Shwiff, Levy and Polo LLP with its sister company, The Financial Valuation Group, is able to offer many unique services in the financial consulting and business valuation area. These firms maintain one of the largest groups of qualified business appraisers in the country.

Our staff of full-time business appraisers brings together a strong combination of professional expertise and training.  ASAs, CPA/ABVs, JDs, and MBAs unite their disciplines with their consulting and entrepreneurial experience as business people.  This mix of professional business experience provides the firm with comprehensive skills and business acumen.  These backgrounds encompass a range of valuation experience spanning many industries with the ability to quickly and accurately assess valuation requirements from a practical standpoint. 

Valuing closely-held or publicly traded companies for shareholder matters is a most complex and often uncertain process, as the company management's opinion of value frequently differs significantly from the value claimed by a shareholder, option holder, or by regulatory agencies.  Courts are often asked to resolve the valuation question.  Accordingly, the use of careful and thorough appraisals by qualified experts has proven effective in substantiating values for shareholder, tax or litigation purposes.  We believe that our firm is particularly well suited to assist you for the following reasons:

·       Our professionals have focused upon assisting closely-held businesses in business planning and valuation-related matters for more than 15 years.  The appraisal of majority and minority interests of such businesses is the central emphasis of our business appraisers' work.

·       Our firm is active in the valuation of intellectual property for high tech companies.  We have developed an intellectual property transaction database (over 2,500 transactions).  This is the most comprehensive database we have been able to locate, with 26 data fields and a copy of the actual licensing agreement for many of  the transactions.

·       Our professionals possess experience in a wide variety of industries ranging from service, manufacturing, and distribution companies to real estate holding companies.  This assists in valuing businesses that depend upon human resources or entities that depend primarily upon tangible capital investments.

·       Our Professionals hold the most prestigious Business Valuation designations available in the profession. The CPA/ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation) from the AICPA and the ASA (Accredited Senior Appraiser) from the American Society of Appraisers. In addition, two of our professionals are members of the AICPA’s “Business Valuation Hall of Fame”.

·       Our firm is a member of the Financial Consulting Group, an organization of more than 60 valuation firms and 360 valuation and litigation professionals that have pooled their technical expertise in order to bring specialized valuation expertise to their clients in many areas such as high tech companies and health care.

·       Our professionals have extensive experience working with a variety of valuation issues such as management compensation programs, management buyouts, ESOPs, pension plans, estate taxes, family gifting, charitable remainder trusts, transfer pricing, commercial damages and litigation. Our professionals are active members who provide leadership in professional associations such as the Valuation Sub-Committees of the American Bar Association, the American Institute of CPAs, American Society of Appraisers, and various state CPA societies  

·       Our professionals wrote the AICPA’s course on Valuation Report Writing used in its certificate of educational achievement in business valuation program and three of the AICPA’s advanced valuation courses.  In addition, many of our professionals were contributing authors to  the other courses and teach a variety of courses throughout the country.

·       Our professionals have contributed to, or have been technical or peer reviewers for, most of the major business valuations books used in the country.

·       Our professionals teach the ASA and AICPA accreditation courses in business valuation and continuing education courses to CPA's, attorneys and other professionals on such issues as Intangible Asset and Intellectual Property valuations and using valuation as part of the business and estate planning process.

·       Our professionals are co-editors or regular columnists of publications such as the AICPA’s “CPA Expert” newsletter and the Licensing Journal.

·       The Financial Valuation Group professionals have access to current CD- ROM databases and on-line electronic databases as an active part of the valuation process.  

·       The Financial Valuation Group represents that it is a "qualified independent appraiser" within the context of regulations regarding Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).  Our appraisal report will be rendered consistent with appraisal requirements outlined in the regulations.

In addition to general business valuation services, we offer specialized services in certain specialized fields. These areas are:

·        Intellectual Property - valuations, royalty rate studies, damages, etc.

·        Software/ High Tech Companies

·        International engagements/ companies - with heavy international

    sales/operations

·        Agriculture related businesses  

We believe these areas are central to any new economy business or high tech company. Although a company may not directly think about these items, they are central to all businesses in the 21^st century.  These items also are becoming more important to public companies as they increasingly depend on their Intangible Assets and international operations.

Our firm’s unique assets include:

·        A proprietary Intellectual Property database

·        Proprietary Software industry studies

·        International experience and authorship

·        Nationally recognized newsletters

·        Offices coast to coast to service our clients

·        The multiple languages spoken by firm professionals.

·        A national reputation in these areas within the appraisal profession that is quickly growing.

·        Participation in IP and High Tech trade associations

·        Participation and leadership on AICPA, American Society of Appraisers and other professional association committees.

Our valuation related services include:

Royalty Rate Studies  - Establishing the appropriate royalty rate to use in transactions involving intellectual property is often a difficult process and requires the use of commercial databases, such as the FVG database.

Purchase Price Allocations   - Whenever a company acquires another company, GAAP requires that the purchase price be allocated to the underlying tangible and intangible assets acquired by the company at Fair Value.

In Process R&D  - Research and Development projects in process at the time of acquisition generally must be valued at fair value utilizing the guidelines and recommended best practices by the AICPA and the SEC.

ISO Pricing  -Incentive Stock Options granted to employees must be valued for financial statement and tax purposes and are often valued quarterly as part of the management planning and/or financial reporting process.

Transfer Pricing  - Tangible and intangible assets sold or licensed to a related entity must be transferred at fair market value in the order to be in compliance with U.S. and foreign tax regulations.

Fairness Opinions  - The Board of Directors of a company often desires to have a knowledgeable independent outside party review a proposed financial transaction to provide comfort to the Board that the proposed transaction is fair to a particular party or parties from a financial point of view. One of the key elements of a fairness opinion is establishing the value of particular tangible and intangible assets that are part of the proposed financial transaction.

Expert Testimony - litigation involving a company often requires the use of an expert witness to establish the value of the company or a particular asset, establish royalty rates, or to determine the economic damages related to the infringement or causative action.

Business Enterprise Valuations – Companies often need to have the company, or a minority interest in the company, valued for mergers and acquisitions, tax reporting, financial reporting, joint ventures, or business planning purposes.

Intellectual Property Valuations – Companies often need their intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, etc) valued for licensing, financial reporting or asset management purposes, as well as selling the intellectual property itself.