I just received my quarterly report from Fidelity Investments which has a pretty good article by Nate Hardcastle on ways to avoid risk and the steps to help manage it. Fidelity has a superb research unit and its report, “Beyond Conventional Wisdom: New Strategies for Lifetime Income,” is quite important when you are advising retirees, especially about the area of risk management. Retirees, as you already know, pretty much draw from their various savings and retirement accounts a certain amount each year to meet their expenses, which, as you also know, keeps rising so that there is left a rather small amount in which to generate any income. Then, you have to add to that the increasing life expectancy so that many financial planners today when talking to a 65-year old aimed at retiring now spins life out for another 30 years.

A federal appeals court upheld a $182.9 million jury award that PricewaterhouseCoopers will have to pay to policyholders of a defunct insurance company audited by its predecessor Coopers & Lybrand.

The International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have updated their 2006 memorandum of understanding and set a goal of completing their major joint projects on convergence of International Financial Reporting Standards with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles by 2011.

Bill.com has expanded its integration with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online Edition by adding synchronization features.

Accounting and auditing software developer CaseWare is protesting the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent introduction of its IDEA interactive financial-filing system, claiming the name infringes on the trademark of CaseWare's own IDEA software.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged three former senior executives from software developer Embarcadero Technologies with stock options backdating.

The Treasury Department's decision to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and put them under conservatorship has prompted questions about the implications for accountants and their clients.

The Internal Revenue Service has recently added a page to its Web site for small businesses and the self-employed.

United Rentals has agreed to pay $14 million to settle charges that it engaged in financial fraud and a broad range of improper accounting practices.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has released three new guides to help companies make the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have issued new regulations that will make it easier for charities to gain tax-exempt status.

Federal taxes are the most important issue for small business owners, according to a survey by payroll processor PayCycle.

Rising gas prices, a declining housing market, the weakening of the dollar and fear of a recession — today’s economic conditions continue to point south, with no light at the end of the tunnel. Critical to these issues is the role of internal accounting and finance professionals, who in large part are responsible for making decisions that contribute to the success or downfall of an organization.For our economy to remain competitive, there needs to be a renewed emphasis on proper regulation and guidance within the profession. The demise of financial institutions over the years (the collapse of Bear Stearns, as an example) continues to validate why fundamental changes should be made to help ensure that financial reporting and internal control standards shift to a globally accepted method of risk management.

When the hot-air balloon lifted off, the dawn weather was impeccable. Shortly thereafter, a terrible storm hit and engulfed the airship in thick clouds, heavy rain and unpredictable winds. After hours of bad weather, the pilot was relieved to once again see the ground, but the landscape was unrecognizable. Soon, however, he spotted a strolling figure and cried out, “Where am I?” The person on the ground shouted: “You’re in the basket of a hot air balloon!” The pilot cried out: “You must be a CPA!” The surprised stranger answered: “How did you know?” The pilot smiled and shouted, “Because you gave me very accurate but totally useless information.”The CPA on the ground in this after-dinner-speech ice-breaker reminds us of those in our profession, probably a majority, who still cling to the status quo in spite of plentiful evidence and common sense that it no longer serves the purpose that it once might have, many decades ago.

Successful small-business owners tend to be hard-working, tenacious, smart and highly focused. They have to be. According to a study by Dun & Bradstreet, businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 9 percent chance of surviving a decade.Yet even those that are successful fail miserably when it comes to planning for their financial future. In fact, it’s their proclivity to hone in so intensely on their business — certainly an attribute of being successful — that often gets in the way of their personal financial planning.

CAR DONATIONS PLUMMETAutomobile donations have sharply declined since 2004, when Congress tightened the tax rules for claiming charitable deductions, according to an analysis of IRS data by Grant Thornton. Before 2005, taxpayers who donated a vehicle were allowed to deduct its fair market value. Tax legislation enacted in 2004 changed the rules to generally limit vehicle donation deductions of over $500 to either the actual proceeds from a vehicle’s sale or the vehicle’s fair market value, whichever is less.

Despite the gloomy employment statistics reported by the Labor Department, payroll processors are still seeing increases in hiring by small businesses.

The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, recently signed without fanfare by President Bush, contains provisions that will, according to insiders, complicate tax returns for years ahead.The tax portion of the bill, the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008, contains over $15 billion in tax incentives that are offset by a number of revenue raisers.

Congressional tax reformers are taking aim at one of the most cherished tax breaks available to working Americans — employer-paid health insurance coverage.During the latest round of tax reform hearings before the Senate Finance Committee, experts in both taxation and health care presented their case for eliminating — or at least sharply reducing — the federal tax subsidies given for employer-provided health insurance, which now provide the average U.S. taxpayer with nearly $3,000 a year in benefits.

Ernst & Young has settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $2.9 million alleging a conflict of interest in its audits of three companies.The case involved a series of interviews that Ernst & Young distributed on audio CDs with the chief executives of various companies. The interviews were conducted by executive coach Mark C. Thompson, who was also a board member of three companies audited by the firm.