Fairness opinions can help provide needed assurance

Description

Abstract: Many shareholders have challenged transactions that seem to benefit corporate “insiders,” believing that the decision makers aren’t fulfilling their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the corporation and its shareholders. But companies can help insulate their directors and officers from personal liability and avoid shareholder litigation by obtaining a fairness opinion — a written opinion from an independent financial expert that a proposed transaction is fair, from a financial perspective, to the corporation’s shareholders or a particular group of shareholders.