Audit & Accounting

I just came back from a cruise that included a stop at George Town, Grand Cayman. Many people on the ship joked that this was an intended, featured port of call as they wanted to check up on their shekels in the island’s banks. Let me sort this out for you.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that deputy chief auditor Laura J. Phillips will leave the board later this year.

Along with making the case to keep executive compensation the way it is, the Financial Executives International recently said that investors are not well served by the complexity of financial reporting and released a four-point plan to address the problem.

Nearly half of all non-retired adult Americans still expect to retire with a pension, according to a new poll conducted for the American Institute of CPAs.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations on the treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements under Section 409(a) of the tax code.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has named Lawrence W. Smith, currently chairman of the standard-setter’s Emerging Issues Task Force, as a member of the board.

The National Association of Black Accountants Inc. and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recently announced the launch of Money $ense.The program contains five curriculum modules designed to reverse the poor financial forecasts being made about individuals and families within the African-American community. The five modules focus on key financial areas such as credit and debt management, budgeting, financial planning, investing and saving.

There is a greater push for transparency, both in terms of financial reporting and in regard to regulatory actions, but I wonder how successful this push will ultimately be. It is the regulatory bodies that will have to be the driving force, along with institutional investors. A recent action indicated to me that one particular regulatory body seems to have little concern for transparency. It was reported at www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS/704050480 that Conseco Life Insurance Co. has been fined $750,000 by Iowa regulators. The article reports that state kept secret exactly what triggered the penalty. This got me curious, as the fine was described as ”one of the Iowa Insurance Division's largest such penalties,” so I tracked down the order.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard the expression that you need to make sure your money outlives you, I would probably be retired 15 times over by now. It seems that this is the big signpost in front of all clients’ eyes.

If you think you understand IAS 39, "Financial Instruments: Recognition. and Measurement," then you haven’t read it, according to Sir David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board.