Audit & Accounting

Risk consulting and internal audit services provider Protiviti Inc. acquired Philadelphia-based Lender Advisory Services, a unit of national CPA firm RSM McGladrey.

Property and casualty insurance company Ace Ltd said last week that it will restate five years of financial results after an internal investigation into its reininsurance contracts.

Lawyers for former HealthSouth Corp. chief executive Richard Scrushy have filed a motion in U.S. District Court to dismiss the civil charges recently filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has named Rob Ward to head its global assurance practice - the company's largest line of service. Ward had previously served as deputy global assurance leader and will succeed Gerald Ward (no relation), who is retiring after more than 30 years of service.

* INVESTORS WANT MORE IN DC PLANS: Investors today want more options and advice in their defined-contribution plans, according to a survey of plan sponsors.The number of investment choices in defined-contribution plans now averages 16, down from 20 in 2001. That compares with an average of 11 investment choices in 1998, according to a triennial survey of plan sponsors by institutional investment consulting firm Callan Associates. The survey polled 95 plan sponsors with more than $100 billion in total assets and 1.1 million participants.

Question: What do tax season and the family scrapbook both have in common?Answer: They are both keys to growing your firm's financial planning practice.

The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provides that the amount of a deduction for charitable donations after 2004 of qualified vehicles where the claimed value is more than $500 depends on the charity's use of the donated vehicle.Qualified vehicles include motor vehicles, boats and planes that aren't inventory or held for sale in the ordinary course of business. The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-44 to provide detailed guidance on the charitable contribution rules that apply to qualified vehicles that are donated after 2004.

If corporate accountants got the chance to blow out the candles on the Sarbanes-Oxley birthday cake, they'd probably wish the birthday boy would go away.

Big Four firm Deloitte & Touche and international firm Grant Thornton lost their bid to dismiss a class-action suit brought against them by investors of now-bankrupt Italian dairy conglomerate Parmalat.A federal judge in New York recently ruled that the accounting umbrella organizations couldn't insulate themselves from the actions of local affiliates in Italy that audited the company before its collapse from financial mismanagement and fraud in 2003.

Internal auditors have always had a problem expressing an opinion - or rather, expressing an opinion that others take the right way, with a proper understanding of its scope and type and the criteria used to produce it.The issue has come to the forefront recently as more corporate officers and audit committees respond to the demands of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, especially Section 404, which requires officers to certify that their internal controls are sound and effective.