual Property Disputes
  • Eminent Domain

SVG’s valuation experts have qualified to provide expert testimony in California Superior Court, Federal District Court and before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Financial Reporting

Our valuation specialists possess in-depth knowledge of financial reporting valuation requirements.

With the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) deliberate movement away from historical-cost financial statements toward fair value statements, valuations for financial reporting purposes have become a key element in financial statement audits for both privately held and publicly traded companies. The audit engagement team and the audit firm’s valuation specialist perform an in-depth review and ultimately must sign-off on financial reporting valuation analyses in order to issue clean audit opinions. Performing in-house valuations or hiring inexperienced valuation firms to prepare these valuations can result in costly inefficiencies and delays in financial reporting. SVG’s valuation specialists understand both sides of the audit review process. Our specialists have experience at large international, national, and regional accounting firms, where they functioned as the valuation expert in reviewing financial reporting valuations for the firm’s publicly traded and privately held audit clients. Moreover, our specialists have extensive experience performing valuations for financial reporting for our clients and defending them to our client’s auditors and internal valuation specialists. By possessing this unique background, we execute and defend valuations for financial reporting seamlessly and efficiently, thereby freeing up management to focus on its core, strategic objectives. We perform financial reporting valuations for:

  • Purchase Price Allocation
  • Goodwill and Intangible Asset Impairment
  • Long-Lived Asset Impairment
  • Contingent Assets and Liabilities
  • Share-Based Compensation
  • Fair Value of Financial Instruments and Embedded Derivatives
  • Fresh Start Accounting
  • Portfolio Valuations

ESOP

Employee Stock Ownership Programs. We provide expert valuations for the establishment, financing, and ongoing pricing of ESOP shares.

ESOP valuations are complex assignments which must consider various ESOP specific characteristics, including potential repurchase obligations of the underlying company, and marketability issues relating to any put option embedded in the ESOP shares in addition to all of the traditional business valuation issues.

A supportable ESOP valuation is necessary to withstand any potential challenges by an employee or either of the federal agencies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), with enforcement responsibility for ESOPs.

SVG’s valuation specialists have significant expertise providing independent and supportable valuations for the establishment, financing, and ongoing pricing of ESOP shares.

Real Property

Our in-house team of professionals are experts in appraising commercial and residential properties.

SVG has a full service, in-house real estate appraisal team composed of seasoned, certified staff appraisers. Our clients include attorneys, accountants, management companies, and investors. We offer in-depth perspective of local and regional markets and specialize in city-specific geographical areas throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona. We have appraised and reviewed hundreds of properties that are worth over a billion dollars. We specialize in appraisals relating but not limited to:

  • Estate & Tax Planning
  • Commercial Properties, including Retail Space, Hospitality, Office, Multi-Family, R&D/Industrial, and Special Purpose Properties
  • Fractional Interest Discounts
  • Property Tax Reassessment
  • Financial Reporting
  • Residential Properties, including Single & Multi-Family, Executive Homes & Mansions, Townhomes & Condominiums, Mobile Units, and Residential Lots
  • Specialized Consulting Services
  • Litigation Support & Expert Testimony

Our appraisal reports are authored in-house by our credentialed staff appraisers and incorporate methodologies and analysis customized to your properties and objectives. We are committed to providing reliable, high quality services and unbiased conclusions, in a timely manner.