Audit & Accounting

Try this on for size. A new study shows that of some one million 401(k) portfolios, some 69 percent of participants have portfolios with inappropriate risk or diversification, 36 percent hold high concentrations of company stock, and 33 percent fail to contribute enough to receive the full company match. While groups of participants are taking full advantage of their 401(k) plans, participants with lower salaries, lower plan balances, and those closer to retirement tend to make the most costly mistakes.

Cohen & Co. has acquired Mercurio & Bridgford, expanding the Ohio-based firm's presence in Florida.

A jury awarded investors approximately $58 million in a lawsuit against a former Oregon Republican Party chairman who was accused of defrauding three venture capital funds he founded, and the funds' now-defunct accounting firm, Arthur Andersen.

Financial regulators from around the world are setting up a monitoring group that will work with international accounting standards-setters.

The labor union Unite Here has started a Web site to provide information about the progress of a class-action lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers over the firm's overtime policies.

Citigroup settled a longstanding civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission over improper accounting during the economic crisis in Argentina in late 2001.

The SEC is coming under increasing pressure to decide on what date it will start requiring accounting firms to file financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Accounting firm Blackman Kallick announced the death of former managing partner Dan Fensin, who retired from the firm late last year after running it for 17 years.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations implementing amendments to the tax return preparer penalties.

All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a detailed roadmap this summer for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, but some representatives gave hints about what might be in that roadmap at a conference held by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in New York.