April 2004 - Journal of Accountancy

David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, delivered this address before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on September 17, 2003. wear many professional hats as Comptroller General of the United States, including head of the General Accounting Office [GAO], lead partner on the audit of the

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY WITH THE WEALTH CONTROLLED BY WOMEN PROJECTED to reach more than $22 trillion by 2010, the opportunity to provide these women with financial and investment advice is a good one. But to do the job properly, CPAs will need the right communication skills and to understand some key

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs WILL FIND THAT ULTRAWEALTHY CLIENTS DEMAND a broader range of services and skills than the merely wealthy. To serve this group, CPAs will need to tailor their offerings and sharpen their estate planning and investment management skills. Most financial planners define the truly rich as families with

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs MUST EXERCISE CAUTION TO CAPTURE CORRECT income in respect of the decedent (IRD) deductions on clients’ returns. Since clients typically don’t understand the issue well enough to volunteer the existence of IRD, CPAs must make sure they ask clients the right questions to elicit the information they

hances are you or your clients have received a letter similar to the one shown in the exhibit below (usually with more errors of punctuation and usage). If not, it’s probably just a matter of time. These solicitations used to come by mail, but now they appear in your e-mail

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE EXTENDS to accountants under the Kovel rule when a CPA acts at the direction of the lawyer to provide information for the client. Inadvertent disclosure of confidential information may lead to loss of the privilege. A PRACTITIONER WHO DOES LITIGATION CONSULTING should document the circumstances of

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TECHNOLOGY TOOLS CAN HELP personal financial planners provide reliable cost-effective services to clients. This article presents a range of useful personal financial planning (PFP) software as well as Web sites with calculators and education suitable to the public. MANY VENDORS OFFER FREE demonstrations and free trials via the

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORPORATE FRAUD, the FBI’s top financial crime investigators have taken their case to the CPA profession, seeking expanded cooperation between accountants and law enforcement officers. THE AICPA AND THE FBI RESPONDED with a joint effort that was kicked off with a webcast featuring three

Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we use two different typefaces. Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. Sans serif type indicates commands and instructions that users should type into the computer and the names of files. ou