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Grizzled business veterans can pontificate about how successful enterprises are built from strength, character and luck. These elements, they say, together serve as the underpinning of business and of life beyond it. And it can be tempting to believe that earnest effort based on this foundation alone will be rewarded when the time comes.But when company owners look down the highway at the shimmering sale in the distance — the event towards which they have driven for decades — they should put those intangibles behind them. Planning, not fate, is the only real mechanism for ensuring the most value and the smoothest transition when a company changes hands.

FIDELITY: RETIREES NEED $225,000 FOR HEALTH CAREFidelity Investments has released a report estimating that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2008 would need approximately $225,000 to cover their medical costs in retirement, a 4.7 percent increase over the 2007 estimate of $215,000. Fidelity has been calculating retiree health care cost estimates annually since 2002. The number has risen a total of 41 percent since then, with an average annual increase of 5.8 percent. The 2008 estimate assumes that individuals do not have employer-sponsored health care coverage. The estimate includes expenses associated with Medicare Part B and D premiums, Medicare cost-sharing provisions such as co-payments and deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. It does not include other health-related expenses, such as over-the-counter medications, most dental services and long-term care.

The nation’s economic policy heads outlined sweeping recommendations to strengthen the nation’s credit markets, calling for stronger licensing standards for mortgage brokers, more due diligence from credit-rating agencies and stronger trading systems for complex instruments in an effort to avoid another credit meltdown.“Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence, but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said during a speech at the National Press Club. “We are encouraging financial institutions to continue to strengthen balance sheets by raising capital and revisiting dividend policies; we need those institutions to continue to lend and facilitate economic growth.”

Accounting firms and consulting practices have different priorities when it comes to what applications are considered mission-critical. For some practices, the management aspect — knowing how firm resources are being applied to service clients and maintain and build the practice — is a prime concern. For others, especially smaller or more directed practices, this aspect of practice management is of less concern.Revenue management, however, is one aspect of practice management that’s of primary concern in any firm, large or small. It doesn’t much matter whether you are billing your clients on an hourly basis, or whether you have been able to switch over to value billing. If clients aren’t billed in an accurate and timely manner, there’s little chance that they will pay in a timely (and hopefully accurate) manner. And without that cash flow, it doesn’t much matter how efficiently your practice is being managed. You still have to pay the rent, salaries and other ongoing bills.

TIW UNVEILS ALERE VERSION 5.2TIW Technology, parent to the Alere accounting products, has released Alere Version 5.2, an upgrade that includes a number of enhancements affecting ordering, inspection, expiration and the general ledger.

Firms that have recently completed or plan to develop a strategic plan should be concerned about implementation, accountability, discipline and commitment. Expectations should be dealt with now, rather than later, to ensure success.Each firm is different when it comes to execution, but most firms and their members know what they should do in order to be successful.

There’s encouraging news for firms interested in pursuing strategies to retain and promote women: You don’t have to re-invent the wheel.In fact, the timing couldn’t be better, as dozens of top programs are under way at firms across the country. We talked with leaders at three of those firms who were eager to share what they’ve learned.

Software & HardwareCOME OVER!

ILLINOISCrowe Chizek and Co. LLC, Oak Brook, has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce; one of the Best Places to Work in Kentucky by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management State Council; one of the 50 Best Places to Work in New Jersey by NJBiz; one of the Best Employers in Tennessee by Business Tennessee magazine; and one of South Florida’s Best Places to Work by the South Florida Business Journal.

APRIL14-16: Gaming Conference, Institute of Internal Auditors. Las Vegas. Contact: www.theiia.org/iia-training.