Long-term strategies to boost cash flow — and value
Companies that maximize cash flow are worth more to investors. But it may be unrealistic to focus on the obvious cash flow improvement targets — revenue and costs — when demand is flat and many businesses have cut back their overhead. This article presents some cash flow management techniques that may help businesses squeeze more out of existing operations.

Who owns goodwill?
The case of Howard v. Commissioner
Goodwill is an intangible asset that arises from a business’s name, reputation, customer loyalty, location, products and other similar factors. The classification of goodwill as personal or business can have important tax and legal consequences. This article looks at a recent case, Howard v. Commissioner, that illustrates some of these consequences, including how noncompete agreements may get in the way of taxpayer attempts to claim personal goodwill when they retire.

Case Citations:
Howard v. Commissioner, U.S. District  (E.D. Wash.), No. CV-08-365-RMP, July 30, 2010.
Norwalk v. C.I.R., U.S. Tax Ct., T.C. Memo 1998-279, 1998 WL 430084.

How valuators approach value
A valuation primer
Determining the value of a business is a complex endeavor. This article provides a primer on the most commonly used valuation approaches and methods to help readers gain a better grasp of the ins and outs of business valuation and be better able to evaluate an expert’s work. The article describes the income, market and cost approaches as well as several other methods valuators use to refine their analyses.

Need to know: FAQs about key person discounts
The risk of centralized management typically is taken into account in the company’s future earnings or discount rate. In some cases, however, one key person has unique skills, technical knowledge, experience or relationships that would be difficult to replace or replicate. This brief article explains how valuators attempt to quantify the impact of loss of a key person on value.