Services
In a California dissolution the community estate often holds both a business and real property, and they are usually valued by two experts who never reconcile their assumptions: one valuation date for the practice, another for the building it occupies, one view of the rent the business pays and a different one across the hall. LHM Valuation Group values both from one desk. The operating business or professional practice is valued under business valuation standards, the real estate under a California Certified General appraiser license, on the same effective date, with the same treatment of any lease between them, and with one witness to explain both.
Who engages this work
The work is done for family law attorneys retained on one side, for both parties under a joint retention, and by appointment under Evidence Code section 730. Forensic accountants who need the real property component of a matter engage LHM for the appraisal alone.
What is valued
Closely held companies and professional practices, including medical, dental, legal, accounting, engineering, and contracting practices. Interests in partnerships and LLCs, including those that hold real estate. The goodwill of a business or practice, which California treats as divisible community property to the extent it was developed during the marriage, with the reasoning stated for the goodwill method used and why. Commercial, industrial, and multifamily real estate, and the family residence when it sits inside a larger matter. Fair rental value of a property one spouse has occupied since separation, for Watts charge claims. Market rent for a business occupying real estate the community or one spouse owns, so that the business is not valued twice or the building once too little.
Valuation dates and apportionment
Family Code section 2552 values community assets as near as practicable to the time of trial, and permits an alternate date after separation on noticed motion for good cause. Business and practice values are frequently taken at the date of separation because the operating spouse's post-separation effort is separate property, and the two dates can produce different numbers. LHM supplies the value at each date counsel needs, in one report, with the differences explained.
Where a business was separate property at the date of marriage and grew during it, the Pereira and Van Camp apportionments require a value at the date of marriage as well as at separation or trial, and a defensible view of a fair return on the separate capital or of reasonable compensation for the community's effort. Where community funds reduced the principal on a separately owned property, the Moore/Marsden calculation needs values at the date of marriage, at the date of the community's first contribution, and at trial. Tracing is the forensic accountant's work; the values at each date are LHM's.
Discounts
Whether a marketability or control discount belongs on an interest that is being awarded to the spouse who will keep operating the business is one of the most contested points in family law valuation, and courts have gone different ways depending on the facts and the standard of value applied. The report takes an explicit position, states the standard of value and the reason for the treatment adopted, and shows the value with and without the discount where counsel wants both in the record. That is the same discount analysis LHM prepares for estate and gift work, described on the Estate and Gift Valuation page, applied to the family law standard.
Roles
Testifying expert, with a report written to be read by the court and a workfile that supports every figure in it. Consulting expert, where counsel wants an assessment of the other side's number before deciding whether to retain a testifying expert. Rebuttal and review of an opposing expert's report, addressing method, data, and the internal consistency of the assumptions. Joint or court-appointed neutral under section 730, where independence from both parties is the point. The fee is fixed at engagement in every role and is never contingent on the outcome.
Working with counsel
A conflicts check comes first and needs the names of both parties, the business entities, and both counsel. Engagement runs through counsel where counsel prefers it. The information request list for a family law matter covers the entity's tax returns and financial statements for the relevant years, the general ledger where available, buy-sell and operating agreements, compensation records for the operating spouse, the rent roll and leases for any real estate, prior appraisals, and the dates of marriage and separation. Protective orders are honored and confidential material is held to their terms. Scheduling is set against the discovery cutoff and the trial date at engagement, and expedited work is available when the calendar allows.
Family law matters overlap with LHM's other litigation work, including partnership dissolutions, shareholder disputes, and trust and estate contests, described on the Litigation and Dispute Support page.
Frequently asked
Yes, where the expert holds both credentials and does both kinds of work routinely. The benefit is consistency: the same valuation date and market assumptions for both assets, one treatment of the lease between them, and a single witness. Where an asset needs a specialist the practice does not offer, LHM says so at scoping.
Yes. The engagement letter states that LHM's duty runs to the joint clients equally and that communications are shared.
It depends on the discovery record more than on the analysis. Timing is set in the engagement letter from the date the start items on the information request list are received, and counsel are told at scoping whether a trial date is realistic.
Brian's expert work to date has been as a consulting expert and in rebuttal, off the record. Every report and workfile is prepared as if it will be examined at deposition and trial, and testifying engagements are accepted on that basis.
Related reading
Sep 2026
Rather than pricing a company in the abstract, the expert analyzes how the business operates, which earnings are economic, which adjustments are legitimate, whether goodwill is enterprise or personal, and how related-party real estate affects the answer.
Sep 2026
The right question is rarely what the company is worth. It is what value the agreement or governing law requires, for what interest, on what date, and with what assumptions, and the standard of value alone can change the answer materially.
Dec 2025 · 9 min read
Olympic turned on the answer to a question that came earlier in the assignment. Most appraisal disputes do.
Share the matter type, the property or business, the location, the valuation date if there is one, and your deadline. Brian will confirm fit and scope before asking for any confidential records. Please do not send financial statements, tax returns, leases or other confidential documents until an engagement is in place.
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