A client you send me is one you'll still be acting for after their shares change hands. You'll want to know how I'll treat them, and how much of your time it takes.
I'm Bruce McGechan. I value shares in private companies at a fixed fee, for owners handing a business to family or managers and for shareholders parting on good terms.
I reply to your call or email within 24 hours. I do every valuation myself, so the person who takes your call is the person who writes the report.
My work is the valuation, so your client's accounts, tax and legal work stay with you. If a matter is outside my scope, I'll tell you on the first call.
Once your client engages me, you get updates whenever you ask, a copy of the report and a call with me to go through it. Most clients engage me themselves, though sometimes the adviser engages me instead and I deal with the client through them.
The fee is fixed and published below, so your client knows it before they start. I don't pay referral fees or commission, so nothing sits between your advice and your client.
If you're not sure a client needs a valuation, or which report would fit, ring me before you raise it with them. You don't need to name the client, and I'll give you a quick view. If a shareholders' agreement already says how the price is set, send me the clause and I'll tell you which report it calls for.
Early, and ideally before anyone has named a price. When one party proposes a number the other questions it, and the resentment can last for years.
An owner is retiring and a child or the managers will take over.
Parents want to sell or gift shares to a child, or to a trust.
A partner wants out and the shareholders are still on good terms.
A shareholders' agreement says a departing shareholder's shares are bought at a valuation.
Your client may tell you they'll just agree a number, and they may well manage it. A report adds a number neither of them chose, in a document the siblings outside the business can read too. If Inland Revenue later asks how the price was set, there's a written answer.
If the matter turns into a dispute, or heads to mediation, arbitration or court, the Conclusion of Value is the report for it. It runs to about 150 pages at $9,900 + GST, and takes eight weeks from the end of information gathering.
Ring me on 021 245 8881 or email bruce@fealty.co.nz, whether you have a client in mind or only a question. I'll reply within 24 hours.
I'm a Certified Valuation Analyst, one of two in New Zealand.