Question about business ownership for CSS Profile

[BelknapPoint]

@politeperson

Yes, I’d take a simple assets minus liabilities approach.

Obviously, there are accepted practices for valuing businesses and professionals who do that for other purposes. But for the purpose of college FA, guidance is pretty slim. I’ve had a few conversations with college FA folks over the years and the answer was pretty much: what would you get if you sold the business today?

Many small businesses have certain assets that can’t be easily quantified by looking at a balance sheet, such as reputation (as mentioned by OP), customer base, etc.