Working with LHM as a CPA or audit team

Date-of-death and alternate-date values for commercial real estate, closely held businesses, and holding entities, with discount studies for fractional and non-controlling interests on Form 706 and Form 709, prepared with the adequate disclosure rules in view so the statute of limitations on a gift starts running. Section 1014 basis support for inherited property. Qualified appraisals for real property contributions on Form 8283. Values under buy-sell agreements, for S corporation and partnership restructurings, and for related-party transfers between family entities. Property tax appeal support. See Estate and Gift Valuation, Date-of-Death and Estate Appraisal, and Commercial Real Estate Appraisal.

For audit teams, LHM acts as the auditor's specialist or reviews the work of a company's specialist: replicating the model, testing inputs against observable data, running the sensitivities the engagement team needs, and writing the memo to the documentation standard of AU-C 620 or PCAOB AS 1210 and AS 2501, as applicable. Independence is confirmed for each audit client before acceptance, and LHM does not act as the company's specialist and the auditor's specialist on the same engagement. Timing follows the audit calendar; scoping in the planning phase, with the deliverable dated before fieldwork ends, is the arrangement that works.

The engagement letter names the client and the intended users. Where the CPA firm engages LHM on a client's behalf, the letter says so and identifies who is responsible for the fee. Fees are fixed for the scope; rush work is priced as such. Reports state the standard of value, the premise, the methods, the inputs and their sources, and the reconciliation, so that a reviewer, an examiner, or an audit partner can trace every figure.