Posts Tagged ‘Reasonable compensation’

In most business valuations, the standard is “fair market value.”  This method seeks to determine what a hypothetical “willing buyer” would pay a hypothetical “willing seller” in a hypothetical “free market” in which both buyer and seller are in possession of all material facts and neither is forced to make a deal.

In a divorce, however, the buyer and seller are known.  Typically, the manager-spouse “purchases” the community property interest of the non-manager-spouse through the process of community property division.  The standard of value in this case should be “investment value,” because it reflects what it is worth to the manager-spouse to own all of the community’s interest in the company, rather than just his or her community property half.

As with a fair market valuation, an investment value process analyzes a number of elements that are recognized by the appraisal community to be of particular relevance in valuing any privately held company.  Internal Revenue Ruling 59-60 lists the following:

• Nature and history of the business
• General economic outlook, and specific prospects for the industry
• Net worth and financial condition
• Earning capacity
• Dividend paying capacity
• Extent of goodwill, if any
• Size of the block of stock being valued, especially if it represents a majority or minority interest
• Whether the stock in question is voting or non-voting
• Stock prices of comparable public companies, if any
• Sale(s) of company stock at or near the valuation data
• Limitations or restrictions on the stock, such as on transfer, dividends, etc.
• Sale(s) of stock in comparable closely-held companies, if any (implied)

Of these, the two most important are earning capacity and financial condition.

When a company or individual acquires, or invests in, a business of any kind, the main reason is almost always the expectation of a return on that investment.  ROI comes from future earnings.  Sometimes, these earnings are presented as the bottom line on the Profit & Loss statement.  In other cases, the calculation may reflect cash flow.  But, the principle is identical.  Future operating performance determines the return on investment and, therefore, future earning capacity is a key factor in determining value.

Financial condition is also extremely important for a number of reasons.  {Note: a future post will discuss in detail practical financial analysis for a privately held company.}

1. A strong balance sheet allows management to pursue opportunities for growth, either self-funded or with outside debt.
2. Banks require the maintenance of specific financial numbers (such as Working Capital and Net Worth) and ratios (such as Current Ratio and Quick Ratio) to maintain an existing line of credit.  In today’s economy, most banks are far more rigid regarding these standards than they were previously.
3. Regardless of the prospects for earnings growth, most companies experience occasional “bumps in the road” on the P&L.  A strong financial condition will allow the business to weather these times.  The company that has been paying last quarter’s Accounts Payable with the collection of next quarter’s Accounts Receivable has no margin for error.  The loss of a major customer or receivable can put such a company in serious financial jeopardy.

If the business being valued in a divorce is a sole practitioner professional firm, the Excess Earnings Method will often be the most appropriate.  Here, the difference between the practitioner’s earnings (salary + benefits + pre-tax profit) and “reasonable compensation” (what s/he could earn in the same position as a non-owner / non-partner employee of a comparable firm) is called “excess earnings.”  {See previous post on Reasonable Compensation.}

Excess Earnings times a multiple (reflecting the level of confidence that these excess earnings will continue in the future) equals “Goodwill”.  Goodwill plus Net Worth (minus a reasonable return on Net Worth) equals value in the Excess Earnings Method.

In most valuations, in or out of court, the expert will deliver an opinion on a specific value.  In the context of divorce, however, it is far preferable to provide an initial range of value for two important reasons:

1. It is much easier for the spouses to agree on a range of value than on a specific dollar amount.  Once they have done that, settling on a final number becomes a much more manageable task.
2. Often, the value of the business can be juxtaposed against, and negotiated against, spousal support.

For example, if the spouse to be supported is mid-30s with a high paying job, s/he may be keenly interested in a substantial buy-out that can be used as an investment or retirement vehicle.  Contrariwise, consider the individual in late 50s with little income history or prospects, who has been living a very comfortable lifestyle (probably supported by the business.)  This person may be far more concerned with maintaining that lifestyle (e.g. keeping the children in the same school district) and would be willing to give a little in the value of the business to achieve this objective.  A range of value assists the couple to carve out this kind of win-win.

Another important contribution that the valuation expert can make to this difficult and highly emotional process is to produce a preliminary report that is open to criticism.  If either spouse can make a persuasive case that the expert has erred in some aspect of the valuation process, and that revisiting the issue(s) could have a significant impact on the expert’s opinion, s/he should be quite open to doing that.  The only objective here is the welfare of the clients, and pride of authorship has no place.

In the final analysis, the expert’s role is to assist the divorcing couple to agree on a value for the business that they understand and believe is fair.  If the expert is able to accomplish this goal, s/he will have made an important contribution to the family and, most importantly, to any children in that family.

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This article has been contributed by Steven D. Popell CMC (Certified Management Consultant.) Steve has been qualified as a business valuation expert since 1974, and has published extensively on this topic. CMC, a certification mark awarded by the Institute of Management Consultants USA, represents evidence of the highest standards of consulting and adherence to the ethical canons of the profession. Steve was a 2007 winner Collaborative Practice California Eureka Award for contributions to Collaborative Practice in this state and is a Senior Partner in Popell & Forney, with offices in Los Altos Hills and Pleasant Hill, California.

Tagged as: active garage, Business Valuation, buyer, clients, divorce, exitrak, fair market value, free market, Reasonable compensation, seller, steve popell

The most frequent approach to valuing a sole practitioner’s private practice is the “Excess Earnings” Method.  In this method, excess earnings represent Total Practice Earnings (salary + bonus + company profit) in excess of the sum of “reasonable compensation” and a reasonable return on the practice’s Net Worth (Assets minus Liabilities.)  When the estimated value of excess earnings is multiplied by a factor (the multiple) reflecting the relative risk of the earnings stream, the result is goodwill.  Goodwill plus Net Worth equals the total value of the practice.

While the excess earnings method itself is quite straightforward, determining what constitutes reasonable compensation is anything but.  Even “experts” can draw vastly different conclusions on this topic.  Clearly, if there is no agreement on what level of compensation is reasonable, there can be no agreement on what is excess.  This post will seek to demystify this question and clarify the process.

The Excess Earnings Method is based on the principle that the vast majority of the value of a sole practitioner’s private practice is the capacity of the practice (the practitioner) to generate net income after all expenses.  This principle is common to virtually all types of businesses. The difference here is that this method requires that the earnings of the practice be compared to those of “comparable” practices.  The following scenario will help to illustrate the fundamental issue in this comparison.

You, the sole practitioner, have decided to take a year off and sail around the world on your boat.  {To simplify this example, we will assume that Net Worth = $0}  Your task as CEO is to hire a person with identical skills and experience to manage your business, and to provide all the services your clients require.  This individual would be neither an owner nor a partner in your firm.  What would you have to pay this person?

Let’s assume that you could hire an equally competent replacement for yourself for $150,000 per year.  If your Total Practice Earnings = $400,000, Excess Earnings = $250,000.  The difference between the non-owner’s compensation and your Total Practice Earnings reflects the benefits of ownership.  In other words, you compensate yourself at the $400,000 level not because that reflects market rates, but simply because you own the company, and you can.

While the concept and the basic calculation are easy to grasp and implement, the problem arises in determining precisely what constitutes market rates.  There are two ways to do so.

1. Find at least one economically similar practice that employs a practitioner of comparable skills and experience to you.  Where such arms-length financial arrangements exist, they represent best evidence.  Unfortunately, such direct comparisons are typically few and far between.
2. Much more common is to rely on the estimates of other sole practitioners in your field as to what such a non-owner employee would earn in their practices.

The lynchpin of both avenues of inquiry is the identification of one or more economically comparable practices.  By what standards does one determine comparability?

First, the practitioners must be practicing in the same or closely related specialty, however unusual or thinly populated.  To compare a transplant specialist with a cross section of general surgeons would be of little help.

Second, the backgrounds and credentials of the practitioners must be quite similar.  This does not mean that they went to the same medical school or had virtually identical residencies.  However, one cannot very well compare someone who is board certified in a specialty with one who is not.  Nor is one likely to find a helpful comparison between individuals whose time in practice varies by 15-20 years.

Third, economically comparable practitioners must function at about the same skill level, and be so recognized by their peers.  Fortunately, the narrower the specialty, the better known are the few leading practitioners and, therefore, the easier it is to obtain such judgments from colleagues.

It is important to keep in mind that we are not comparing the Total Practice Earnings of similar practice owners.  That would defeat the basic objective, which is to determine the incremental increase in Total Practice Earnings resulting from self-employment.  Only by making that determination can we determine the value of ownership in the private practice and, as a result, the value of the practice itself.

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This article has been contributed by Steven D. Popell CMC (Certified Management Consultant.) Steve has been qualified as a business valuation expert since 1974, and has published extensively on this topic. CMC, a certification mark awarded by the Institute of Management Consultants USA, represents evidence of the highest standards of consulting and adherence to the ethical canons of the profession. Steve was a 2007 winner Collaborative Practice California Eureka Award for contributions to Collaborative Practice in this state.

Tagged as: active garage, assets, Business Strategy, Business Valuation, CEO, Compensation, excess earnings method, leaders, liabilities, practices, Reasonable compensation, renumeration, salary, steve poppell, valuation