Financial Planning

U.S. state and local governments will have to report billions of dollars in health-care liabilities on their balance sheets under an accounting change aimed at improving disclosure of retiree benefits.

As accountants pay increased attention to evaluating the performance of a client’s life insurance portfolio, life insurance is becoming recognized as a “buy and manage” asset rather than as a “buy and hold” asset.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has voted unanimously to approve two new standards that it believes will significantly improve the accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments for postemployment benefits other than pensions, primarily retiree health insurance.

The digital edition of the June 2015 issue of Accounting Today is now available.

Accounting Today is in the midst of collecting submissions for its 2015 ranking of the Top Firms by AUM.

Common mistakes clients and planners make

Our weekly roundup of tax-related investment strategies and news your clients may be thinking about.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has released a study criticizing the quality of employee benefit plan audits performed by CPAs, finding that serious deficiencies in 39 percent of the audits are putting the benefit plans and 22.5 million participants and beneficiaries at risk.

Thomson Reuters has released the fourth edition of its treatise, "Tax Planning for Highly Compensated Individuals," by Robert E. Madden on the Thomson Reuters Checkpoint service.

The Tax Court recently ruled against the IRS over what constitutes a “present interest” in a Crummey trust.