Smart Stops on the Web

Online Articles of Interest

www.fed.org

The Foundation for Enterprise Development’s site focuses on employee ownership information and includes an online magazine. The e-zine’s goal is to keep readers up to date on issues having an impact on employee-owned companies, but many of the archived articles would be useful to anyone interested in compensation plans. One example is a May 1998 article, “Equity Compensation in Emerging Growth Companies.”

“Comp” and Circumstance

www.nonprofit-info.org

The Internet Nonprofit Center (INC) offers current and archived news items listed chronologically in the Bulletins section of its site. Among the articles of interest to nonprofit organizations, which are its primary users, is one called “Compensation and Statistics.”

From the Lawyer’s Mouth

www.mwe.com

The law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery includes newsletters on its site that focus on the legal aspects of compensation plans and cite court decisions most employers should read. The article, “Two Circuits Hold Employers Liable for Failing to Disclose Upcoming Retirement Programs” in the ERISA Litigation Review is an example of what users can expect.

Compensation Plans for Attorneys

www.joelarose.com

To attorneys interested in compensation plans, this site offers articles on topics such as assessing current plans in light of the firm’s objectives, appropriate compensation criteria and weighting, and methods of administering various plans. Also available are articles on other compensation issues—sharing origination and cross-selling credit and administering partner compensation systems, for example—and a primer on partner compensation plans.

Salary and Compensation Surveys

www.jobsmart.org/tools/salary/sal-acfn.htm

This site offers surveys not only on accounting and finance salaries in various regions of the United States but also on compensation plans for finance executives and investment management personnel. The surveys are drawn from various sources including CFO Magazine and the Treasury Management Association.

Get Your Workpapers Here!

papers.nber.org

The National Bureau of Economic Research’s site has a detailed search engine that browses the full text of approximately 2000 online workpapers. A query on the word “compensation” generated a dozen responses—from workman’s compensation to wage and salary compensation. A narrower search in a user’s field would yield enough results to make this site worth a visit.

Find Articles Fast

www.findarticles.com

This site bills itself as “the first free online article-search service.” It could also call itself “a public library’s electronic periodicals department.” Not only does it give source information about an article but provides the text as well. Categories to search include business and finance, computers and technology, news and society, and reference and education.

Insurance Research Online

www.insurance.com

Log onto this site to do detailed research before purchasing insurance. Insurance.com, an affiliate of Fidelity Investments, offers free registration to users and covers a wide range of insurance needs—auto, liability, life and long-term care—as well as annuities. Insurance company profiles are provided, and the site offers a lengthy glossary of terms as well as a personal organizer to consolidate research.

Business and Investment Research

www.powerize.com

A free membership allows site visitors to research business news, industry updates and stock quotes and to link to other company Web sites. Also included here are news articles, corporate press releases and even audio and video files with interviews and information on industry trends and the latest market decisions.

The Inside Scoop Online

www.inside.com

This site offers news, reviews and gossip from the television, film and music—as well as book- and digital- publishing—industries. A special feature is Inside Index, a composite of 40 publicly traded media, new-media and entertainment stocks in a well-organized grid that reflects current quotes, their changes and projections for the next 52 weeks.

All Accounting, All the Time

accounting.pro2net.com

This site offers free membership to users interested in the most recent accounting and auditing news and information. It also provides a resource library with links to federal government information—for all three branches—and requirements to state boards of accountancy and state departments of revenue.