Wealth management

It can be described as Fortune Magazine meets Oprah. “It” in this context is Pink Magazine and its founder, Genevieve Bos, who was on hand to usher in the formal beginning to The Forum for Women in Accounting and The Forum for Recruiting and Retention.

Forty-six percent of the 1,000 corporations polled in a recent survey said they plan to reduce or eliminate employer contributions to their 401(k) plans or already plan to do so, even as their overall benefit budgets increase.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is proposing to require individuals who want to become a CFP to prepare an integrated, written financial plan and present it.

You should know if your clients should sell their insurance policies

CPAS TELL CLIENTS TO CHANGE INVESTMENT STRATEGY

Market declines increase the need for estate plan reviews

NewRiver Inc. has introduced FundPoint Desktop for 529 Plans, a desktop software product designed to manage multi-layered 529 college-savings plan information.

Accounting firm Plante & Moran has introduced a “Liquidity Stress Test” tool that manufacturing businesses can use to assess their working capital needs.

SunGard and iShares are partnering on a system that will allow advisors and third-party administrators to incorporate exchange-traded funds as a standard option in retirement plans.

A new downloadable e-book aims to help CPAs, business owners, personal financial planners, and insurance consultants assess and modify their estate and financial planning to adjust to a volatile market.

IMGCAP(1)]The family CPA is often the best choice as successor trustee of the family trust.

IMGCAP(1)]Part of a CPA’s job is to evaluate the potential tax benefits of various business and estate planning strategies.

Accounting firm Conner Ash is offering wealth management and investment advisory services through its newly formed CA Advisory Group.

The Congressional Research Service has issued a new report, “401(k) Plans and Retirement Savings: Issues for Congress,” that describes seven major policy issues facing defined contribution plans:

IMGCAP(1)]One good thing that might come from all the attention on Michael Jackson's estate is that it may motivate people to get their own affairs in order. In addition, there are lessons to be learned that readers can apply to their own situation.

The American Institute of CPAs has opened a PFP Practice Portal for CPAs who are interested in becoming personal financial planners and earning the AICPA’s Personal Financial Specialist credential.

Accounting firm Breslow Starling has been accepted into the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center by the American Institute of CPAs.

The Obama administration has proposed legislation to Congress that would establish consistent standards for anybody who provides investment advice.

Third Ranking of CPAs by AUM

To help ameliorate the declines experienced during a bear market, the investment community has long advocated diversifying one's equity holdings across various equity asset classes, such as large-cap growth and value, mid-cap growth and value, and international stocks. Yet all the purported benefits of diversification somehow managed to fail spectacularly from late 2007 well into the first quarter of 2009. In fact, despite having their equity holdings distributed across many different types of equity mutual funds and stock holdings, the declines in investors' overall equity portfolio values over the period were unprecedented in the modern era.