Audit & Accounting

Representatives from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board meet with its Japanese, Korean and Chinese counterparts last week, as well as accepting an invitation to become a member of the newly-formed International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators.Chairman Mark Olson and board member Charles Niemeier participated in a meeting of the forum in Tokyo, where they discussed ways to foster cooperation between regulators responsible for the oversight of public company auditors. They also met privately with the PCAOB’s counterpart in Japan, the Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board and the Japanese Financial Services Agency.

The Securities and Exchange Commission censured the American Stock Exchange last week, along with the exchange’s former chairman and chief executive, for failing to enforce securities laws and maintain proper records.

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.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a small Nevada audit firm challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

The main council that provides guidance to the Financial Accounting Standards Board doesn’t agree that the accounting profession’s rulemaking structure is in need of reshaping.

The latest compilations of international auditing, ethics and public sector accounting standards are available in print and electronic formats from the International Federation of Accountants.The 2007 “Handbook of International Auditing, Assurance and Ethics Pronouncements” contains all pronouncements of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board as of Dec. 31, including the first four standards on auditing, which were redrafted under the board’s new clarity drafting rules. The handbook also contains an updated, “Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants,” which was issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants in July.

Financial planners reported mean gross earnings of $283,079 in 2006, an increase of more than $50,000 from a year ago, according to a recently released survey.

A New Orleans court has overturned the class-certification of a group of shareholders looking to sue major investment banks for more than $40 billion to cover the banks’ alleged role in Enron Corp.’s accounting fraud.

One year down, three more to go.KPMG has approved San Diego’s financial statements for the city’s 2003 fiscal year, issuing a clean audit opinion letter last week. In the culmination of a three-year audit process, the Big Four firm issued 66 restatements -- covering wrongly recorded debt, property and investments -- that totaled nearly $1.8 billion.

Financial services conglomerate JPMorgan is expanding JPMorgan E-Tax — its Internet-based tax service providing institutional investors with global tax intelligence, rates and breaking news.