Business Valuation Vancouver

​For business valuation services in Vancouver call Rick Mertens at 604-345-4103, complete the contact form or email him directly at [email protected]
Rick Mertens is a Chartered Business Valuator (“CBV”) and a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA) and has extensive experience in providing business valuation and litigation support services. He provides independent expert advice to business owners, accounting firms, law firms, and other professional advisors.
Business Valuation Services
Since 2003 Rick Mertens has valued companies in many different industries and for an array of purposes. Whether you need a business valuation to support fair market value reporting to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), a shareholder buyout, corporate restructuring, or a host of other reasons, Rick has the experience and qualifications you can depend on.

​Litigation Support Services
Over the years Rick Mertens has worked with lawyers of all size firms in the Vancouver area and across BC. Rick has assisted legal counsel and their respective clients on a wide range of matters including, family law, shareholder disputes, breach of contract, expropriations, personal injury, negligence claims, insurance claims, estate litigation and other matters.

​Rick Mertens Bio
Rick obtained his CBV designation in 2004 after completing the advanced program of studies and rigorous accreditation process of the CBV Institute. CBV professionals are recognized as the go-to experts in Canada for business valuation and litigation support. The CBV Institute describes CBVs as the “unequivocal authority in business valuation for nearly half a century”.

Rick's Valuation Practice
Since 2005, Rick has mostly run his valuation practice as an independent sole practitioner. This allows him to provide independent expert advice in a hands-on, timely and cost-efficient manner. In this way, Rick can provide exceptional value to his clients…no pun intended.

In addition to working directly with business owners, over the years Rick has assisted a large number of professional accountants when their clients require a business valuation. Being independent allows Rick to join the team as needed (without concern of conflict or exposure to a competing accounting firm) for a given engagement resulting in a win-win for all parties.
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Historically valuations have been sought in reaction to an event or change in circumstances (i.e. a shareholder suddenly wants to be bought out and the company needs to know the fair market value of his or her shares). However, a business valuation can be prepared at any time, and in fact, many small and mid-size business owners now choose to have a valuation prepared on an annual basis (generally coinciding with completion of fiscal year-end financial statements and T2 Corporation Income Tax Returns).

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Contact Rick For Independent Valuation Advice 
604-345-4103

With a complex and ever-changing business environment, timely and regular valuation information can enhance strategic and corporate decision making. The good news is once a company has Rick prepare an initial well-considered business valuation, he can then update it annually in a very efficient manner.

In Rick’s experience, many business owners fail to adequately plan for their ultimate exit from their business. It is never too early to start planning for succession and knowing what your business is worth today is a great starting point.
Some business owners will hesitate to have a valuation done during times of economic downturn if earnings have declined. However, events like the recession of 2008 -2009, or Covid-19 can actually provide planning opportunities for some. For example, an estate freeze at such times may be beneficial if a current lower fair market value of the business can be locked in, thereby passing on more future growth/wealth to the next generation (for those who have already done an estate freeze, a second freeze may also be beneficial).
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The area of business valuation is fraught with a lot of technical language, which at times can certainly become overwhelming for the uninitiated. Some of the terms you may have heard include, fair market value, fair value, enterprise value, en bloc share value, rateable share value, minority discount, redundancy, funded debt, earnings multiples, discount rates, weighted average cost of capital (WACC), internal rate of return (IRR), discounted cash flow (DCF), capitalized cash flow (CCF), multi-period excess earnings method, relief from royalty method, EBITDA, …you get the point. What do they mean, how are they different, and more importantly which are relevant to your situation? Rick can help navigate you through your valuation in plain common-sense English.
In practice there are a number of different terms used to describe a business or share valuation and the valuation expert. In Canada the more commonly used terms by CBVs are “business valuation” and “business valuator”. However, references to business appraisal, appraiser, evaluation and evaluator are also found in practice.

Call Rick at 604-345-4103 for business valuation services in Vancouver or anywhere in the Lower Mainland.