Can you imagine how much money the world famous Nike brand is worth? Or the cash value of the patent for revolutionary products like the telephone or television?
While such figures are likely inconceivable to you, there is a group of professionals who devote their days to figuring out these sorts of things.
They are called Chartered Business Valuators (CBV’s) and an up-and-coming member of this exciting, though little known area of the finance and business world, is Moshe Deutsch, left.
The 28-year-old Toronto resident was recently recognized for achieving the third highest score in the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CICBV) 2007 Membership Entrance Examination (MEE).
“I was really hoping to pass,” says Deutsch, who is also a chartered accountant and works at the firm Ernst & Young LLP.
“So receiving the third highest mark was a nice bonus.”
Deutsch has a knack for garnering extremely high results in his field.
To that end, in four of the six courses he took as part of earning his CBV designation, Deutsch earned the top mark in the class.
“I find what I do very interesting,” he relates.
“Every project is very different and involves something new so you have to be creative in terms of how you approach each situation.”
He notes that on one day, he may be working on valuing a company that is worth billions of dollars, and the next day he will be immersed in valuing a brand as part of a legal dispute.
In a nutshell, what CBV’s do is quantify the worth of all, or part of a business or its securities. This includes determining the value of hard or tangible assets, like office equipment, as well as intangible assets, such as intellectual property.
After they have crunched all the numbers, the CBV then writes a report that explains it all.
“What’s really important about our profession is that we work independently and objectively, so if there is a dispute, the company has the assurance that our report is done properly,” Deutsch says.
The value of this work is significant and applicable to many situations.
Everything from issues involving the sale or purchase of a business, to marital disputes, insurance losses, personal injury claims and breach of contract cases, can all hinge in some way on the report the CBV develops.
Originally from Montréal, Deutsch was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family and received private Jewish education before attending McGill University.
His mother and father, a chartered accountant and elementary school teacher respectively, were supportive of his accounting aspirations all the way through.
“My parents have always encouraged me in all that I have done and I think they would have encouraged me in any field, be it accounting or something else,” he says.
“I was influenced in some ways by the fact that my father and sister are both CA’s, but I chose to do this because I like the job, it really interests me and I am happy and proud to be in this profession.”
Deutsch did an internship at Ernst & Young in 2000, and after earning his CA designation in 2003, he moved to Toronto and continued at the same firm.
He is currently a manager of valuation & business modeling.
“I came to Toronto for the opportunities, but also because my wife Lisa was coming here to do her residency,” Deutsch says.
Today Deutsch is excelling at Ernst & Young and his wife is also enjoying a great deal of success working as a doctor at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
As for the future, things are definitely looking bright and promising for this young man.
“Going forward, I see myself in valuations because I am very happy in it,” Deutsch says.
“I guess I’ll just have to see where all of this goes.”
If a fellow CBV put a value on this rising star’s future, surely it would be full of potential prosperity.