Hiring a Valuation Expert in Divorce Proceedings

In the marital dissolution, Pemberton v. Pemberton, a case that originally appeared in the Dakota County (MN) District Court and then in the Minnesota court of appeals, husband, a real estate agent, operated his business through two closely held entities in which he owned a controlling interest.  While both marital parties retained financial experts, husband's financial expert was not engaged to provide a formal valuation opinion while wife's financial expert did provide a valuation opinion in relation to the closely held businesses, among other assets. 

Husband, and his expert, provided general comments in relation to the valuation of each of the business entities, including with respect to issues of duplicative valuation between the two entities and personal goodwill attributed to husband. However, as husband's expert did not perform a formal business valuation, the comments were regarded by the district court as general in nature and as such, they assigned values to the ownership interests that were consistent with the findings of wife's expert.

While the comments made by husband and his expert may have carried weight, as his expert did not render a valuation opinion in relation to the closely held equity interests, the district court, reaffirmed by the appellate court ultimately sided with the valuation opinions determined by the wife's financial expert.

Our business valuation professionals have the required credentials and experience to provide marital parties and their attorneys with complete and comprehensive financial and valuation related services through divorce proceedings.