Accounting education

AARP, the high-profile lobbying group for the roughly 36 million Americans over 50, has come out swinging in the fight over Social Security reform with the release of a poll showing a lack of support for President Bush's plan to allow investors to divert some of their Social Security taxes into private accounts.

Some of your clients may not yet have made their contributions to traditional or Roth IRAs for 2004, but plan to make them before filing their 2004 income tax returns. Others may be planning to contribute the maximum amount possible to their IRAs for 2005 as soon as possible.

FPA AWARDED FOUNDATION GRANT: The Financial Planning Association has received a $252,468 grant from the Foundation for Financial Planning - the largest grant ever given by the foundation.

The 27,000-member California Society of CPAs and the California CPA Education Foundation named Loretta Doon, CPA, to the newly created post of chief operating officer, effective April 18. Doon currently serves as associate executive director of the California Teachers Association. She is a member of CalCPA and was president of the Education Foundation's board of trustees from June 2003 through May 2004. She also was appointed to the California Lottery Commission by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California Society of CPAs and the California CPA Education Foundation are separate entities overseen by chief executive John Dunleavy. As chief operating officer, Doon will work with both organizations.

A startling 90 percent of Americans are worried about their retirement savings, even prior to President Bush unveiling his sweeping second-term agenda, which includes a series of reform measures topped by revamping the Social Security system. Some 57 percent of consumers participating in a survey by banking and financial services conglomerate Wachovia Corp. said that they often worried or sometimes felt worried about how well they will be prepared for retirement, while 32 percent said that retirement savings was an occasional worry. Wachovia's survey -- conducted prior to the election -- included 2,100 consumers with household income or investments exceeding $75,000. It was conducted last fall, before Bush won re-election. 36 percent admitted that they weren't saving enough for retirement, while another 11 percent were worried but were confident that they were pursuing the right course of action. Just 16 percent of the survey participants expressed confidence that they would receive Social Security benefits when they retired. And 50 percent were skeptical of the president's plan for private accounts, saying it was too risky for their retirement savings.

The American Institute of CPAs has joined with the Labor Department's Women's Bureau in an initiative to help educate women about personal financial management. The partnership will combine the financial education efforts of both organizations -- the AICPA's 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy, and the Women's Bureau's Wi$e Up. The joint effort would provide Labor's Wi$e Up program with the institute's financial experts to support its on-line program and teleconference calls, as well as financial education workshops and conferences. The AICPA's 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy was launched last year with the support of state CPA societies. The program encourages CPAs to volunteer to help educate the public on various financial topics.

George W. Bush's presidency will be remembered for many things - and if the president has his way, one of those things will be an overhaul of the venerable Social Security system.

For years, the $7 trillion mutual fund industry had escaped major reform. But that was then, and this is now.

Tax prep conglomerate H&R Block and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now have teamed up in a partnership to help boost awareness of the Earned Income Tax Credit and to reduce filing costs for low-income taxpayers.

Many of the country's wealthiest people have not taken basic steps to protect their assets or mapped out an estate plan, according to a recent survey by wealth management firm PNC Advisors.

How would you like to be the primary financial coordinator for the wealthy families in your community? How would you like to be earning a healthy fee for this advice, a fee that goes far beyond completing tax returns? Does this sound too good to be true for small to midsized accounting?

In my last article, I discussed the above-the-line "education deduction" available for many individual taxpayers for qualified tuition and related expenses. Taxpayers eligible to take the education deduction often will also be eligible to take either the Hope Scholarship or Lifetime Learning Credits for the same expenses.

IRS ISSUES GUIDANCE FOR AUTOMATIC ROLLOVERS: The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-5 providing guidance on the new automatic (or default) rollover rules for qualified retirement plans.

In his State of the Union address this week, President Bush pushed his plan to overhaul Social Security and add optional private accounts for younger workers, as the White House unveiled some new details of how that plan would work.

American Express Co. said that it will spin-off its American Express Financial Advisors unit to shareholders to focus on its credit cards, charge cards and travel services businesses.

Most chief executives of America's fastest-growing private companies say that they're likely to step down within the next 10 years, but almost half have put little to no thought into succession planning, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc., which publishes CPA Exam review books, has moved its test prep online via a partnership with Acadient, a Boston-based developer and distributor of online learning.

Life gets complicated for entrepreneurs who become franchisors, and many fail for lack of planning. They must exercise special care in forecasting revenues, which can take time to appear, much less mature. They must have a robust back-office infrastructure in place early on, with or without the revenue to support it. They must present audited financials to franchisees and follow detailed procedures in reporting to investors, if any.

There is an above-the-line deduction available for many individual taxpayers for qualified tuition and related expenses. The deductible expenses are defined in the same manner as they are for the purposes of the Hope Scholarship Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit.

MOST TAX PROFESSIONALS ENTER PFP ARENA VIA BROKER/DEALER: The majority of tax professionals who enter the financial planning business do so by hooking up with an independent broker/dealer firm, according to a report by market research and consulting firm Tiburon Strategic Advisors.