Estate and Gift Valuations
Estate and Gift Valuations
One of the many challenges facing business owners is the preservation of wealth through strategic tax planning. Estate tax is a tax on the value of a person’s assets at the time of their death. The gift and estate tax exemption is commonly referred to as the “lifetime exemption” and is the amount that can either be gifted during a person’s lifetime or excluded from their taxable estate upon death.
One of the strategies for reducing potential estate taxes is by gifting ownership in a LLC, FLP, etc. to one’s children or family member during their lifetime. The valuation of an equity interest must adhere to Fair Market Value in accordance with IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60 which defines Fair Market Value as, “the cash price at which property would change hands between a hypothetical willing buyer and a hypothetical willing seller, neither being under a compulsion to buy or sell, and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant facts”. Therefore, the value of a non-controlling equity interest is subject to various potential ‘discounts’ such as a discount for lack of control and/or a discount for lack of marketability, which decreases the value of the gifted equity interest and lowers the amount of the lifetime exemption used in the gift.
The McLean Group’s Valuation Advisory Practice has decades of experience providing valuations for estate and gift purposes in accordance with IRS standards.
Team Leaders
Ryan Berry
Ryan Berry is a Managing Director at The McLean Group and heads up the firm’s Valuation Advisory practice. Ryan has over 20 years of financial and accounting experience and has performed and overseen thousands of valuation engagements. During the course of his career, he has advised clients on valuations leading up to their IPO, provided fairness and solvency opinions for M&A transactions and recapitalizations, and worked with clients and their auditors on valuations for financial reporting purposes such as purchase price allocations, impairment testing, and complex security valuations. Ryan has also written and contributed to numerous articles on valuation topics and spoken at various conferences and webinars.
Ryan started his career as a financial analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton. While at Booz, Ryan maintained a TS/SCI clearance and worked in both the DoD and Intelligence Agency divisions where he provided financial and operational support to program managers overseeing several mission critical contracts.
Ryan earned a BA in Economics with a minor in Technology, Management, and Policy from the University of Virginia. He also received an MBA from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business. He’s a CPA accredited in business valuation through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Professional Credentials
- Certified Public Accountant (Virginia)
- Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) through the AICPA
Ryan Berry
Managing Director
Valuation Advisory
Scott Sievers
Mr. Sievers is a Managing Director with The McLean Group’s Valuation Services Group. As a Managing Director within the firm’s business valuation practice, he ensures the completion of business valuations for public and private companies for transaction, financial reporting, equity incentive plan, tax, and other purposes.
Since joining the firm, Mr. Sievers has completed over 1000 valuation engagements, which include business valuations, fairness opinions, solvency opinions, portfolio valuations, purchase price allocations, goodwill impairment tests, long-lived intangible asset tests, and equity incentive plan analyses.
Mr. Sievers is one of the leaders of the firm’s ESOP Practice. In addition to attending several ESOP training seminars and conferences, he has completed the full spectrum of ESOP-related valuation engagements ranging from transaction advisory, fairness opinions, feasibility analyses, annual valuations, and solvency opinions. Moreover, Mr. Sievers has the relevant experience dealing with complex ESOP-specific topics, such as transaction structuring, Fair Market Value of debt, repurchase obligations, follow-on transactions, and minority interest discounts.
He is also one of the leaders of the firm’s valuation analytics team, which specializes in valuing complex derivatives typically through applying option-pricing models, binomial lattice models, or Monte Carlo simulations to comply with IRC 409A, ASC 718, ASC 805, and ASC 815 reporting purposes.
Professional Credentials
- CPA (Virginia)
- Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) through the AICPA
- Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) through NACVA
Scott Sievers
Managing Director
Valuation Advisory
Representative Engagements
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