Business and Divorce Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cost of Business Appraisal

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Well the appraisal should be done by a professional forensic accountant or business appraiser and that will cost between $5,000.00-$50,000.00. Your own company accountant may know the business very well but he’s not going to make a good impression if it has to go to court and he’s not going to be believed in mediation or settlement negotiations, so first you need an unbiased expert and they’re expensive.

Then the expert needs access to all the records that you have and it would be not only the records up to the date of the dissolution but all the records that indicate future business plans. So for example, an appraiser might come in and appraise a business at $10 million and then the case may settle. If six months later the business is sold for $20 or $30 million and there were plans in the words at the time of the dissolution there’s going to be trouble. The case could be reopened. The lawyers could get into trouble if they knew about it. And so you have to be totally honest with the forensic appraiser and you have to give him all the records up to date up to the date of the dissolution and you have to tell them what your future plans are. So if you are planning on selling the business and you’re getting it ready to be sold that should be revealed to the forensic accountant.

The expense, why does it cost $5,000.00-$50,000.00? Well the expert is a forensic accountant or business evaluator is going to have interview all of the key employees, look at business plans, look at projections, and then, of course, if the case has to go to trial, he’ll testify at trial. So it’s a wide range but generally speaking, it would be between $5,000.00 and $50,000.00 to hire a business appraiser to take care of a moderately successful business in this area.

Minneapolis family law attorney Denis Grande talks about cost in appraising a business in a divorce.

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