Discount valuations for Roth conversions, Qualified Opportunity Funds, and estate and gift planning

Joe is the owner and CEO of AppraiseItNow. Before acquiring the firm, he was a consultant at Bain & Company, where he advised executive teams on strategy, growth, and investment decisions. The work demanded rigor under deadline: framing the question that actually matters, building the analysis that answers it, and defending every number in the room. He holds AppraiseItNow's valuation work to that same standard, where a conclusion is only as strong as the evidence and reasoning behind it.

Joe acquired full ownership of AppraiseItNow in 2024 and has led its growth since, expanding the practice across business valuation, fine art, and complex machinery and equipment. He has also invested heavily in the firm's technology, so clients get faster answers and every report benefits from a consistent, well-supported process. He oversees engagement quality across the practice and matches each project to the right credentialed appraiser on the team.

Talon has spent more than 24 years in business valuation, forensic and investigative accounting, litigation support, and expert witness work. On the valuation side, he has performed appraisals supporting audited financial statements for both publicly traded and privately held companies, including purchase price allocations, 409A valuations, option, warrant, and convertible debt valuations, and goodwill impairment analyses. He has provided hundreds of valuations for gift and estate tax purposes while never being challenged by the IRS on a business valuation issue, and has valued closely held companies across a wide range of industries for financial statement preparation, ESOP, divorce, shareholder dispute, and other litigation purposes, including numerous family limited partnerships and holding companies.

His engagement history runs from early-stage bio and med-tech, software-as-a-service, and technology companies to large private groups. He served as lead valuation analyst on a high-profile Florida divorce valuation involving personal goodwill and a disputed value range exceeding $100 million, appraised every entity in a conglomerate of 19 automobile dealerships and 20 real property holding companies spanning 25 automotive and powersport brands with over $1.1 billion in combined sales, and led valuation work for a trucking company with sales in excess of $500 million in a shareholder buy-out.

On the forensic side, Talon has supervised and performed business interruption loss calculations, reconstruction of accounting records after theft, fire, and flood, and investigative accounting for criminal fraud trials, marital estates, and officer and director litigation. He has testified as an expert in personal injury, wrongful death, and wrongful termination matters, and helped defend a company against an alleged $1 billion patent and trade secret damages claim that ended in a judgment under $1 million. He also brings formal training in computer forensics and has recovered electronic evidence for divorce and employment law matters.

Talon earned a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and a Master of Science in Accounting with a finance emphasis from Utah State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Utah, an Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers, Accredited in Business Valuation by the AICPA, and a Certified Fraud Examiner. He has chaired the UACPA Business Valuation Committee, served as Treasurer of the Utah Chapter of Certified Fraud Examiners and of the Southern Utah Estate Planning Council, and wrote Understanding Business Valuation: An Owner's Guide to the Business Appraisal Process along with articles in The Utah Bar Journal and The Journal Entry, including Valuation Discounts for Holding Companies.

Justin performs fair value, fair market value, and net orderly liquidation value analyses of companies and partnerships for tax and financial reporting, purchase price allocations, mergers and acquisitions, buy-sell agreements, and lending purposes. His clients range from individuals and their counsel, including estate and probate attorneys, to family offices and the management teams of privately held and publicly traded companies.

He is a Manager of Global Valuations at Gordon Brothers and previously held valuation roles at Mercer Capital and at Weaver and Tidwell, formerly HSSK, where he also performed audit reviews of third-party valuations. His appraisal subjects span brand-oriented retail, capital-intensive industrial, energy and utility companies, real estate holding companies, and architectural and engineering firms, with pre-revenue work in biological and medical technologies and biopharmaceutical applications. He was a key contributor to a national energy valuation publication, has been cited in Oil and Gas Investor and the Midland Reporter-Telegram, and has testified as an expert in Texas district court matters.

Justin holds a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Texas A&M University. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers, Accredited in Business Valuation by the AICPA, and a CFA charterholder, and he has appeared as a guest speaker and panelist at the University of Houston and Texas A&M University.

Raymond has over 35 years of experience valuing the securities and intangible assets of public and private corporations for financial reporting and tax purposes, including engagements under ASC 805, ASC 350, and 409A. He is the Managing Partner of Business Valuation Center's New York and Tampa offices and an executive of its parent holding company, and he has long been responsible for reviewing valuations prepared by other experts on behalf of accounting practice clients.

His career includes senior leadership across several national valuation practices: Director at GBQ Consulting, where he headed the New York office; Managing Director, Eastern Region Valuation Services at Ceteris; and Managing Director of Trenwith Valuation, the valuation arm of BDO, where he led teams on financial reporting and tax valuation projects and served as one of three members of the National Leadership Committee for BDO's valuation practice. Earlier, as Chairman of Valuation Counselors Group, he managed all aspects of the firm's business and rebuilt it into a national leader before directing its sale to CBIZ, a publicly traded company, in 1997. He also served as Senior Vice President at Management Planning, Inc. in Princeton, where he helped develop and implement the firm's corporate valuation practice.

Raymond holds an MBA from Emory University, a Master in City Planning from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science from Pennsylvania State University. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser and Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers and a past president of its Princeton chapter.