California officials are starting to consider making changes to accounting reforms the state adopted in the wake of Enron Corp.'s collapse.

A joint initiative by FASB AND AICPA is seeking feedback on proposed enhancements to the FASB's standard-setting procedures that would determine whether the Board should consider differences in accounting standards for private companies within Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Retirement planning has always been a challenging task, but it is even more so today.The coming generations of retirees face a complicated planning process, because funds need to last far longer than in the past. Medical advances and healthier lifestyles are giving retirees extra decades to enjoy life, but without employment income. Therefore, planning needs to begin much earlier to help ensure a secure and rewarding retirement for our clients.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently been auditing 412(i) defined-benefit pension plans.They are seeking substantial taxes and penalties from what they characterize as "abusive plans," but they do not regard all 412(i) plans as necessarily abusive. A properly structured and administered 412(i) plan can be an invaluable tax reduction tool for a business, but care must be taken.

WACHOVIA BUYS AMERIPRISE RECORD-KEEPING UNIT: Banking group Wachovia Corp. will acquire the defined-contribution record-keeping business of Ameriprise Financial Inc. Terms of the deal, which is subject to federal approval, were not disclosed.The Ameriprise unit provided record-keeping and plan administration services to 225 defined-contribution retirement plans at the end of March - covering nearly 700,000 participants and administering about $28 billion in assets.

Raymond James Financial Inc. announced an initiative that would require the restructuring of variable annuities offered through financial advisors at the firm's broker/dealer subsidiaries, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James & Associates.President and chief operating officer Chet Helck said that beginning in August, Raymond James will require all approved annuity providers to offer an alternative pricing structure that reduces client costs without impacting standard or optional benefits. The changes are designed to lower policy fees, create consistent commissions and reduce opportunities for confusion by simplifying offerings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association have announced a national initiative designed to protect seniors from investment fraud and sales of unsuitable securities.The initiative, which builds on the success of cooperative efforts between the SEC and Florida regulators, in conjunction with the NASD, to crack down on senior investment fraud, will include targeted examinations to detect abusive sales tactics, aggressive enforcement of securities laws in cases of fraud against seniors, and active investor education.

A former chief financial officer for a small Virginia bank has been ordered back to work under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's whistleblower protections.

With a few years of Sarbanes-Oxley implementation behind them, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced concrete steps that they will follow in considering some tweaking of the sweeping corporate reform law.Both regulators proposed a series of steps to make revisions to the Section 404 internal control requirements laid out under SOX.

Fannie Mae will pay $400 million to put an end to the accounting woes that have dogged the home mortgage giant since 2004.The latest estimates from government-chartered Fannie Mae, whose official name is the Federal National Mortgage Association, are that the company expects to reduce net income by upwards of $11 billion in financial restatements for fiscal years spanning 1998 to 2004.

The Auditing Standards Board is issuing a new standard on auditing internal controls. By adopting definitions from Auditing Standard No. 2 of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the standard will make audits of public and private companies more similar."This standard is important because it requires the auditor to communicate with management those areas of their internal control system that are not up to par," said AICPA vice president of professional standards and services Chuck Landes. "We want to make it clear that management has a responsibility for not only their financial statements but their internal control systems, and they are responsible to take appropriate action with respect to any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that the auditor may identify."

The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, signed by President Bush on May 17, 2006, took so long in coming that it still carried the "Act of 2005" label.Far from having no surprises, however, the final bill contained a generous handful of provisions that had been far out of the money only weeks before. While some of these unexpected changes impact businesses, the most high-profile surprises appear to focus on the individual taxpayer. These include the lifting of the adjusted gross income cap on Roth IRA conversions, the raising of the "Kiddie Tax" age limit to 18 years, and the increase in the AMT exemption amounts.

When recognizing benefits from uncertain tax positions in their financial statements, what level of confidence should corporations have that those positions will be sustained? How do they determine whether or not their positions meet that threshold for recognition?And if the position meets that recognition threshold, what share of the related benefit should be included in the entity's financial statements? What actions or events could change that recognition status for future financial statements?

It's the biggest item in a financial statement, and the most frequent cause of restatements. Elements of its generally accepted accounting principles appear in over 200 pronouncements from half a dozen standard-setters. It causes confusion. It shakes the market. It tempts fraud.It's the perpetual and dizzying headache called revenue recognition - and even the Conceptual Framework of the Financial Accounting Standards Board can't agree with itself on the nature of the beast.

After a six-month vacancy, the Securities and Exchange Commission is zeroing in on a new chairman for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, according to published reports.

The new risk assessment standards are all about getting back to basics, said expert Hiriam Hasty while speaking at the New York State Society of CPAs' annual Accounting and Auditing in the Nonpublic Environment Conference.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a status report with the U.S. Court of Appeals, saying that it will again ask for public comment on its independence proposal for the boards of most mutual funds.

For the first time, Securities and Exchange Commission information about companies and mutual funds is now fully searchable online.

Intuit Inc. is among the latest companies receiving an informal inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its stock option granting practices.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's top auditor offered some suggestions for the third year of life under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, while speaking at the 25th Annual Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Reporting Institute Conference on June 8.