Practice Management

Marcum & Kliegman LLP has launched a new Women’s Leadership Development Program with neighboring law firm Farrell Fritz PC.The program, which is open to employees of both firms but not open to the public –yet -- was developed to provide a supportive venue for female professionals to explore issues that affect them in the workplace and develop skills to enrich their careers, said Marcum manager of training and development, Nancy Chen.

Leon & Partners LLP announced that it will become part of neighboring Houston firm MiriFox & Rodriguez PC.

It has come to my attention that the advisor-client relationship may be sinking and that you need to do something about it.My friends at SEI, a leading global provider of outsourced asset management, investment processing, and investment operations solutions, has done us all a big favor with its latest survey of some 100 clients of the SEI Advisor Network because it reveals that 28 percent of advisors attribute client relationship failures to a lack of understanding. The result is that advisors need to communicate more clearly to avoid straining or losing clients.

Business-information provider D&B Corp. has acquired First Research for $22.5 million in cash.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that although the process to separate joint tax accounts in innocent spouse cases has been improved, additional action needs to be taken.The Internal Revenue Service separates joint tax accounts to help protect innocent spouses from enforcement action that may be taken against the spouse who actually owes the feds.

A local accounting firm has alerted its 4,000 clients that their private financial records -- including Social Security numbers, addresses, credit card information and signature documents -- have been stolen.Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Tax Service Plus told authorities that thieves stole the business’s back-up computer on March 7, which contained data on thousands of tax returns filed over the past three years.

Retailers and other businesses that sell prepaid phone cards for long-distance service can usually qualify for the telephone tax refund, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

In an effort to assist taxpayers who pay their taxes owed with a credit card, H&R Block Inc. has teamed with payment processing company Link2Gov to lower the convenience fee to 1.99 percent, from 2.49 percent.

A new partnership in New Milford, Conn., has been doing business as Dumas Estate and Tax Management since the start of 2007.

Everyone has a story of the email they accidentally sent to the wrong recipient, or the computer that crashed and lost an entire day’s worth of work.The disaster recovery industry has proven to be a lucrative one in the age of information, and recent snafus at the Alaska Department of Revenue and the Canada Revenue Agency only serve to underscore that problems can happen -- and illustrate the different ways in which an organization can be prepared for the worst-case scenario.