Accounting education

I first came across the term a number of years ago when consultants stressed to me the importance of identifying where a business was in its life cycle. These consultants believed businesses and industries have a life cycle, and the key is identifying where the business is at that time. In the case of a business, its life cycle includes progressive identifiable stages, such as the “seed,” start-up, growth, established, etc.

Thinking about expanding your services to encompass financial planning? Ask yourself this: Are you entering into the business for the right reasons?"I think the first thing a CPA should consider is the why. Why do they want to be in the business?" asked Bob Palmer, president of Plante Moran Financial Advisors in Southfield, Mich. "I think the proper answer is because [CPAs] are being asked by their clients for help in this area. They think they have a unique perspective because of the intimate relationship they've developed, the knowledge of the history of the individuals and their businesses."

Donor-advised funds have captured headlines since the millennium changed, often for their meteoric rise in popularity. There was an estimated $5.5 billion in donor-advised funds nationwide in 1995, while the current estimate is nearly $20 billion.These giving vehicles have existed for more than 70 years. Despite their longevity and impressive growth, numerous misperceptions about donor-advised funds persist. These common "myths" underplay the real value that a DAF can have in helping you meet your clients' philanthropic needs.

SEC WON'T APPEAL COURT DECISIONThe Securities and Exchange Commission said that it would ask a court to allow four months for investors and their brokers to respond in light of a court decision affecting an estimated 1 million fee-based brokerage accounts.

A new nationwide research study on family businesses commissioned by Seattle-based Laird Norton Co., a diversified financial concern, shows that overwhelming optimism of the owners of family businesses about their future might prove to be premature because of a lack of strategic vision, succession planning and governance policies.The survey showed that nearly 60 percent of majority shareowners in family businesses are 55 or older, while 30 percent are 65 or older. However, less than 30 percent of those respondents even have succession plans in place, and fewer than 40 percent have a successor lined up.

Here’s something that may be of interest to you.As you know, there are all sorts of lists out there ranging from Accounting Today’s most influential people in accounting to Practical Accountant’s regional survey of accounting firms to CPA Wealth Provider’s financial planning annual awards of excellence.

I have always found regional accounting firms fascinating. Just take three recent developments regarding the regional firm of Virchow, Krause & Company. One was that Wells Fargo Insurance Services of Minnesota, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, acquired Virchow, Krause & Company's Twin Cities employee benefits operations, including the head of the employee benefits practice in Minneapolis and his team. It is a good example of how regional firms view these very specialized practice areas. The acquire them and spin them off reminding me of many businesses that view the acquisition and the selling of a portion of their business as a regular means for increasing profitability.

Diversified financial and legal information and services provider Thomson Corp. has agreed to sell its Thomson Prometric unit to ETS, an educational-testing company, for $435 million.<> Prometric, a provider of testing systems, is the facility that administers the computer-based CPA examination. Prometric operates testing centers in 132 countries as well as online. Under the terms of the deal, Thomson will pay $310 million in cash and $125 million in notes. The agreement is expected to close in the third quarter. Recently, Thomson forged a deal to acquire Reuters Group PLC in a union valued at roughly $17 billion and agreed to sell its Thomson Learning unit for $7.75 billion to help fund the Reuters acquisition.

Two interesting pieces of information have popped up by two highly reputable sources, one dealing with tips on choosing a financial planner and the other showing survey results of the five most frequent mistakes made when selecting such an advisor.

Broker/dealer H.D. Vest Financial Services said that its assets under management in advisory accounts recently passed the $5 billion mark. The company said that figure helped propel its total assets under management to roughly $25 billion. The company began offering advisory solutions in 1987, and currently supports over 1,900 independent advisory consultants in its system of 5,500 advisors.

Florida A&M University has been given a six-month window to straighten out its accounting problem or risk losing its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The school has come under fire after a state auditor revealed that the school's inspector general's office had gone 40 months without any formal reports on internal investigations, and that $39 million in transactions and budget amendments were made without approval of the school's board of trustees. In addition the school has some $1.8 million in missing receipts for athletic-event tickets and $11,000 in bad checks were written by the administration. Students attending an unaccredited school are typically not eligible for financial aid.

Many of my friends are already retired, whether they have money or not. And, I keep hearing all the time the same question: When will I pack it in? After all, I’ve been at this for the past 45 years and you know something, I still love it. I may be one of the few people who on a Sunday night has trouble sleeping because I can’t wait to get to the office Monday morning.

The Internal Revenue Service is expanding an outreach effort to ensure that public schools throughout the United States are complying with the universal availability requirement for retirement annuities they may offer.Some schools and school districts may be overlooking offering employees the opportunity to participate in these retirement plans. To assess the level of compliance, the IRS's Employee Plans Compliance Unit has started sending questionnaires to public school districts in all 50 states under the 403(b) Universal Availability project. A 403(b) plan is a retirement plan for certain employees of public schools, employees of certain tax-exempt organizations, and certain ministers. "Our pilot project in three states showed fairly widespread noncompliance by schools with the universal availability requirement for 403(b) plans," said Joseph Grant, director of the IRS Employee Plans Division. "But we believe most of it was due to a lack of understanding about what the law requires, not a deliberate failure to comply." "We know from our pilot project and from talking to representatives from schools and districts across the country that most of the problems stem from either misunderstanding the law or from confusion because of differing rules in various states," said Grant. "The project will give schools the chance to identify problems with their plans and to correct them on their own."

When it comes to retirement planning, there are a number of different choices. Two of the most commonly used are tax-deferred retirement plans - such as IRAs or 401(k)s - and cash-value life insurance.

TREASURY ISSUES ROTH 401(K) RULES

Do consumers really understand what a fiduciary standards means in the financial services industry? And, perhaps more importantly, do they even care? A new survey from the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) was unveiled recently at its annual convention in Chicago and it certainly answers those two questions.

Yep, it's that time of the year again! CPA Wealth Provider is calling for nominations for its Fifth Annual Financial Planning Awards in any of the following categories: CPA/Financial Planning Firms, Broker/Dealers, and Financial Planning Software Vendors.Winners are those firms or companies that have taken the lead through innovation, efficiency, initiative, or growth in the financial planning area.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants, the certification division of the Institute of Management Accountants, said beginning July 2 it will offer its Certified Management Accountant exam in simplified Chinese. It marks the first time the CMA exam has been available in a language other than English. The IMA said that the English version of the exam had been available in the People's Republic of China for several years. The IMA said that the translation process took roughly one year to complete.

A recent law now requires New Jersey CPAs to attend an orientation program within six months of qualifying as a CPA.

The fact that there has been no Baby Boomer "bust" has been due in large part to the skill of retirement planners, accountants and their clients.The bust was supposed to occur as Boomers began reaching retirement age without having saved enough to retire. This, coupled with the dismantling of the retirement and pension programs at a host of corporations nationwide, could have created the most poverty-stricken generation of retirees since the Great Depression.