Audit & Accounting

Automobile donations have sharply declined since 2004, when Congress tightened the tax rules for claiming charitable deductions, according to an analysis of IRS data by Grant Thornton.

Accounting firm J.H. Cohn has combined practices with Frederic Kantor & Co., a Manhattan-based accounting firm serving high-net-worth individuals and families working in entertainment and the creative arts.

The Schonbraun McCann Group LLP has changed its name to Cornerstone Accounting Group LLP and announced some management changes.

Energy company El Paso Corp., its subsidiaries and five former employees settled fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for improperly inflating proven oil and gas reserves and providing misleading financial statements.

Maybe because I am so literal, I am a firm believer in transparency. Perhaps that was why I was intrigued by a newsletter from a leading firm association that goes to association members and friends. Included was a two-pager entitled “Vision for Our Future,” that identifies ten possible goals of the association for 2008-2012. The process, which included member surveys, conference calls, and meetings, was also detailed. The proposed goals were developed by a 15-member team and facilitator, all listed in the two-pager.

Job satisfaction among financial planners remains high, with 96 percent of financial planners saying they are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their career choice, according to an annual survey.

Ernst & Young won a decision involving a defunct hedge fund after its liquidators sued the firm's Cayman Islands unit, accusing it of performing a deficient audit and failing to detect the investment managers' fraudulent valuation.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expressed their support for the convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

CPA Wealth Provider's second ranking of firms by AUM has now been published and it’s bigger and better than ever. As you know, AUM is a term originally employed by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they were managing. Many financial services companies used this as both a measure of success and comparison against their competitors; in lieu of revenue, they had total assets under management. For readers of the publication, last October it presented the first-ever ranking of such firms by AUM. The initial response was staggering. It had 89 responses so it tried again and now the responses are no longer staggering—they are stupendous! CPA Wealth Provider more than doubled last year’s count and reached the 200 mark which included a batch of firms who unfortunately couldn’t get their survey forms completed in time for this closing. Because of this response, the publication decided to break the numbers down into sections and to specifically indicate each section. There are now 18 firms in the Billion Dollar Club (termed Wealth Magnet Elite), 87 in the $100+ Billion Club (termed Wealth Magnet Select), and another 37 in the $50+ Million Club plus a whole host of Rising Stars and Ones to Watch. But most importantly of all, take a look at the firms on the charts. They practically mirror the entire CPA/financial planning industry—from geographic location to size to AUM numbers to affiliations to recommended financial planning products. What does this show? Exactly what we felt all along—the financial planning industry is a tiger by the tail. We see this at various conferences and trade shows where copies of this publication literally fly off the racks. We are also getting tons of communiqués from readers as to how well they like the magazine and leading experts in the field constantly inquire about contributing articles. You can see this by the varied mix of authors and subjects. I firmly believe that CPA Wealth Provider remains the leading national publication for CPAs involved in financial planning.

Katz, Sapper & Miller plans to merge in another Indianapolis accounting firm, Heaton and Eddie, to build its healthcare and employee benefits consulting capabilities.