Accounting education

Accounting Today is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list.

Looking for strong leads to grow your financial planning practice? Try scouring your tax clients.It may seem obvious, but internal marketing within your tax base is the best way to beef up your wealth management clientele, and is often a welcome service offering that can lead to referrals.

TOO MANY RAID NEST EGGSRoughly one quarter of adults who are actively planning for their retirement have prematurely withdrawn from their retirement investment products, according to a Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Personal Finance Poll that surveyed those in the 45-54 age bracket. According to the survey, the most common reasons for such premature withdrawals are a family member losing a job and the cost of a downpayment on a home. However, nearly one third of those who withdrew funds cannot pay them back, and 45 percent either cannot pay back the funds or have not begun to do so.

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 (R), Business Combinations, issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, promises to change how companies approach planning and reporting around mergers, acquisitions and ownership changes.The statement, effective for companies with fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2008, covers how an acquirer should recognize and measure the identifiable assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and any noncontrolling interest in the acquiree; recognize and measure the goodwill acquired in the business combination or a gain from a bargain purchase; and determine what information to disclose to statement users.

Profitability and being client-focused go hand in hand. Intellectually, all accountants believe this, but they have a hard time identifying specific actions they can take to maximize both profitability and client service. Over the years, I’ve observed specific client-focused activities that correlate to firm profitability.Here are 12 specific things you can do:

Accounting firm Weaver and Tidwell has introduced a financial services niche practice aimed at investment companies, including hedge funds and private equity firms.

Never before has the issue of executive compensation garnered as much of the public’s interest as it has in recent years, due in large part to several highly publicized corporate scandals.The backlash from incidents involving top executives at global organizations, and recent changes in Securities and Exchange Commission proxy and accounting rules, have prompted interesting new trends related to how executives and board members within large public companies are being compensated and to what degree.

The seven deadly sins of career management were delineated by Kathleen Grace, founder of Grace Consulting Services, a professional services firm specializing in executive assessment, executive coaching and strategic succession planning, at the recent Forum for Women in Accounting, presented by The Advisory Board and Crosley + Company.

Deloitte plans to invest approximately $300 million to create a learning and leadership development center in Westlake, Texas.

The American Institute of CPAs plans to offer training in International Financial Reporting Standards and the Extensible Business Reporting Language.

One of legendary basketball coach John Wooden’s basic tenets of success was an axiom he quoted almost daily to his players, or for that matter, anyone who wanted to listen and learn.

Accounting Today is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list.

I just returned from a three-day trip to my undergraduate university and my 50th reunion. Yes, you read that right. Fifty years. Okay, so I started college at 10. About 400 showed up for this clambake and the most startling thing of all is that I recognized nobody and they probably felt the same about me. To the credit of the planning committee, the name badges draped around our necks not only had our names, including any nicknames known in school at that time in 1954, but also our graduation picture. That made it much easier to recognize people. I would simply go up to some unknown face, look at the picture on the name tag, and say “Hey, Bill, I know you.” And then lift my eyes to his face and say, “But you I don’t know.” What a wakeup call. Interestingly enough, if I talked to 10 people, only one—one mind you—was still working. The other nine had all “retired.” I put quotes around the word “retired” because retirement is not in my lexicon. I believe in changing lifestyles but sitting home, watching Oprah, and eating bon bons is not my ideal life. I would have to keep the brain going and the muscles in the body stimulated. Now, of those 10 people, the one who is still working is not doing it by choice. He is working because he “has to,” meaning he doesn’t have the funds to “pack it in”…another phrase commonly used at this reunion. The other nine? Catch this. None of them went to a financial planner. They used their accountants to determine what the income flow was (Social Security, pensions, securities, savings, et al) against what the expenses would be. This is a complete turnabout with what is going on today where Baby Boomers are flooding to financial planners and the financial planning niche is the fastest growing one in the industry. Why is that? One thing to keep in mind. At the time my colleagues decided to put a brake to the 9-5 grind, the economy was in good shape, stocks were up, there was pretty solid economic growth. This was all pre-9/11 and pre-Iraq, because the majority of my colleagues stopped full-time work by the time they turned 60, some 12 years ago. Today, the economy is panting, stocks are taking a beating, cost of living is sky-high, and everyone is running scared. A different world from one decade to another. What I found also fascinating is that my classmates were not living like Donald Trump. They were comfortable with enough money for their basic needs and at least one vacation (not more than $5,000) a year. Many had moved to other parts of the country to keep costs down. They were extracting only about five percent from any pension plans; in effect, living off the interest rather than the principal. And oddly enough (and maybe it’s the generation), nobody was scrimping and saving to leave a big fortune to kids and grandkids. “Shrouds have no pockets,” said one classmate. “You can’t take anything with you. I’m spending every last cent.” Another chimed in with “Hey, my kids make more than I did.” But, these weren’t cries of bitterness. They were statements of fact. I think the most telling aspect of this reunion and the one that woke us all up was a particular dinner where the university president offered a slide show in which he talked about our class and what we had and didn’t have when we came to school as freshmen in 1954. Up there on the screen the only electronic equipment we saw was the record player spinning 78s and 45s, and the old Underwood manual typewriter with those red/black spools that had to be changed quite frequently. And then he showed us what the kids of today have: computers, desktop and wireless, Blackberries, Blueberries, iPods, DVDs…it went on and on and on…and we all groaned. “Yeah, look at what we had and now look at what these kids have.” Everybody griping until the president ended with these words: “And you people should have no regrets, for after all, you invented all of this.” End of story. See you in another 50? Sure. Take two and hit to right.

The American Institute of CPAs has awarded research grants to accounting and management professors from the University of California, Rice University and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

The House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee held hearings on bills that would encourage employers to automatically enroll their employees in individual retirement account plans.

Olympic gold medalist Wendy Lansbach Boglioli gave a thought-provoking talk last week at the New York State Society of CPAs’ Personal Financial Planning and Eldercare Conference about the importance of long-term care insurance.

We all want to do more productive, efficient work.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch an ambitious project to re-examine how companies and other entities should make financial disclosures to take advantage of the latest technologies.

We all want to do more productive, efficient work.

Bob Graham paid a visit to the American Institute of CPAs' Spring Council Meeting last month to learn more about what the profession was doing, especially in the way of education for the newly approved forensic accounting credential as well as international accounting. A former U.S. senator, Florida governor, and presidential candidate, he recently opened the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. Sen. Graham spoke to WebCPA about his views on education in the accounting profession.