Wealth management

U.S. TO REISSUE 30-YEAR BOND IN Q1 2006: The Bush administration said that it would resurrect the 30-year Treasury bond, a move that it said would help to finance the national debt and, at that same time, appeal to conservative investors looking for long-term options.

When CPAs add financial services to their practices, the overwhelming method of entry is to affiliate with a broker/dealer and receive commissions. For many, there is a next stage: transitioning to a model of full financial advisory with compensation from fees based on assets under management. Careful management of the rebranding can ease clients into the new way of doing business.

A number of CPA volunteers were recently recognized by CPA societies in California and New York.

Broker/dealers who are not registered as investment advisors must now give brokerage customers a disclosure stating that their interests may not always be the same as their customers.

The American Institute of CPAs has won a 2005 Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for its national "360 Degrees of Financial Literacy" program.

A survey by Fidelity Investments recently found that one-third of working adults are delaying their retirement plans due to financial reasons.

Earnings for financial planners have risen 27 percent from their 2004 levels according to a survey conducted by the College for Financial Planning in conjunction with the Financial Planning Association.

British consulting group Lane Clark & Peacock said that the pension deficits for Britain's top 100 companies by market value totaled more than $66 billion as of July, and could affect the way businesses using the new International Financial Reporting Standards are run.

Advisors who are planning for the rest of 2005 face changes that could derail even the best-made investor plans. Calm waters in both equity and fixed-income markets could face hurricane gales in the face of terrorist attacks, a continued low-return environment and implosions in overvalued sectors. As future projections call for more of the same, advisors stay wary.

* AICPA WINS AWARD FOR FINANCIAL LITERACY EFFORTS: The American Institute of CPAs has received a 2005 Summit Award from the American Society of Association Executives for its national 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy program.

What criteria determines a good or bad credit risk?

A survivor annuity, either in the form of a qualified joint and survivor annuity, or QJSA, if the participant is alive on the starting date, or a qualified pre-retirement survivor annuity, or QPSA, if the participant dies before the starting date, must be provided to married plan participants and their spouses with respect to certain qualified plans.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a revised exposure draft, titled, "Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets."

The Governmental Accounting Standard Board recently published a guide to its statements 43 and 45, both which address post-employment benefits besides pensions.

Structured products are wending their way into portfolios, with investors recently sucking up half a billion dollars on just three new issues of the vehicles - three of some 67 offerings of structured products launched this year.

* N.J. ATTORNEY GENERAL BUSTS AMEX FINANCIAL ADVISORS: American Express Financial Advisors Inc. will pay New Jersey $5 million and implement company-wide reforms to address allegations that it failed to reasonably supervise its financial advisors.

Ask any reputable financial planner how to secure a decent retirement, and you might just get a laundry list of what you should or should not do. Most represent pretty good thoughts.

The 10 percent penalty tax on withdrawals from an IRA before age 59-1/2 does not apply to distributions from either a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA to the extent that the amount withdrawn is used to pay qualified higher education expenses. The qualified higher education expenses may be incurred by the taxpayer, the taxpayer's spouse, or any child or grandchild of the taxpayer or the taxpayer's spouse.

The Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. - the nonprofit umbrella organization that manages the CFP certification program outside the U.S. and its territories - is now seeking nominations from the U.S. for a three-year position on the FPSB board, with terms beginning Jan. 1, 2006.

The administrators of a Utah college savings plan have settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for issuing false and misleading information, though the fund's former director will be charged with misappropriating funds.