Upcoming Webinar

VPS Straight Talk Series - Continuing Professional Education on Business Valuation & Litigation

Continuing Professional Education on Business Valuation & Litigation


Thursday, November 6, 2025, 1:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Best Practices: Valuing Small Businesses – The Cost of Capital

Speaker: Jim Hitchner, CPA/ABV/CFF

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Webinar Description:

Join us for an advanced, practical session that takes the mystery out of cost of capital. We’ll dive into key models and data sources—like the Kroll CRSP, risk premium study, build-up model, and modified CAPM—while tackling real-world issues such as measurement periods, equity risk premiums, size and industry premiums, and company-specific risk. You’ll get insights from both Kroll’s latest recommendations and Damodaran’s perspectives, plus learn how to reconcile differences and run quick “sanity checks” on your results. Most importantly, we’ll show you how to confidently defend your cost of capital in depositions, trials, and other high-stakes settings. This is a can’t-miss webinar for anyone who wants to strengthen both their technical toolkit and their credibility.

Learning Objectives:

Using a detailed case study (including report language), the participant will learn:

  • How to apply best practices in the calculation of cost of capital
  • How to defend your analysis
  • How to select the proper level of reliability of your cost of capital

Webinar Outline:

  • Detailed calculations of various equity return results
  • Kroll Navigator cost of capital components and choices
  • How to defend their cost of capital in a deposition, jury trial, bench trial, arbitration, or administrative hearing
  • Detailed examples of numerous applications
    • Kroll CRSP
    • Kroll risk premium study
    • Build-up model
    • Modified capital asset pricing model
  • Dealing with differences
    • Measurement time periods
    • Equity risk premiums (ERPs)
    • Conditional vs. unconditional ERPs
    • Adjusted vs. unadjusted ERPs
    • Historical vs. supply-side ERPs
    • Size premiums, including deciles 10, 10b, and 10z
    • Industry risk premiums 
    • Specific company risk
    • Risk indicators
    • Risk-free rate – adjust or not?
    • Betas including adjustments (Hamada)
    • Debt betas
  • Damodaran’s views on ERPs, size premiums, and company-specific risk
  • How to reconcile the results when different
  • How to defend your results
  • Easy sanity check on cost of capital
  • Kroll recommended ERP 
  • Selecting weights in the WACC
  • Tax rates in the WACC
  • Control vs. minority in the WACC
  • Capitalization rates and growth

Handouts:

  • VPS Webinar slides
  • Related Articles
  • Sample Report Section
  • Following the webinar, attendees will have access to a video recording of the program


Continuing Professional Education on Business Valuation & Litigation

Jim Hitchner’s Valuation Products and Services (VPS) provides tools to assist practitioners in business valuation, litigation services, and forensics and fraud.

Valuation Products and Service, LLC is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Web site: www.nasba.org. Some online programs sponsored by VPS are administered by the Virginia Society of CPAs. For more information regarding CPE, refund, complaint, program cancellation or other policies of the Virginia Society of CPAs, visit vscpa.com/CPEPolicies or call (800) 733-8272.

The VPS StraightTalk webinar series brings you outstanding continuing professional education on business valuation and litigation topics. Unless otherwise noted, all webinars are targeted at an intermediate program level, qualify for two hours of CPE credit, and begin at 1:00 p.m. ET. With our simple flat pricing plan, your entire office (up to 20 people) can join us for this 100-minute presentation, earn two hours of CPE credit, and receive an archive recording for $299. Contact jkern@valuationproducts.com if your firm will have more than 20 attendees. More information on the VPS StraightTalk webinar series can be found here.