Our valuation services encompass the valuation of business interests (common stock, preferred stock, stock options, warrants, partnership interests, and debt instruments) as well as intangible assets (patents, software, trademarks, in-process technology, franchises, customer lists, license agreements, etc.).

There are few industries and market environments where our associates have yet to value businesses and/or financial interests. Industries where we have the deepest experience are manufacturing, banking, oil and gas, leasing and transport, healthcare, real estate holding companies, professional practices, not-for-profit organizations, and government.

We can assist owners, executives, investors, attorneys and consultants, with:

• Business purchase, sale or merger
• Initial public offering
• Income, gift, estate and inheritance taxes
• Reorganization
• Corporate recapitalization
• Employee stock ownership plans
• Buy-sell agreements between owners
• Civil litigation
• Disaster recovery
• Foreign companies and subsidiaries of U.S. businesses
• Divorce consulting

• Taxes
  The two most significant areas requiring valuations are:
  • Gift and Estate tax
  • International taxes
 

• Valuation of Intangible Assets for Transfer Pricing
  In the case of international taxes, valuations can be used to set appropriate transfer pricing for intangible assets and services transferred between related entities.
 

• ESOPs
  DOL and IRS regulations require an initial and annual update valuation of the business for the sale of stock to employees through ESOPs.
 

• Litigation Support
  Typically, business valuations are used in dissenting and oppressed shareholder lawsuits, business dissolution, marital dissolution, and cases of economic loss.
 

• FAS 141R and FAS 142
  The issuance of FAS 141R and 142 dramatically changed the accounting for goodwill for all prior mergers and acquisitions, and purchase price allocations for all future mergers and acquisitions. We can work with you to understand key valuation issues resulting from these Statements, including determining, planning and implementing requirements, and assessing the potential impact of compliance with FAS 141R and 142 on financial results.
 

• FAS 123R - Share-Based Payment Valuation and Expense Reporting
  The Statement requires companies to measure and recognize compensation expense based on the fair value of awards at date of grant. This applies to stock options, restricted stock, performance shares, stock appreciation rights, and variations thereof.
   
  Our valuation and reporting services include fair value calculations required by the Statement (either Black-Scholes or the emerging lattice or binomial models). In addition, we can assist you with the disclosure requirements established by the Statement.
 

• Bankruptcies
  Bankruptcy proceedings often involve valuation of subsidiaries and/or the parent company for sell-off in the bankruptcy. Valuations may determine if a fraudulent conveyance took place, or if inadequate consideration was paid for certain transactions.
 

We perform valuations of fractional or 100% interests in closely held and lightly traded entities. Our valuations of equity, goodwill, intangible assets, and undivided interests in real estate are employed in litigation, mergers and acquisitions, purchase price allocation, management buyouts, recapitalizations, disaster recovery, reorganizations, and income, gift, and estate tax-related issues.

For more information, contact Noreen Dornenburg at 888-287-0335, or email ndornenburg@urishpopeck.com

By employing sophisticated techniques encompassing engineering, systems, tax, and industry-specific methodologies, Urish Popeck consultants successfully control and reduce costs for our clients. We consistently contain and/or reduce costs in the areas of telecommunications, taxation of real estate holdings, energy, and human resources.

Examples of the benefits we have delivered cost containment clients, which include some of the largest and most prestigious manufacturers, retailers, healthcare institutions and professional services firms in the country:

• Telecommunications engagements consistently return 20%+ reductions in annual spends greater than $1 million, and larger percentages on smaller expenditures;
• Cost segregation engagements return benefit-to-cost ratios of greater than 6-1, more often 10-1 and higher.

Urish Popeck clients benefit from seamless access to the services of Trenwith Securities, LLC, an independent investment banking affiliate of BDO Seidman, LLP. Trenwith is a premier investment bank comprised of seasoned professionals dedicated to providing expert merger and acquisition advisory services, corporate finance services, and corporate restructuring services to clients in the U.S. and overseas with revenues between $20-500 million. Trenwith can assist and advise clients in sales, divestitures, acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, private placements of debt and equity, financial restructuring, and bankruptcy transactions. Trenwith serves a broad range of companies including private, public, and multinational corporations. In addition, they have unique execution capabilities in the international arena, representing both domestic and overseas companies in middle-market transactions.

Trenwith's senior investment banking professionals each have over 15 years of experience assisting and advising clients on how to maximize value when selling their business and how to optimize returns and minimize risk when acquiring companies. Collectively, the firm's professionals have completed over 600 transactions worth in excess of $20 billion. Trenwith has significant industry experience in a number of industries, including Apparel/Retail, Business Services, Consumer Brands/Products, Industrial/Manufacturing, Healthcare, Restaurants/Food Services, and Technology.

Corporate Finance

Trenwith has built long-standing relationships over its 20-year history with major financing sources in the United States and abroad, including private equity funds, mezzanine and senior lenders. Whether you are seeking growth capital, take-out financing or a partial liquidity event, Trenwith's corporate finance professionals will help you formulate the optimal capital structure and provide access to the best financial partners for your particular objective.

M&A Services

• Buy-side and Sell-side advisory
• Domestic and international
• MBOs and LBOs
• Strategic partnerships
• Joint ventures
• Divestitures
• Recapitalizations
• Business valuations
• Transaction assistance

Corporate Restructuring

Trenwith's professionals have extensive out-of-court and in-court restructuring experience representing debtors, creditors, and other parties of interest. Trenwith is committed to providing the most senior level attention to each engagement with the highest level of quality and integrity. Their goal is to provide creative and unique strategies for difficult situations that will help maximize the recovery for their clients. Recently, Trenwith has successfully advised on over a dozen restructuring engagements including the sale of Bike Athletic to Russell Corporation, the sale of Napster to Roxio, and the reorganization of USInternetworking.

Bankruptcy Services (Chapter 11 Debtor or Creditor Representation)

• 363 sales
• Reorganization plans
• DIP financing
• Valuation opinions and analysis
• Peer reviews
• Negotiation and enhancement recovery strategies
• Financial statement analysis and monitoring

Urish Popeck's professionals provide audit, consulting and tax services for employee benefit plan sponsors and administrators subject to ERISA requirements. We also provide the same services to non-ERISA plans such as governmental plans and certain non-qualified plans.

Because of our firm's capabilities and the supporting resources of BDO, we are an excellent alternative for large plan sponsors where we are not the sponsor's primary auditor. Because of the audit committee pre-approvals required by Sarbanes-Oxley, many sponsors are choosing a second auditor to audit their plan.

Efficient and Effective Audits

Through our experience, training, and utilization of the nationally recognized audit manual developed by our Alliance partner, BDO, we can deliver a cost-efficient approach that minimizes the cost of our services.

Our audit engagements are carefully planned and coordinated with management and the designated staff. Unlike normal financial statement audits, efficient and effective audits of employee benefit plans require the coordination of audit, tax, and benefit consultants to accurately and thoroughly address the many issues unrelated to auditing or accounting that arise. Engagements are staffed by a coordinated team of professionals who have successfully faced these types of issues.

For our defined contribution and defined benefit plan audits, our assurance professionals employ planning procedures and guidance that includes: determining the specific audit requirements of the individual plan; selecting sampling strategies and designing acceptable samples for all testing areas; assessing the level of audit risk and determining materiality, and; identifying plan internal controls and ascertaining confidence levels.

Consulting Services

Our benefit plan practice includes experienced consultants with both legal and plan administrative backgrounds. There is virtually no aspect of employee benefit law, whether tax or ERISA related, that our veteran consultants have not applied for clients. Further, they tailor their large plan consulting experience to assist the small and mid-market plan stakeholder.

A partial list of areas of experience encompasses: advanced plan design; compliance examination, review, and correction programs; ESOPs; fiduciary advice for Directors and Officers; stock-based compensation programs; 401(k), 403(b), 412(i) and 457 plans; multi-employer (Taft-Hartley) plans; ERISA and fiduciary custom training for plan sponsors, TPAs, brokers, etc.

Form 5500 Services

Services include: preparation of Form 5500; review of prepared Form 5500; independent audit of Form 5500; compliance testing; and lit support.

Record Keeping and Administration

Through a strategic partnership with an industry leader, we offer record keeping and administration services for all types of Defined Contribution plans, with specialized expertise in 401(k) plans. Our partner has more than 15 years of Defined Contribution plan record keeping and administration experience, and employs state of the art systems and technology to create a highly efficient, cost competitive servicing solution for sponsors and participants.

Depth and Technical Strength

Our Alliance partner BDO Seidman is distinct among national CPA firms in emphasizing pension auditing, and having partners, managers, and staff who concentrate in auditing plans.

Our professionals participate in and present at national benefit plan conferences and training seminars, and receive technical updates via our proprietary Extranet. The organization has 100s of benefit plan audit clients throughout the country, and performs more than 1000 pension audit engagements annually – several with assets over $2 billion. We perform SAS 70 reports for more than 35 entities, including for one of the largest actuarial firms in the country. In short, our professionals have the technical support and resources to audit or consult for virtually any size plan.

BDO Seidman's Financial Recovery Services professionals participate in complex insolvency and bankruptcy cases with a breadth of experience and resources to serve a diverse array of parties, including debtors and debtors-in-possession, Chapter 7 and 11 trustees, unsecured creditors' committees, equity committees, lending institutions and secured creditors.

Whether for troubled business reorganization or any kind of debt restructuring, our clients can rely on our organization's extremely knowledgeable and experienced professionals for help in resolving a variety of difficult situations.

Our Financial Recovery Services practice provides:

• Investigative searches and reports
• Analyses of pre-and post-petition operations
• Analyses and viability of projections
• Liquidation analysis
• Analyses of reorganization plans
• Assistance with alternative reorganization plans
• Collaboration with and evaluation of reports by marketing and other consultants
• Evaluation and analysis of the interrelationships of various committees in a proceeding
• Preference searches
• Fraud investigations
• Fraudulent transfer investigations
• Litigation consulting services, including professional witness testimony
• Valuations for equity purposes

Also included in our services are:

• Business viability assessments
• Cash-flow analysis
• Cost-Reduction programs
• Financial and operational modeling
• Performance improvements
• Business plans and forecasts
• Debt and equity restructuring
• Reorganization alternatives
• Tax Advisory
• Operational reviews and benchmarking
• Introduction to new capital sources
• Monitoring of financial position

For Debtors, additional services include:

• Preparation of bankruptcy schedules, statement of financial affairs, and other required reports
• Viability assessments
• Restructuring alternatives
• Preparation for filing
• Assessment of debtor-in-possession financing
• Feasibility studies
• Fresh-start accounting advice
• Analysis of bankruptcy claims

The Urish Popeck team includes well credentialed IT risk specialists, CFEs, corporate investigative professionals, and CPAs trained in forensics.

For a copy of ACFE's 2008 Report to the Nation on occupational fraud and abuse, please click here.

What are the Services?
The experienced professionals in our anti-fraud, forensic, and technology security practice include credentialed CPAs, CFEs, valuation experts, IT security and network specialists, PEs, CPPs, finance/investment banking experts, and corporate security and investigative services professionals. Services provided are:

• Fraud Auditing and Forensic Accounting
  Our auditors, internal auditors, and CFEs are equipped with broad fraud investigation experience in a variety of industries.
 
• IT Risk and Security
  This practice centers around systems security risks. It combines risk analysis and forensic auditing investigation techniques with the technical knowledge of computer information systems, networks, and supporting hardware. Our certified specialists are experienced with computer security assessment, security monitoring, system forensics, and fraud prevention.
 
• Computer Forensic Services
  E-discovery and computer forensic investigation services are provided by certified professionals using the latest data analysis tools, including EnCase.
 
• Anti-Money Laundering; BSA
  Services include AML investigation techniques and protocol development, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, identity theft, SS fraud, and tax violations.
 
• Investigation, Security, and Management Services
  Services include Corporate, Insurance, and Security Management Consulting regarding theft and embezzlement, internal workplace violence and harassment investigations, physical vulnerability assessments, security guard policies and operational reviews.
 
• Business Continuity and Recovery
  We develop, implement, and facilitate testing of continuity plans, and work with management on contingency scenarios. Our methodology includes utilizing a Business Impact Analysis and risk analysis to specifically focus on the needs of the organization and business process.
 
• Data Backup and Retention
  Integrated with our Business and Recovery services, our professionals are able to assist with a full program of data backup and data retention services at an off-site location.
 
• IT and Business Strategic Planning
  Our professionals include experience with the development and implementation of short and long term strategic planning
 
• IT Audit and Data Integrity
  Through the use of various data analysis tools, our consultants are able to assist management to implement controls to ensure data integrity. Our services include IT audit services surrounding technical Data Center reviews including IT operations, IT change mgmt., and overall security.
 
• Business Process Improvement
  Our experience includes system implementation and business processing reengineering including such applications as SAP and Oracle.
 
• Services for Governmental Agencies
  Our litigation experts have provided money laundering, financial advisory, and forensic and valuation services for state, federal, and municipal entities.
 
• Services for the Insurance Industry
  We provide SIU audits, investigations and compliance services, along with anti- fraud, investigative, business interruption, and litigation services for most of the leading underwriters. Our consultants have worked with 6,500+ claims.
 

As SAS 70 Report is a report designed to provide information and assurance about controls with a Service Organization to user organizations (customers) and its auditors.

BDO Seidman has developed a highly regarded SAS 70 review practice for TPAs throughout the United States, and it has proven to be of great value to clients of Urish Popeck. Benefits of a SAS 70 Review can include:

• Satisfying customer Sarbanes-Oxley 404 requirements
• Satisfying customer audit requirements
• Compliance with other regulatory requirements
• Satisfying contract requirements
• Documentation and testing of the internal control structure
• Streamlining business processes and controls

The practice has a dedicated staff with a background in record keeping and pension audits, and has performed more than 30 SAS 70 Reviews. This significant experience has enabled an efficient, cost-effective approach, with value-added benefits such as a Best Practices database and an industry standard approach to our reports.