Estate Planning
Business Valuation
Appraisals play an important
role in your estate tax strategy.
Business Appraisal and Your Estate Plan
An estate planning business valuation for privately held businesses is essential when considering gifting, estate settlement and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting of an estate or gift transactions.
The goal of estate tax planning is to provide liquidity and continuity of the business. Throughout the process, it is essential to document the market value of the assets. While this is fairly straight forward to marketable or publicly traded securities, a thorough and well-documented analysis is required for illiquid or closely held assets.
The following are examples of the type of entities, interests, and situations where a business appraisal may be needed:
- Family limited partnership and limited liability companies, including entities holding real estate, marketable securities, or closely held common stock
- Gifting of closely held stock and partnership/LLC interests
- Buy-sell and shareholder agreements
- Life insurance planning and funding
- Creation of non-voting stock for gifting purposes
Examples
Discounting
Family limited partnerships (FLPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), and other types of entities have been a popular estate planning tool for years. Aside from the business purposes of such entities, such as centralized management and protection of assets from creditor claims, they also may offer tax advantages through valuation discounts. The most common discounts applied are for a Discount for Lack of Control (“DLOC”) and Discount for Lack of Marketability (“DLOM”). Because these discounts have such a large impact on overall valuation (often ranging from 20% to 40% of the overall value), a proper and well documented valuation report is critical in order to bear scrutiny. Read more regarding control factors we consider here.
Our Work
Quantive works with estate planning attorneys, wealth advisors, CPA’s and other estate planning professionals in order to help achieve their client’s goals. Our valuations are guided by sound theory and appropriate precedent rulings such as IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60. In addition our reports comply with the professional standards as promulgated by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA).