In addition to estimating the selling price of a business, the same valuation tools are often used by business appraisers to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners' ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate contestill In some cases, the court would appoint a forensic accountant as the joint expert doing the business valuation.

Premises of Value:

• Going Concern: Value in continued use as an ongoing operating business enterprise.
• Assemblage of assets — value of assets in place but not used to conduct business operations.
• Orderly disposition: — value of business assets in exchange, where the assets are to be disposed of individually and not used for business operations.
• Liquidation: — value in exchange when business assets are to be disposed of in a forced liquidation.

Premise of Value for Fair Value Calculation

• In use — If the asset would provide maximum value to the market participants principally through its use in combination with other assets as a group.
• In Exchange — If the asset would provide maximum value to the market participants principally on a stand-alone basis.

Standards of Value

• Fair market value — a value of a business enterprise determined between a willing buyer and a willing seller both in full knowledge of all the relevant facts and neither compelled to conclude a transaction.