Continuing Professional Education on Business Valuation & Litigation

Upcoming Webinars: 

• November 6, 2025: Best Practices: Valuing Small Businesses – The Cost of Capital
• December 4, 2025: Pass-Through Entity Valuations: An Update

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

Best Practices: Valuing Small Businesses – The Cost of Capital

Speakers: Jim Hitchner, CPA/ABV/CFF & Harold Martin, CPA/ABV/CFF, ASA, CFE

Webinar Description:

Join us for an in-depth, 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
• BVR Cost of Capital Professional 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

About the Presenters:

James R. Hitchner, CPA/ABV/CFF

Jim Hitchner is managing director of Financial Valuation Advisors www.finvaluation.com and is president of The Financial Consulting Group www.gofcg.org. He is also CEO of Valuation Products and Services (VPS) www.valuationproducts.com. 

Mr. Hitchner is editor/coauthor of the books the Hitchner Pratt Fishman Consensus View Q&A Guide to Financial Valuation and the VPS DLOM Guide and Toolkit, published by VPS. He is also editor/coauthor of Financial Valuation Applications and Models (FVAM), fifth edition; Financial Valuation Workbook (FVW), fifth edition; and Valuation for Financial Reporting: Fair Value, Business Combinations, Intangible Assets, Goodwill, and Impairment Analysis, third edition, all published by Wiley. FVAM and FVW have been adopted by the AICPA for its five-day Business Valuation School. These two books are also used by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (“NACVA”) for its three-day Advanced Business Valuation course. NACVA also uses the Discount for Lack of Marketability Guide and Toolkit as part of this course.

He is also an inductee in the AICPA Business Valuation Hall of Fame and a two-time recipient of the AICPA’s Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year award. He was also one of the four original members of the AICPA Business Valuation Standards Writing Task Force and served for the entire six years, up to the June 2007 official release of the standards.

Harold G. Martin, Jr. CPA/ABV/CFF, ASA, CFE

Harold is a Managing Director for the Financial Consulting Group, LLC, a director and former partner-in-charge of the Valuation and Forensic Services Practices, and member of the Executive Committee for Keiter, a certified public accounting firm in Richmond, Virginia.  He is also an adjunct faculty member of The College of William and Mary Raymond A. Mason School of Business, where he teaches forensic accounting in the Master of Accounting program. 

He has over 40 years of experience in valuation and forensic services, public accounting, and financial services. He has appeared as an expert witness in federal and state courts, has served as a federal court appointed forensic accountant for receiverships, and has served as a court-appointed neutral business appraiser. He is an inductee into the AICPA Business Valuation Hall of Fame and is also a two-time recipient of the AICPA Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year award. He is a former member of the AICPA Business Valuation Committee, former commissioner of the AICPA National Accreditation Commission, former editor of the AICPA ABV e-Alert, and former editorial adviser and contributing author for the AICPA CPA Expert. He has taught over 50 AICPA courses on valuation and forensic accounting, including AICPA National Business Valuation School, AICPA BV Exam Review Course, and AICPA Expert Witness Skills Workshop.  He created and served as chair of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants Forensic & Valuation Services Conference.

He is a coauthor of Financial Valuation Applications and Models, 1st–5th eds., a contributing author to Cost of Capital: Estimation and Applications, 2nd–4th eds., and an editorial board member for Business Valuation Update.

Thursday, December 4, 2025, 1:00 – 3:00 PM ET

Pass-Through Entity Valuations: An Update

Speaker: Chris Treharne, ASA, MCBA, CVA

Webinar Description:

The webinar will provide current insights regarding pass-through entity appraisals.

Learning Objectives:

The participants will learn:

• Review PTE court rulings and their relevance to current valuation practices
• An overview of PTE valuations methods and procedures
• A detailed valuation example using the Treharne Model
• Justification for using discount rates derived from C corporations to value pass-through entities

Handouts:

• VPS Webinar slides
• Following the webinar, attendees will have access to a video recording of the program

About the Presenter:

Chris Treharne, ASA, MCBA, CVA

Chris Treharne is Managing Director of Gibraltar Business Valuations in Longmont, Colorado, and has been practicing as a business appraiser for more than 35 years.  He earned the Accredited Senior Appraiser, Master Certified Business Appraiser, and Certified Valuation Analyst business valuation designations from the American Society of Appraisers and the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts.  He is also a licensed Colorado Professional Engineer (retired) and Real Estate Broker.

Having prepared numerous presentations and authored papers on S corporation valuation issues, Chris is nationally recognized as an expert on the topic.  At the request of the Honorable David Laro of the U.S. Tax Court and Dr. Shannon Pratt, he co-authored a chapter on the topic in their book, Business Valuation and Taxes:  Procedure, Law & Perspective.  His S corporation valuation model also appears in Financial Valuation Models and Applications, Fannon’s Guide to the Valuation of Subchapter S Corporations, and other textbooks. He also co-authored a white paper which was presented to the Treasury Department by the S Corporation Association, and he has co-hosted national programs on the subject, including a private program for IRS business valuation employees.

Chris is a faculty member for the American Society of Appraisers’ Principles of Valuation training courses and on the Editorial Review Board for the peer reviewed professional journal Business Valuation Review.  Additionally, he testified before the Treasury Department regarding the proposed IRC Section 2704 regulation.  

His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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.