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Hill Schwartz Spilker Keller LLC is a Business Valuation, Computer Forensics and Litigation Consulting practice whose principals have been serving the corporate and professional communities for over three decades. The group assists clients in quantifying and articulating value for financing, taxation, transaction and litigation purposes throughout the United States and the Western world. This work is used in connection with business valuation services for transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, transfer pricing, cross border transactions between affiliates, expert witness services, bankruptcy, estate and tax planning and in connection with commercial litigation consulting.
Business Interruption in the Wake of Ike
The business interruption aspect of Hurricane Ike is unlike any economic hardship due to a storm that we have seen in Southeast Texas, spawning billions in property damage, business losses and an extended and unprecedented power outage that no one could have ever imagined for the fourth largest city in America. We are sure many of you are being faced with the difficult question: What truly is a loss and how do we quantify it? While calculating actual out of pocket damages of specific assets might be simple, quantifying lost business revenue and the value of products and services delivered, or rather not delivered, might become more difficult.
Your losses will generally fall into three categories:
1. Losses of property you have purchased, i.e., buildings, furnishings, equipment, inventory, etc.
2. The costs of protecting your property after damage has occurred for mitigating the extent of your loss (i.e., covering a hole in the roof to prevent further damage).
3. Lost profits or other losses determined, in accordance with your insurance coverage, arising from the interruption to your business caused by the storm and the resulting damage.
It is important to track expenses associated with each of these three categories of losses, including keeping and protecting receipts and other evidence of amounts spent. These records will be crucial to support all insurance policy claims.
At Hill Schwartz Spilker Keller we are committed to assisting you in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Please keep us in mind when faced with the difficult and sometimes confusing task of quantifying Business Interruption claims. As trusted advisors, HSSK is prepared to assist you in obtaining the best possible outcome.
· Comprehensive Business Interruption Claims
· Accounting Methods for Properly Tracking and Presenting Costs of Damages
· Business Loss Calculations
· Property Damage Analysis
· Quantification of Lost Revenue
· Valuation of Business Assets
· Data Recovery
For information, contact Marc Schwartz at mschwartz@hsskgroup.com or Jeff Spilker jspilker@hsskgroup.com, 713-771-5011.
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Subprime Credit Crisis Update, July 2008
by Christopher J. Kelly, CFE
As a financial services litigation expert, I have recently detected some anxiety and confusion among bankruptcy and litigation professionals regarding the lack of significant activity in spite of worsening economic conditions. The common assumption is that the credit crisis triggered by subprime mortgages in 2007, followed by rising fuel prices and a deteriorating economy and equity markets this year, would be followed closely by a tidal wave of bankruptcy filings and lawsuits. It is my opinion that there will be a rising tide, rather than a tidal wave; and this tide will not lift, or sink, all boats at the same time.
A brief summary of the following financial service sectors is covered: Commercial Banks, Investment Banks, Credit Card Issuers, Pension Funds, Insurance Companies, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity Funds
Commercial Banks
Highly regulated commercial banks were among the first to show the ill effects of subprime lending. The extent to which they have retained these loans in their own portfolio, or are subject to repurchasing the subprime loans that they sold, largely determine the amount of the write-downs that must be taken immediately. The writedowns that have been taken thus far relate largely to the subprime loans, not to the resulting credit crisis that is beginning to affect funded and unfunded commercial and residential construction loans. The credit crisis for commercial banks will certainly not be limited to subprime loans. To continue reading article, click here.
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HSSK is Nation’s First Private Computer Forensics Lab Accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB)
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Texas Firm Operates Only Accredited Computer Forensics Lab in Houston and One of Two Statewide
HOUSTON, TX (January 9, 2008) — Texas-based Hill Schwartz Spilker Keller LLC (HSSK), a business valuation, litigation consulting and computer forensics firm, today announced that their computer forensics lab located in Houston is the first private lab in the U.S. to be accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB). This accreditation confirms that a computer forensics laboratory’s management, operations, personnel, procedures and instruments, physical plant and security procedures meet quality standards set by ASCLD/LAB. (Click here for full story...)
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