Dear Clients and Friends,

Whether your winter was mild or fierce, Spring is always a great time of year. With so many outdoor enthusiasts at our firm, I am always intrigued to learn about everyone’s personal goals related to the rugged endeavors they plan to tackle in the summer. Some of our folks are excited to climb mountains or go on a long bike trip, while others are training for marathons and triathlons. For all of these adventures, it seems that the common denominator is a quest to get better or to at least push out of a comfort zone.

In many respects, I feel our firm has the same approach. As usual, during the past several months we have seen a lot of changes in our quest to get better.

New Partnerships Through FMV Acquisition

One big move was our February acquisition of FMV Opinions, Inc., a financial advisory firm that delivers valuations for a variety of transactional and succession planning requirements, including estate and gift tax support. This acquisition further solidified our estate and gift tax practice as the market-leading valuation provider in the United States focused on high and ultra-high net worth clients. It also complemented the broad valuation capabilities of the firm, including transaction opinions, tax and financial reporting, ESOP advisory, and valuation disputes, among many others.

The combined businesses bring together market-leading thought leadership, extensive Tax Court experience, and deep industry expertise to the estate and gift tax market. FMV Founder Lance Hall now serves as a Senior Advisor to our firm, and we are pleased to have welcomed many talented individuals from FMV to our team, including the following senior leaders:

• Chris Adcock – cadcock@stout.com
• John Ashbrook – jashbrook@stout.com
• David Bertucci – dbertucci@stout.com
• Kory Felix – kfelix@stout.com
• Nathan Gallagher – ngallagher@stout.com
• Bryce Geyer – bgeyer@stout.com
• Vince Nidoy – vnidoy@stout.com
• Philip Schwab – pschwab@stout.com
• Eric Ward – eward@stout.com

Key Senior Hires in Our Investment Banking Group

We continue to build out our industry verticals in investment banking to further complement the firm’s broad industryfocused capabilities. Through these efforts, we have welcomed experienced professionals and expanded our expertise across all sectors. Below is a sampling of recent hires:

• Todd Parsapour, Energy – tparsapour@stout.com
• Mike Krakovsky, Special Situations – mkrakovsky@stout.com
• Keith Sipes, Technology, Media, and Telecom – ksipes@stout.com
• John Calcagnini, Healthcare – jcalcagnini@stout.com
• Guy Phillips, Consumer Products and Retail – gphillips@stout.com

New Stout Look, Same Relentless Excellence

Our firm has progressed in many ways over the last 26 years. Through our dedicated colleagues’ incredible effort and discipline, we have built a solid reputation for very high-quality work, combined with exceptional client service. These traits are easy to talk about, but much harder to actually deliver on a consistent basis.

To continue this positive progression, we are excited to introduce our new brand. Stout Risius Ross, LLC and Stout Risius Ross Advisors, LLC will now go to market as Stout. Jeff Risius, John Ross, and I feel our brand should both reflect how the firm has evolved and enhance our position as market-leading experts in Investment Banking, Valuation Advisory, Dispute Consulting, and Management Consulting services. Along with our brand, we have unveiled our website that delivers a high-quality, user-friendly experience.

This issue of the Journal incorporates elements of the refreshed brand and a revised design, while still providing reliable, industry-leading thought leadership. Our goal with the Journal, as always, is to better inform readers on complex subject matters. As you read through these articles, I hope you will gain some insight on the latest thinking of our in-house experts and contributing authors.

Craige Stout