Kathryn F. Aschwald

Kathryn F. Aschwald has been appraising businesses since 1984, with an emphasis on employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuation and financial advisory services, litigation support, and transactions. She has significant experience in ESOP-related fairness opinions and has performed financial advisory services for both publicly traded and privately held ESOP companies. Kathryn is also experienced in determining appropriate restricted stock and blockage discounts, gift and estate tax valuations, as well as valuations for a variety of other purposes.

Before founding Columbia Financial Advisors, Inc. in 1992, Kathryn was a principal at a valuation consulting and forensic analysis firm, where she focused on business appraisal and financial advisory services for ESOPs and shareholder disputes and was involved in some of the most high-profile shareholder litigation of that time.

Kathryn has been an accredited Senior Appraiser in Business Valuation with the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), and is a past Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, finance law, with Honors, from Portland State University. She is a past CFA Institute member and has served as an exam grader for ASA. Kathryn was Chair and is a current member of the ESOP Association’s Valuation Advisory Committee, and a founding member (2006-2010) of the ESOP Association’s Interdisciplinary Committee on Fiduciary Issues. Kathryn was also on the editorial board of the NCEO’s Journal of Employee Ownership and Finance.

A frequent speaker, lecturer, instructor, and author, Kathryn has served on numerous subcommittees of the ESOP Association’s Valuation Advisory Committee, charged with publishing white papers on various issues. She is a contributing author to the ESOP Association’s Interdisciplinary Committee on Fiduciary Issues’ “Fiduciary Committee Handbook”.