December 2002 - Journal of Accountancy

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WHETHER WORKING IN THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT of a public company or advising that company as an outside consultant, CPAs are in a unique position to guide compensation committees in their role as corporate overseers and to help them better align compensation practices with shareholder interests. CPAs

  he hot pace of office technology has cooled a bit. You may not have noticed the slowdown because you’re probably still breathless from trying to keep up—or at least catch up—with the hectic rate of updates in the past several years. Although every new computer model runs faster than

   illiam F. Ezzell—a partner of Deloitte & Touche LLP—assumed the AICPA chairmanship in October at the Institute’s annual meeting, which was held this year in Hawaii. Like all incoming chairmen, Ezzell faces a host of urgent priorities. But in the wake of the Enron scandal he has singled out

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ON JANUARY 11, 2001, THE IRS PROPOSED NEW regulations for required minimum distributions from qualified retirement plans and IRAs. These regulations have completely overhauled and vastly simplified the prior provisions that date to 1987. IRA OWNERS MAY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW regulations immediately. Participants in qualified retirement

  urner, a payroll specialist for a large Florida nonprofit organization, was a sick man. Most employees who steal do so out of greed, but Turner had a different motive—he was HIV-positive and needed expensive drugs to control the disease. Complicating matters, he hid his illness from his employer and

  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPA FIRMS THAT USE WORK-FROM-HOME arrangements with eligible staff say there are clear operational benefits: They save money because there’s less absenteeism, they increase production, and they are able to keep high-quality employees longer. SITUATIONS THAT OTHERWISE MIGHT take a CPA out of the workforce—such as a

   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DISCLOSURES OF FAULTY PRACTICES at public companies have led to restrictions on services a CPA may provide to audit clients. IN 2001 AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE RULES gave CPAs more freedom to buy and sell securities, increasing the risk that firms may violate laws against insider trading. THE SEC

  eing unable to work for medical reasons is one of the greatest financial threats workers can face. CPAs, CFOs and in-house financial managers need to know what types of disability protection and what insurance programs are available so an employer can offer greater benefits to highly compensated employees. This

  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE HIGH COST OF A NURSING HOME STAY CAN bring financial ruin to even the most well-funded retirement. Failure to plan for long-term-care needs can spell disaster for clients neither poor enough to qualify for government aid nor wealthy enough to pay for it themselves. Today, a