Accounting education

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice providing extensive guidance on several Pension Protection Act rules relating to distributions from tax-qualified retirement plans. The guidance addresses many questions on the law’s provisions, including:

Just when I thought there was nothing new to say about Enron, along comes Malcolm Gladwell.The New Yorker scribe’s latest article, “Open Secrets,” appeared in the Jan. 8 issue of the magazine and has caused a bit of a stir on the Internet. Several tax, accounting and legal blogs that I regularly troll made at least passing reference to the story, and I was surprised to see outgoing links to the commentary scattered among the postings on gossip site Gawker.com and in a column from ESPN’s “Sports Guy,” Bill Simmons.

Wachovia Corp. recently agreed to a three-year corporate partnership to help support and enhance the ongoing initiatives of the National Association of Black Accountants Inc.

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission has commissioned Grant Thornton LLP to develop guidance to help organizations monitor the quality of their internal control systems.

Choosing 529 plans or qualified tuition programs as a savings strategy for the college-bound got more enticing in 2006 as the programs' tax-exempt status gained permanency, and student-owned accounts would no longer need to be reported on financial aid applications."New legislation in 2006 created a significant advantage in 529 plans," said Joe Hurley, CPA and founder of Savingforcollege.com. "Accounts owned by students or custodians by the Uniform Transfer to Minors Act are no longer reported on financial aid applications if the student files as a dependent student. Before, they were reported as student assets and assessed at a very high rate."

Like woodworking tools in the hands of a skilled craftsman, the income and market approaches to business valuation are the tools of the trade for the valuation analyst. Similarly, the results that are achieved depend greatly on the manner in which those tools are applied.The focus of this article will be on making the most of the toolbox, particularly with respect to three common threads in both the discounted cash flow method and the guideline public company method: cash flow, growth and the weighted average cost of capital.

FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMAND TOP CONSUMER DOLLARConsumers are willing to pay an average of 5.2 percent more for financial services compared to other industries, according to a retail survey conducted by Kanbay Research Institute. In the poll, financial services topped such other sectors as communications, media content, restaurants and beverages, retail, and travel.

Insurance policies with rising or re-appearing premiums can often cause their owners problems, especially when those owners' financial needs or obligations change.Is it a better investment to continue paying a policy that you have already paid into in hopes of a gain at maturation, or to recoup some of the investment by trading the policy for its cash surrender value? Corporate policyholders often face additional dilemmas when dealing with departing executives with key-man or split-dollar policies, or insurance purchased as part of a buy-sell agreement.

A board within the International Federation of Accountants has proposed new guidance to help member bodies develop practical experience programs for accounting students.The International Accounting Education Standards Board, an independent standard-setting board, recently issued a statement outlining such programs, “Practical Experience Requirements - Initial Professional Development for Professional Accountants.”

It has been a natural progression for CPAs to gradually evolve their practices to include both tax and financial planning."There's a natural link between tax prep and financial planning," explained Stephen Parezo, media manager for multidisciplinary practice firm Fiducial. "In doing a client's taxes, you get to see their whole financial picture. You can see if they're making contributions to retirement plans, and get to see what kind of stocks and other investments they have."

With continuing professional education and training inching ever closer together, CPE for 2007 is shaping up to be a mix of new offerings and delivery formats bookended by industry-focused courses and uncertainty over potential changes emanating from the 110th Congress.While CPE demand spiked in 2005 as a result of mandates such as Circular 230 and Section 199 of the American Jobs Creation Act, providers pointed to more recently enacted standards like FIN 48, the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, the new risk assessment standards, and the continuing cry for fraud education as topics that will highlight much of CPE this year.

As many of you have already discerned by now, I spend a goodly piece of time in England, specifically because I work with the development office and president of my graduate college there on a new capital campaign that will affect women’s health issues worldwide.

Baby Boomers are just becoming aware that when they retire and because of greater life expectancies, they will probably need a steady income steam for at least 25 years, maybe for as long as 35 or more.

To finish off the year, I thought it might be very worthwhile, as we get ready for New Year’s Resolutions, to consider certain ideals, courtesy of my friends at Buckingham Asset Management. They have adopted the following principles to help them serve as a trusted advisor. It bears repeating over and over because Buckingham is right on target:

Canadian firms reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have as many, if not more, internal control problems than American companies, according to a new study authored by a Toronto-based academic.

Employers and benefit providers are coming up with some rather interesting ways of providing employee benefits in a cost effective manner.

Derrick Kinney is one of the most charming people on the face of the earth. He is also recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on helping small business owners, entrepreneurs, and the self-employed succeed with the affluent. Moreover, he is the author of the bestselling "Master the Media to Attract Your Ideal Clients."

William Ferrara, professor of accounting emeritus at Stetson and Pennsylvania State Universities, received the 2007 Lifetime Contribution Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association, sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Board have jointly released rules to implement “broker” exceptions for banks.

When I was a kid, sometime around the Battle of Gettysburg, I had run up a pretty good comic book collection. I was addicted to comic books and had first editions, first issues of Batman, Superman, Joe Palooka, Little Lulu, and The Katzenjammer Kids, to name a few. The dimes I got from my grandparents went a long way then.But, alas, you know exactly what happened to them, don’t you? I left for four years of college, plus a couple of years in the service (it was mandatory at that time), and by the time I came home (along with many of my neighborhood friends), those cartons in the garage? Well, where they are, I’m unsure but it could have been income in retirement.