Eighty-four percent of senior finance executives polled by global CPA and business advisory firm Grant Thornton said that rules that allow companies in bankruptcy to turn over their pension obligations to the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp. should be tightened.

For the third time, a federal court has sent rules governing the mutual fund industry back to the Securities and Exchange Commission for further reflection on the costs of the changes.

A survey of 120 chief financial officers and comptrollers found that more than 80 percent of the executives are in favor of rules that would make it harder for bankrupt companies to turn over pension obligations to the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp.

My brother just retired from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to Venice, Florida. "I used to be a doctor," he now says, and then turns to one of three books he will read in a week.

A new survey says that the average cost for the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is $3.8 million, down 16.3 percent from last year and about halfway to the drop anticipated for the second year of compliance.

Personal bankruptcy filings dropped to their lowest level in 20 years during 2006's first quarter, according to financial research firm Lundquist Consulting Inc.

The Internal Revenue Service heard from a variety of groups on a proposed rule change that the agency says would strengthen taxpayer control over tax information in the hands of tax preparers or tax software companies.

In remarks to reporters after a speech in Washington, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said that small companies aren't likely to receive any exemptions from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Federal regulators released a consumer research study that offers suggestions for consumer-friendly financial privacy notices.

LEVEY FETED BY AICPA: The American Institute of CPAs named Steven I. Levey, CPA, PFS, the recipient of its 2005 Distinguished Service Award - the highest honor bestowed by the institute's Personal Financial Planning Division.The award is given annually to a CPA who most enhances the overall quality of personal financial planning. Levey, managing director at Denver-based GHP Horwath PC, was recognized for his contributions to the profession, including substantial volunteer efforts for the AICPA, chairing eight conferences, serving on the PFP Executive Committee and the Professional Liability Insurance Plan Committee, and his current post as a commissioner on the National Accreditation Commission.

As an asset class, real estate is growing in importance to professional advisors and their clients. Not only did the asset class provide high returns in the past few years, but managers kept improving the opportunities for investments. Enthusiasm seems to be growing for the class in general, and for new offerings in particular.The run-up in prices over the last few years grabbed headlines. But from the 30 percent average pace of recent times, advisors expect that performance will drop into a more reasonable range, perhaps in the high single digits.

Are your clients making the maximum allowable tax-deductible contribution to their defined-contribution plans (as much as $49,000 in 2006)? Would they be interested in contributing much more if possible? If the answer is "Yes," they should consider a cash balance plan.A CB plan is a qualified retirement plan established for the owner of a business and his employees. Tax-deductible contributions are made to the plan in the form of managed assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, variable annuities, etc.) with the option of purchasing life insurance inside the plan.

In a handshake across the sea, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have agreed to continue their efforts to converge American and international standards.And if all goes well, at some point in the next few years, the Securities and Exchange Commission may decide that the international and American standards are close enough to allow companies reporting under international standards to register on U.S. stock markets without reconciling their financial statements to U.S. standards.

Congress has begun to focus in on reforms for the nation's health care tax policy - a move that could impact hundreds of billions of dollars a year in cherished tax breaks for individuals and employers.That worm can spilled open on Capitol Hill as the Senate Finance Committee launched hearings into the single largest tax expenditure in the tax code - the $200 billion a year in income and payroll tax incentives paid to encourage employers to offer health insurance coverage to their workers.

There's a new sheriff in town at the country's investment advisors and broker/dealers.The Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules on the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 require firms to have a chief compliance officer who is held accountable for the firm's compliance with all regulations.

The Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of CPAs has issued a suite of eight new standards on risk assessment that should significantly improve the quality of audits of private companies.For the many audit firms that have traditionally offered high-quality audits, the new standards will probably not require a lot of additional effort.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a proposal that would require employers to recognize over funded or under funded defined benefit postretirement plans, including pension plans, in their balance sheets. The proposal would also require that employers measure plan assets and obligations as of the date of their financial statements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that 17 companies -- compared to nine under an initiative launched last year -- have already agreed to participate in a new pilot program to use interactive data in their financial statement filings.

Senior U.S. financial executives are confident in the financial performance of their own companies, even if the economy does not perform well this year, said a survey from accounting firm Grant Thornton.

House lawmakers heard from various regulatory bodies and association leaders on ways financial reports could be made more user-friendly for investors and the general public.