Wealth management

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board found deficiencies in all of the firms it inspected that audit broker-dealers, according to a report released Monday, and in 95 percent of the individual audits that the PCAOB inspected.

The Internal Revenue Service is going after the estate of Bill Davidson, former owner of the Detroit Pistons and auto industry supplier Guardian Industries, to the tune of more than $2 billion.

A majority of large U.S. corporate pension plans were underfunded at the end of 2012, but Fitch Ratings said Thursday it believes funding levels at mid-year have improved with recent discount rate increases and strong equity market performance.

Americans who currently buy their own insurance through the individual market would receive tax credits averaging nearly $2,700 next year for coverage purchased through new insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new study.

Despite being highly sophisticated and capable, ERP systems are so often under-optimized and not used to their maximum potential, either due to busy CFO leadership, expensive consulting costs, and the never-ending budget constraints on IT investments.

Investors are more concerned about improving the quality of financial disclosures rather than simply reducing the quantity of them, according to a new report from the CFA Institute, which takes aim at some recently proposed disclosure reforms that seek to cut down disclosure overload.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing dozens of tax-exempt bond-financed jails, particularly in border states, and suggesting in some cases that, if the jails hold significant amounts of federal inmates, the bonds are no longer tax-exempt and are instead taxable private-activity bonds, sources said Thursday.

Check out the digital edition of the August 2013 issue of Accounting Today.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a comment letter to the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department highlighting potential problems for international tax entities from the IRS’s proposed regulations related to the net investment income tax.

A pair of Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to end unlimited tax write-offs on performance-based executive pay, allowing publicly traded corporations to deduct only up to $1 million in pay per employee.

Aronson LLC has acquired SpringReef Partners, a consultancy firm that offers wealth management services to high net worth families.

The Internal Revenue Service has finalized regulations governing certain transfers of property to regulated investment companies and real estate investment trusts.

Research shows what drove accounting firms to start offering financial planning services

A roundup of financial planning news from the previous month

You want to be the head coach of your clients' advisors

Congress gave final approval to legislation that would peg the interest rates on government-sponsored student loans to a market-based rate, ensuring that almost 9 million undergraduates will pay 3.86 percent interest on their next loan.

Whether it’s locked in audit and tax preparation systems, time and billing records, or lying dormant in individual Excel files, there’s a huge amount of value in data residing in CPA firms’ information systems simply waiting to be mined and turned into profitability and growth.

About 11 million U.S. students who need to borrow to cover their college costs would pay 3.86 percent on their next loans under legislation now headed for final passage by Congress.

Last month’s Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor held section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional.

CPA-focused business intelligence tool provider iLumen has added a survey platform as well as budgeting and forecasting capabilities to work in conjunction with its Client Intelligence and Industry Intelligence products.