Audit

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled a series of forums around the country on auditing in the small business environment.

As governments desperately seek all kinds of additional revenue, senior business professionals see the increased possibility of an audit by taxing authorities as the most significant tax risk facing their organizations today, according to a new survey.

Are you able to get what you need from reviewing financial statements? Do you think there are ways to enhance the usefulness of the presentation of the information?If you have ever experienced frustration in your attempts to glean information from financial statements, take note. The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have joined together in a proposal to improve the look and feel of financial statements.

Gen X and Y may reap some big benefits from the bear market, and advisors who target those generations could profit from helping them.

More than half of affluent 60-year-olds are revamping their retirement plans, according to Bell Investment Advisors’ fourth annual Affluent Boomers at 60 Survey of 500 high net-worth 60-year-olds. This represents double the number who reported making such changes a year ago, Of those who have altered their retirement plans in the last six months, two out of three are delaying their retirement, with 34 percent of these planning to work an additional five or more years. Almost 75 percent have reduced spending, and nearly half have changed their investments. The survey shows that some 57 percent of respondents say they feel more financially stressed than they were six months ago. In fact, 76 percent claim they feel less wealthy and 35 percent note they do not have enough money on which to retire. The survey also reveals a loss of confidence in America’s financial system. These boomers indicate they’ve lost the most confidence in government regulators (34 percent) and banks and financial institutions (30 percent). “It is critical for investors to realize that there is no bailout package for retirement,” points out Jim Bell, CFP®, founder and president of Bell Investment Advisors. “The current economic situation is a wake-up call for investors at 60 to have a clear retirement plan that incorporates a sound investment strategy.” Of investors surveyed, 54 percent estimate they will need $1 to $3 million at retirement, but 42 percent have invested or saved less than $1 million. Among respondents who plan to reduce their spending this year, 46 percent are doing so in order to rebuild their retirement savings. More than half (55 percent) of those boomers who have decided to delay their retirement cite the same reason for adding more working years to their plans. When it comes to investing, the majority (56 percent) think the stock market is too risky for people their age. Even more, (61 percent) of those surveyed, plan to make a change in their investment strategy this year, with one-third of them intending to invest more in fixed income investments. Half of those investors who plan to change are taking a “wait and see” attitude about which direction they will go. “Merely increasing savings and working longer will not fill the gap for most Boomers approaching retirement,” says Bell. “Recent stock market volatility has many Boomers reconsidering risk, but it’s critical to keep in mind that when you reduce investment risk you also reduce the upside potential to rebuild wealth. Boomers who choose to wait for a market recovery to decide when to reinvest will miss early gains.” Despite the radical changes this group of boomers is making to their retirement plans, the market downturn of 2008 has not altered their core positive feeling about their lives. Almost all (97 percent) claim they feel great about their lives, as they have in the prior four years Bell has sponsored this survey. Looking forward, 73 percent say they expect the stock market to finish 2009 higher than it started, and 43 percent feel 2009 will be a year where they increase their wealth. Bell Investment Advisors offers investment management, comprehensive financial planning, and career/life planning services to help investors plan and achieve their personal and retirement goals. The firm manages more than $360 million for its more than 600 clients. To learn more, visit www.bellinvest.com.

Two former KPMG managers received prison terms and multimillion-dollar fines in a long-running tax shelter case.

Accounting experts and industry organizations alternately praised and panned the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s decision to loosen the standards for fair value and mark-to-market accounting.

Under pressure from Congress to act quickly, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to approve substantial changes to fair value accounting.

The Center for Audit Quality plans to award $200,000 in research grant funds to academics working on topics related to auditing and accounting.

Nonprofit software provider Blackbaud Inc. has teamed with online payment concern PayPal to establish BlackbaudNow, a price-friendly Web site-building application to assist small and growing nonprofits publish their own Web sites and begin accepting online donations, manage constituent accounts and record donor giving histories.

Accounting firm Vitale Caturano has changed its name to Caturano and Co. in a bid to distance itself from a scandal-tainted co-founder.

President Barack Obama has nominated a California professor, Helen Elizabeth Garrett, as his Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy.

Prosecutors maintain that two former executives of Big Four firm KPMG should be sentenced as much as 24 years in prison for their part in marketing illegal tax shelters.

American families are said to have a newfound commitment to cutting household expenses and saving money, according to the First Command Financial Behaviors Index that was just released. Results indicate that these families are shaving down costs in a number of areas. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they are spending less on leisure activities, 48 percent are cutting their utility bills, 40 percent are increasing their use of coupons, 46 percent are shopping at discount stores, 39 percent are buying generic products, and 38 percent canceled or postponed the purchase of high-ticket items. As they trim expenses, consumers are putting more money into savings. Short-term savings for the typical family totaled $883 in January, up 13 percent from $783 in December. And long-term savings totaled $335 in January, up 83 percent from $183 in December. These behaviors are consistent with the increased intention to save more in 2009 that consumers expressed in December; the Intentions sub-index jumped 25 points in December to 105--an eight-month high, and the increased savings behaviors followed in step this January. American families are continuing to feel the impact of current economic conditions. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they lost money in their retirement accounts and 47 percent lost money in stocks. On a promising note, seven percent said they have reacted to the economic turmoil by opting to work with a financial planner. One of the continuing trends revealed by the Index is that people who have a financial plan through a financial planner report greater confidence in their ability to retire comfortably, greater financial security on a day-to-day basis and they report feeling less financially stretched than those without a plan. In fact, as the economy deteriorated in late 2008, households with a financial plan actually reported an increase in feelings of financial security. In December more than 53 percent of respondents with a financial plan said they did not feel financially stretched, up from 48 percent in September. “The proactive financial behaviors revealed in the First Command Financial Behaviors Index appear to reflect a growing commitment to fiscal responsibility in middle-class America,” says Scott Spiker, CEO of First Command. “Consumers are concerned about their own economic situations, and they are taking concrete steps to improve their family finances.” (Compiled by Sentient Decision Science, LLC, the First Command Financial Behaviors Index assesses trends among the American public’s financial behaviors, attitudes, and intentions through a monthly survey of approximately 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 25 to 70 with annual household incomes of at least $50,000. Results are reported quarterly. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence. For more information, visit www.firstcommand.com/research.)

Consulting giant BearingPoint, which filed for Chapter 11 last month, agreed to divest several of its units to Big Four firms Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Despite the economic slump, a high number of executives are continuing to pursue divestitures or carve-outs, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte Corporate Finance.

More than 40 percent of internal auditors within the financial services sector felt that better risk management practices could have helped prevent their organization’s current financial situation, according to a just-released study from the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner did his best at filling in the blanks on the Obama administration’s plan for cleaning up the so-called “toxic assets” clogging the balance sheets of banks.

About 89 percent of the 150 audit committee members at a recent KPMG conference said that the financial crisis had caused their company’s board or audit committee to change the nature and scope of its oversight.

ADP has launched ADP Access, a retirement program that combines the benefits of ADP’s 401(k) plan recordkeeping services and the guidance of a financial advisor.