Travis Harms is President of Mercer Capital and a member of its board of directors. He has deep expertise in valuation for federal gift, estate, and income taxation, as well as family business advisory services. For more than 25 years, he has been involved in valuing business interests for a variety of purposes, including tax compliance, strategic business planning for family enterprises, business transactions, litigation support, employee stock ownership plans, and buy-sell agreements, among others.
Travis holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) credential from the AICPA. Additionally, he is a member of The Appraisal Foundation’s working group on best practices for control premiums.
Travis is a frequent speaker on business valuation topics for estate planners, family business owners, business advisors, and other valuation professionals. He is also a contributing author to Shannon Pratt’s The Lawyer’s Business Valuation Handbook: Understanding Financial Statements, Appraisal Reports, and Expert Testimony, Third Edition (Shannon P. Pratt, ABA Book Publishing, 2024), and to Valuing a Business, Sixth Edition: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies (Shannon P. Pratt, ASA Educational Foundation, McGraw Hill, 2022). He is the co-author, with Z. Christopher Mercer, FASA, CFA, ABAR, of Business Valuation: An Integrated Theory, Third Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2020). In 2018, he authored The 12 Questions That Keep Family Business Directors Awake at Night (Mercer Capital, 2018). In addition, he is frequent contributor to Mercer Capital’s Family Business Director blog.
Professional Activities
- The CFA Institute
- The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- The Appraisal Issues Task Force
Professional Designations
- Chartered Financial Analyst (The CFA Institute)
- Certified Public Accountant/Accredited in Business Valuation (The AICPA)
Education
- Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri (M.A., 1999)
- Quincy University, Quincy, Illinois (B.A., 1998)
