Audit & Accounting

Securities and Exchange Commission deputy chief accountant Andrew D. Bailey Jr. will leave the commission in December.

CPAs are under increasing pressure to provide long-term care insurance to firm members, as well as to advise clients on appropriate LTC coverage. The triple-whammy of increasing medical costs, longer life expectancies, and the aging Baby Boomer workforce approaching retirement is moving the concept of long-term care to the front burner.It's not unusual to see LTC insurance as a benefit option at accounting firms, even though, so far, it has few takers. Grant Thornton has offered it as a voluntary benefit choice since 1991, but even after nearly 15 years, only 3 percent of eligible members choose to purchase the insurance.

Bonds are leaning into the double headwinds of rising interest rates and rising inflation. The high-yield end of the market is also struggling with mega-downgrades and troubling bankruptcies. Those events have prompted advisors to begin searching for replacements.Junk bonds for one, looked pretty good as the year began. However, the bonus over treasuries was not enough to cushion the fall. "Early in the year, high-yield bonds were priced to perfection," said Scott Berry, CFA, high-yield bond fund analyst at Morningstar. "That's why the drops in high-yield prices have come down as much as the treasuries."

In a former life covering sports, I was once assigned to a late-season game between the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs. It seemed back then that most every season for the Cubs was eerily similar to Groundhog Day, where a cynical weatherman played by Bill Murray is forced to relive the worst day of his life over and over.Entering that season, the Cubbies once again were optimistic - as were the weary faithful at Wrigley Field - that they could seriously contend for a pennant, as they had miraculously done just two years before. But the team finished with roughly 70 wins versus 90 losses, which was good enough to earn them fifth place in the standings.

* FICPA HELPS RESIDENTS WITH FINANCIAL GOALS: Members of the Florida Institute of CPAs have reached out to help Floridians struggling with financial issues to get back on track through "360 Degrees of Financial Literacy," the nationwide initiative designed to provide financial education to the public."360 Degrees of Financial Literacy" task force members Ken Strauss, Doug Day, James Luffman, Alberto Manrara, Marty Prague and Nancy Soderholm are working with CPA volunteers from Tallahassee to Miami to offer financial literacy presentations that address issues including budgeting, saving, investing, credit cards and the financial effects of major life changes.

If you are an owner of a business, what would happen if you or a co-owner were to die suddenly?Large problems can result from the death, incapacity, resignation, etc., of one of the owners. How would the decedent's heirs liquidate the business interest to pay expenses and taxes? What would happen if an heir or an unknown outside buyer of the decedent's share decides to interfere with the business? Could the business or other owners afford to buy back the decedent's ownership interest?

In determining what property to contribute to a charitable organization, it is usually best to contribute appreciated property, i.e., property whose fair market value is higher than its basis in the donor's hands.This is because the appreciation in value of the property is not taxable to the donor even if the full fair market value of the property is deductible for income tax purposes. However, whether the full fair market value is deductible for income tax purposes depends on the type of property contributed.

The Internal Revenue Service released its enforcement results for fiscal year 2005.

As part of a handful of executive appointments, Jack T. Taylor has been named to the newly created position of executive vice chair of operations for KPMG LLP.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is closing in on a proposed new audit standard governing engagement quality reviews by accounting firms.That standard, which appears on track to be advanced during 2006, is part of an ambitious agenda of audit standard-setting activities for the coming year that was outlined by PCAOB staffers during a recent meeting of the board's Standing Advisory Group.