Audit

The Social Security Administration said monthly benefits would increase 2.3 percent for more than 54 million Americans in 2008.

Deloitte Touche Tomatsu said its aggregate member firm revenue increased by a record 15.5 percent to $23.1 billion for the fiscal year ended May 31.

It finally happened: The first Baby Boomer applied for Social Security this week. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher who was born at one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, applied for Social Security benefits over the Internet, starting what is likely to be an avalanche of applications for retirement benefits.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has approved amendments that would reduce the frequency of inspections of accounting firms that do not regularly issue audit reports.

Chief financial officers and senior comptrollers want more options for selecting audit firms, according to a survey released by one of those auditing firms, Grant Thornton.

The risk assessment standards, FIN 48, valuation standards, convergence, the rewriting and codification of auditing and accounting standards, ethics interpretations, and other changes impacting the accounting and auditing regulatory landscape are being driven by a number of factors. But when push comes to shove on implementation, the burden squarely falls on the companies that these rules apply to, and on CPA firms’ A&A practice group and A&A practitioners.

The Treasury Department convened an initial meeting of its Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession as the department aims to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. capital markets.

Ernst & Young has been named by a law firm that has filed a submission with the Internal Revenue Service's Whistleblower Office, claiming that one of the accounting firm's Fortune 500 clients improperly reduced its taxes by $1 billion through a series of transactions.

At the recent annual convention of the Financial Planning Association in Seattle, Daniel Moisand, its chairman, made some rather interesting and vital comments to the more than 5,000 people in attendance at its final general session. Now, understand that Moisand knows what he is talking about. He is not one of the 100 most influential people in accounting according to Accounting Today, for nothing. Is there a more serious career than financial planning, Moisand asks? “Financial planning is not usually a matter of life or death, but it can be the difference between a dead life and an active life for our clients.” Moreover, he points out that financial planning is indeed very serious and very important. “I’ve practiced in various environments, under a few different employers, under a few different compensation plans. At the heart of my work for all these years has been the financial planning process and putting clients’ interests first even when legally I didn’t have to.” He notes that the financial planning process and a self imposed high standard of care were always present. “I can tell you without a hint of equivocation that I am not special in this regard. Thousands of you keep the financial planning process and the same high standard of care required of a fiduciary at the forefront of your operations every day, all the time, even if you could legally do otherwise.” From there, he segued into the lawsuit on broker/dealers. “Much has been made of FPA’s success in fighting the infamous broker dealer exception to the Investment Adviser Act. In many other countries, the idea that a financial adviser could be exempt from fiduciary duty seems silly and the idea that a financial planner could somehow get around that standard of care borders on lunacy. Around the globe the impact of following the financial planning process effectively is profound. One great learning, or should I say, one great reminder that came from our lawsuit regarding the broker-dealer exemption was that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The public needs an easy way to identify competent and ethical financial planners.” That brought a ringing applause. Moisand noted that there were many members (actually thousands) that were practicing within wire-house firms, with several more thousands as reps of other broker/dealer firms, including many being insurance agents, bankers, not to mention some 6,000 or so as fee-only practitioners. “Members from all corners of the profession supported our lawsuit and supported our position on standards. Our stand was largely an effort to bring value and meaning to terms like financial planner and financial planning. They all share the belief in the power of financial planning, full and fair disclosure, and giving advice with the clients’ interest first. They want to foster the value of financial planning and advance the financial planning profession.” He stressed that it didn’t matter where one worked, how they were credentialed, or how they were paid. He acknowledges that there are faux planners that might even work right next to you at your own firm. “To the public, you look and sound alike. The public must be able to easily pick us out from among a slew of pretenders. If the public is to benefit from our expertise, they must receive competent and ethical services that meet effective practice standards. If we are to earn and keep the public’s trust, we must be able to hold everyone in financial services accountable for their representations.” In conclusion, Moisand emphasized the fact that through the association’s lawsuit, despite all its differences, the group banded together and even strengthened its bonds to what they had in common. “It showed that if we keep our core beliefs at the fore, we are far stronger together than our differences might imply.”

Internal auditors are being stretched thin with demands for not only increased financial reporting compliance, but also work related to fraud detection, contracts, transactions and business performance improvement, according to a new survey.

The American Institute of CPAs has begun a two- to three-year project to revise its auditing standards in an effort to achieve greater clarity.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that regulators in different countries should avoid revising International Financial Reporting Standards to meet the needs of local markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed Paul A. Beswick to serve as senior advisor in the SEC Office of the Chief Accountant.

The KPMG tax shelter case got underway with jury selection and a drastically reduced set of defendants.

CaseWare IDEA Inc. and Audimation Services Inc. have released IDEA Version 7.2, the latest version of their software to give accounting and financial professionals additional capabilities to assist with audits, detect fraud and meet documentation standards.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has set up a new unit to speed the move to interactive financial reporting by public companies.

Parente Randolph has acquired the Pittsburgh office of Terry & Stephenson, bringing the total number of staff members in Parente's Pittsburgh office to more than 35.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has acquired investment research company Glass, Lewis & Co., for $46 million, bringing ownership of the proxy advisory provider back to North America.

ATM machine maker Diebold has been in talks with the Office of the Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission about its practice of recognizing certain revenue on a "bill and hold basis."

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) is living up to its name, as it has issued three white papers in response to the so-called “liquidity crisis” that began in the subprime mortgage-related markets and, according to CAQ, has spread to other corners of the credit markets with “a potentially pervasive impact on public companies generally with respect to investments held.”