Wealth management

Many CPAs are passive in nature and afraid to ask clients to pay them extra for financial advice. Yet, often they are better positioned even than planners to suggest tax-efficient investment strategies.

Faced with possible dissent in their party, U.S. Senate Democrats are dropping estate tax language backed by President Barack Obama from their proposal to extend most George W. Bush-era tax cuts through 2013.

Approximately 86 percent of millionaires in the U.S. believe themselves to be self-made, according to a new survey by Fidelity Investments.

The recent IPO by Facebook founders led to their creation of grantor trusts to avoid paying taxes of at least $200 million. It underlined new uses of a technique that has been around for a long time. Grantor trusts, including defective trusts, are still the hot new thing.

Despite the slowdown this year of the economic recovery, financial professionals surveyed by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants believe that business conditions in the U.S. are improving, but they worry about conditions abroad.

A pair of experts from accounting firm Rothstein Kass have helped write a new book that offers an introductory guide to the capital markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to require national securities exchanges and the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority to establish a market-wide consolidated audit trail to enhance the ability of regulators to monitor and analyze trading activity.

An eye-opening report sheds a harsh light on the growing trend of sales of property tax liens to unscrupulous profiteers, all too often forcing the elderly and impoverished out of their homes due to outstanding tax debts.

Capital markets executives at leading investment banks have conflicting views on the recently enacted JOBS Act, according to a new study by accounting and consulting firm BDO USA LLP.

The decision of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not going to make our conversations with our clients any simpler, even if it resolves some of the overall economic uncertainty that has made these conversations so difficult of late.

The Internal Revenue Service’s art appraisal experts are not subject to either a comprehensive quality review program or continuing education requirements specifically devoted to appraising art, according to a new government report.

Retiring Baby Boomers are driving development of new financial products

Before saying, “I do,” 78 percent of couples have discussed their personal finances, according to a new survey.

Seventy-seven percent of private equity firm predict there will be more attractive investment opportunities in 2012 than in 2011, according to a new survey by Rothstein Kass.

Students and their families do not always select tax breaks that could help them afford the cost of college tuition, possibly because tax filers are unaware of their eligibility for the tax credit or deduction or are confused about their use, according to a government report.

Leaders of the Senate and House committees charged with tax policy plan to hold a rare joint hearing next Thursday on tax reform and the tax treatment of capital gains.

I’m no fan of complexity, in taxes or any other area. But, as in most situations, there’s a silver lining.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., told attendees at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners conference that the financial reform law is essential, even though he wishes his name were not attached to it.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., ushered the landmark financial reform legislation through the Senate in 2010 before retiring from his 30-year distinguished career in that chamber. He is now chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The Internal Revenue Service has just issued temporary and proposed regulations aimed at simplifying the handling of portability elections in estate tax law.