Appraising for divorce is much different than appraising for sale. In a divorce, the practice will continue to be run by the same person; there are few, if any, changes in the practice itself. Remember, the key to appraising a practice is predicting future revenue. In a divorce situation, it’s reasonable to assume that revenues from a divorcing attorney pre-divorce should be very similar to revenues post-divorce. In this setting, appraisal formulas make sense.
The same cannot be said in the sales situation. For many practice areas, it is difficult to predict how much revenue a successor will be able to bring in. It will largely depend upon the practice area, and many CPAs are simply clueless about those nuances.