This FAE seminar provides a practical and experience driven exploration of the financial and accounting components that support business valuation and dispute resolution engagements. Ernest Patrick Smith draws on extensive experience in business valuation, economic damage analysis, forensic financial investigations, and the reconstruction of financial records. Participants will examine valuation approaches, financial modeling, cash flow and earnings analysis, damage quantification, and methods used to identify incomplete or misleading financial information. The seminar emphasizes techniques that help CPAs deliver clear and well supported financial conclusions in situations where the value of a business or the financial impact of disputed events must be determined. Real world examples illustrate how analytical reasoning, documentation, and structured financial evaluation can guide organizations and stakeholders toward resolution.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Apply core business valuation methods including income, market, and asset based approaches to produce reliable and well supported valuation analyses.
- Develop structured economic damage calculations that measure lost profits, diminished business value, and other financial effects resulting from business interruption or contested circumstances.
- Analyze financial statements and related records to identify irregularities, incomplete information, unusual transactions, or indicators of hidden assets or revenues.
- Perform financial reconstruction techniques to rebuild missing or unreliable financial data to support defensible conclusions.
- Prepare clear and comprehensive financial analyses and valuation reports that contribute meaningfully to dispute resolution by presenting objective and well-organized financial findings.