Wealth management

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, asking the agency to postpone the effective dates for cost basis reporting for options and debt instruments.

Charitable donations typically drop off after the surge at the end of the year, and soon after that clients can compile their list of their contributions from the previous year so they can provide this information to their accountants.

Check out the digital edition of the March 2014 issue of Accounting Today.

The Bitcoin world reacted with a mixture of acceptance and resignation to a Newsweek magazine report that the creator of the digital currency is a 64-year-old Japanese-American man living in the Los Angeles area.

When Accounting Today and Cetera Financial Specialists set about identifying leading CPA wealth managers for our Seeking Success project, we chose firms whose revenue growth from wealth management was higher than for their other services. But we could have chosen other measures, such as growth in assets under management, or number of new clients.

A roundup of financial planning news from the previous month.

New methods of investing can keep clients on track

More firms are moving into wealth management

Strategies for maximizing investment efficiency

The Internal Revenue Service has released the long-awaited final instructions for the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax that was included as part of the Affordable Care Act.

G2 FinTech focuses on a technology niche of helping accountants automate the process of tax preparation for financial firms that need to deal with complex transactions such as wash sales and straddles on a regular basis.

Fewer retirees are expected to receive spousal or survivor benefits from Social Security and private employer-sponsored pension plans in the future, increasing their economic vulnerability, according to a new government report.

The United States ranked near the bottom of the top 20 countries in term of retirement security, according to a new report.

Investors have proven to be sophisticated enough to dismiss implausible explanations from companies of their quarterly earnings results, according to a new study.

A post-implementation review of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s fair value measurement standard by FASB’s parent organization found the standard generally met its objectives, even though some investors have difficulty understanding fair value information provided in the financial statements, and their level of satisfaction with the information varies.

About 52 percent of Americans intend to spend their annual tax refund on necessary expenses such as loans, credit cards and other household expenses, while another 30 percent plan to put the money into savings and only 8 percent plan to invest the tax refund money, according to a new survey.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has issued provisional standards for seven industries in the financial services sector.

A blue ribbon panel of public policy experts has released a set of recommendations to address the problem of underfunded public pensions.

Forty-five percent of the 1,000 investors in a recent survey expect to receive a tax refund, and among them, 61 percent plan to save or invest the money, according to a poll by TD Ameritrade

The New York State Society of CPAs is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to tighten its proposed regulations on crowdfunding, arguing the proposals would loosen the rules to the detriment of unwary investors.