Financial Planning

* HENSSLER ENTERS ACCOUNTING JOINT VENTURE: The Henssler Financial Group, a Kennesaw, Ga.-based concern, has formed a joint venture with the Atlanta-area accounting firm of Dickinson & DiLuzio to form a new accounting division of the firm - Dickinson, DiLuzio & Henssler LLC.The new entity will provide financial consulting services for both individual and institutional clients. This partnership expands Henssler to two offices and a staff of more than 55.

The Internal Revenue Service's new rules for qualified retirement plans went into effect on March 28, but the ripple effect from the rules has yet to play out.

With limited exceptions, the tax on married couples filing jointly usually has been lower than the combined tax on married couples filing separate returns.

Financial services conglomerate Fidelity Investments has extended its partnership with the American Institute of CPAs to assist CPAs in establishing an investment advisory practice. As part of the extension to the five-year-old program, institute members will receive several new benefits, including low minimum asset requirements and discounts on marketing materials through PracticeMark, Fidelity's online marketing program. Originally sealed in 2000, the pact designates Fidelity as the exclusive, preferred provider of custody and clearing services to AICPA members. Information about the Fidelity program is available at http://pfp.aicpa.org/Resources/Investment+Planning.

While college costs continue to rise faster than the level of inflation, parents and grandparents now have more tools than ever before to better afford this cost years before a child graduates from high school.To most parents, saving for their children's higher education costs can seem like a daunting task, which makes planning all the more critical.

A homeowner may exclude up to $250,000 of gain from the sale or exchange of a home if he owned and used it as his principal residence for at least two of the five years before the sale or exchange took place.The maximum exclusion is $500,000 for joint filers, if certain conditions are met. A taxpayer who uses a property partially as a principal residence and partially for business purposes is treated as using the entire property as his principal residence for purposes of the two-year use requirement if the residential and business parts are within the same dwelling unit. The exclusion doesn't apply, however, to the gain resulting from depreciation taken for partial business use of the residence after May 6, 1997.

AMEX TO SPIN OFF FINANCIAL ADVISORS BUSINESS: American Express Co. said that it will spin off its American Express Financial Advisors unit to shareholders to focus on its credit card, charge card and travel services businesses.Shareholders would receive 100 percent of the common shares of the company, which would be renamed American Express Financial Corp. AmEx said that it expects to complete the transaction in the third quarter.

Framingham, Mass. - A survey of 220 businesses revealed that while compliance costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley Sections 404 and 302 are front-loaded, once companies are through the process, there is a great deal of proportional value.The poll, conducted jointly by International Data Corp. and RevenueRecognition.com, also noted that a compliance "chasm" exists and that companies that have crossed it have achieved more effective results at less cost.

No matter what else may happen in 2005, the markets for personal financial planning are set to explode. It's not just the Bush administration's announced plans to overhaul both Social Security and the income tax systems. Nor is it just that an economic upswing and low interest rates are pushing the stock markets back up to pre-2000 levels.There are certain fundamental changes taking place in the software industry, and in the markets for financial planning software in particular. Three trends are notable at the beginning of this year: * The software is going online. In addition to traditional application software provider eMoneyAdvisor, MoneyTree and EISI have both moved strongly into Web-based services. Other software vendors must carefully weave between the obvious advantages of an online service and the wishes of subscribers, who may not want to move so quickly onto the Internet. But the trend has an air of inevitability about it.

The constant headlines of regulators' actions against broker/dealers recall the image of falling dominoes.