Every valuation carries a degree of uncertainty – and that is not a sign of poor professional judgement. This is the central message of a new Perspectives Paper published by the International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC), "Managing and Communicating Value Uncertainty," released by the IVSC's Valuation Risk Working Group in May 2026.

For valuation practitioners working under IVS or comparable standards, the paper offers a long-overdue conceptual clarification along with practical guidance on handling value uncertainty.

At the heart of the paper is a distinction that is often blurred in practice:

• Valuation risk arises from errors, omissions, or inadequate processes within the valuation itself. This type of risk can — and should — be minimised through rigorous methodology, quality control, and process discipline.
• Value uncertainty, by contrast, is an inherent feature of valuing complex assets and liabilities in real-world markets. Even a fully IVS-compliant valuation, carried out with the utmost diligence, can produce a range of plausible outcomes, since different reasonable methods, data sources, and assumptions can legitimately lead to different, yet equally defensible, conclusions

» Link to the perspectives paper