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It will probably come as no great surprise that there are plenty of retired people living in Florida and that many professional services firms cater to the elderly. Clearly, a trusted CPA firm is certainly a good place to turn to for a financial professional to handle eldercare needs. Add to this the fact that the U.S. Census Bureau says that within three years, approximately 40 million people in this country will be 65 years or older. What’s rather alarming is that 30 percent of all known cases of fraud are committed against the elderly; that’s considered twice the normal rate. So, what can be done? Who to trust? No one, of course, has the patent on catering to the elderly, and there are plenty of top notch CPA/Financial Planning firms doing it. However, one came to mind recently when this firm purposely took the concept to the next level and developed what it called FamilyFirst Elder Planning Services. The idea was to provide seniors and their families with a safety net. The range was a wide one from providing financial expertise and professional assistance, to safety and well being, to even hurricane preparation. Friedman, Cohen, Taubman & Company in Plantation, Florida, has a special division assists its elderly clients in continuing to live an independent lifestyle by catering to their individual needs and keeping their families informed. The firm says that FamilyFirst can benefit everyone who has time constraints but who want to help a loved one in need to maximize and maintain their independence. In short, they look to relieve the pressures of managing one’s own financial affairs, or help that loved one make the most of their resources and financial choices. “We understand the pressures that families encounter when having to make financial choices for an aging loved one,” says Tracey Kinker-Gebert, CPA Manager of the firm’s Elder Planning Services. “We have devised this program that not only helps relieve the burdens of managing financial affairs, but keeps a close eye on the client’s routine activities and overall well-being. This is extremely comforting for relatives who may not live close to their elderly family members.” Kinker-Gebert, who was recently elected as the Chair for 2007-2008 Elder Care Committee for the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, developed the FamilyFirst program. “As our client base aged, our experience and love for working with the aged along with the opportunities for elder financial exploitation, the need for such services became apparent.” The firm’s FamilyFirst Elder Planning Services assists its elderly clients in making the best financial decisions in their retirement years. From guardianship reporting to routine financial, accounting and tax transactions, the program acts as a safety net for seniors and their families. This program allows clients to integrate FamilyFirst’s custom services into every aspect of their life, meeting their initial needs and modifying the plan as their needs change. The firm says that FamilyFirst provides periodic reports to family members regarding their loved one’s financial activities, offers to coordinate home inspections and home maintenance and also creates in-depth weather protection plans. Its advisors also help coordinate with geriatric care managers, home healthcare providers, investment advisors, attorneys and other professionals to ensure the clients are receiving the proper protection and care.

The Office of the Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission has chosen three professional accounting fellows who will be working with the office for two-year terms starting this fall.

Charles “Chuck” Allen has worked for the accounting firm Crowe Chizek for his entire career. Fresh out of college as a campus recruit, he joined the firm in 1975. In April of this year, the 53-year-old became CEO of Crowe Group, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based firm’s parent company, succeeding two-term CEO Mark Hildebrand. Before becoming CEO, Allen served as managing executive of Crowe’s commercial services group. During his career, he has concentrated on assisting private investors with acquiring and financing companies and establishing a private equity group client base. He talked with WebCPA about his plans for broadening the Midwestern firm’s national footprint, the recent challenges facing the accounting and private equity industries, and his firm’s efforts at recruitment and retention.

David Cieslak enjoys sitting in the back of conference rooms with shared wireless systems and discovering how many documents he can pull up on his screen from other people’s computers. “It’s kind of fun,” he admits. But he considers himself one of the “good guys” who isn’t looking to use that information for evil. The computer consultant pays $60 a month to use a broadband connection through Verizon to ensure the information he sends about himself—and perhaps more importantly, his clients—is safe from potential hackers like him. During a session at the Illinois Business and Technology Solutions Show about best practices for protecting client data, the Arxis Technology principal referred to the Wifi hotspot offered by the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center as a “den of inequity” that is really a hotbed of opportunity for data thefts. “We’re all friends and professionals, but there could be people [lurking] outside. Nothing about four walls stops people from accessing it,” he said. Wireless systems aren’t the only compromising situations out there. Many firms use instant messaging to communicate. Methods exist to break into the chat tools offered by AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft, letting someone listen in on all those conversations, according to Cieslak. “Consider it a public record,” he says. Think about how easy it is to lose a USB port containing all kinds of juicy information. As more companies are moving from desktops to laptops, thousands of notebooks are stolen every year. Anyone can just pick up a machine and walk away with it. Same holds true for handheld devices. So are we all supposed to pull the plugs on our PCs to avoid living in fear that someone is going to find out something about our clients, risking their confidentiality and potentially damaging our reputations? No, we can do something about it. The bad news is there’s not one solution, vendor or magic pill to solve the problem. You need a little bit of a whole bunch of problem-solvers. The good news is that all the neat tools that exist to help us protect this data don’t cost that much. Afraid someone’s listening on your chat talk? Secway offers free message encryption software for personal use at home or in the office called SimpLite that works with MSN Messenger and Yahoo. Think that thumbdrive might pop out of your pocket? ThinkGeek sells a USB wireless security lock for $29.95. It even recognizes when the authorized user steps away from a computer the drive is in and disables the machine until that person returns. Cieslak owns meltdown software to delete information if his machine is stolen. “If you ever want to know how easy it is to break into a machine, ask a 14-year-old. They make it look like child’s play,” Cieslak says. But investing in tools like built-in hardware-level encryption can help put the owner of the machine at ease. “It doesn’t matter how big the hammer is, the information isn’t coming off this drive.” Some vendors even offer Mission Impossible-style biometric devices ranging from $25 to $300, but Cieslak jokes they don’t work as well on cold days. There’s a lot of options available to help keep your confidential client information safer. It doesn’t hurt to weigh the costs against the potential risks. The most dangerous thing to do is nothing.

Accounting firms Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton were among those named in a $2 billion lawsuit filed by representatives of the creditors of bankrupt financial company Refco.

More than 8 million people file tax returns each year who don’t need to do so, imposing heavy costs on the Internal Revenue Service, according to a new report from a Treasury Department watchdog.

British firm Bentley Jennison has joined the RSM International network of audit, tax and consulting firms, expanding RSM’s reach abroad.

The National Association of Black Accountants and the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education are launching an effort to encourage a greater number of black CPAs.

Online payroll processor PayCycle has introduced a free payroll service for accountants.

The Justice Department sued the founder of an “asset protection” business that allegedly helped clients evade income taxes and hired actor Robert Wagner to plug its services.