Authors contributing to the December 2013 issue

How to Conduct a Risk Workshop page 24
Neil Amato is a JofA senior editor covering management accounting and corporate finance. He has 18 years of journalism experience at daily newspapers in North Carolina.

Shooting Straight: How Internal Auditors Can Be Strategic and Collaborative—While Maintaining Independence and Objectivity page 28
Ken Tysiac is a JofA senior editor. He covers breaking news for journalofaccountancy.com and for print. He has more than 20 years of journalism experience, including work with The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., and has had two books published.

How to Land an Overseas Assignment page 32
Sabine Vollmer is a JofA senior editor. She oversees coverage of international accounting issues, writes for CGMA Magazine, and is responsible for the Global CPA Report. She has more than 20 years of journalism experience, including more than 10 years as a business writer. She has also worked in Germany and Japan.

What to Do When a Client Has an Undisclosed Foreign Account page 38
Scott H. Novak, Esq., LL.M., is a practicing attorney in Hackensack, N.J., specializing in tax law, with a focus on tax controversy. He is admitted to the bar in New York and New Jersey. He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he is an adjunct professor, and holds a law degree from Temple University School of Law and an LL.M. in tax from New York University. He has worked as a tax lawyer at Price Waterhouse and MetLife in addition to doing private legal work.

Seven Steps to Closing a Succession Sale page 48
Joel Sinkin is president of Transition Advisors LLC in New York City. The firm exclusively consults on ownership transition for public accounting firms, providing advice on succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, and partnership agreement issues. He has been involved with and consulted on hundreds of successful closings of accounting firm mergers and acquisitions over the past 20 years, has taught CPE courses for state and national accounting associations around the country, and has published books and articles nationally, including the new book CPA Firm Mergers and Acquisitions with co-author Terrence Putney. He also is an editorial adviser to the AICPA newsletter Small Firm Solutions.

Terrence Putney, CPA, is CEO of Transition Advisors LLC. In that role, he has been involved with and consulted on hundreds of accounting firm mergers and acquisitions and also has consulted on succession planning strategies for partners of firms. He has more than 30 years of experience in the CPA profession, including as a managing director of mergers and acquisitions for one of the largest national accounting firms and managing partner of a midsize Midwest CPA firm. He is co-author, with Joel Sinkin, of the new book CPA Firm Mergers and Acquisitions and has been frequently published in the JofA in addition to many other accounting profession trade publications. He also is a member of The CPA Consultants’ Alliance.

How to Help Clients Make the Right Social Security Election page 52
James Sullivan, CPA/PFS, is a financial planner and president of SullivanPrimePlus in Wheaton, Ill. He specializes in working with clients, and the families of clients, suffering from chronic illness.

Higher Stakes for Tax Treatment of Rental Real Estate page 56
Philip Garrett Panitz, Esq., LL.M., is the senior tax partner at the law firm Panitz & Kossoff LLP in Westlake Village, Calif., and a frequent author and lecturer on federal tax litigation and controversy issues. He has litigated more than 200 cases in the U.S. Tax Court. He has written previously for the JofA, “Executive Compensation: What’s Reasonable?” June 2009, page 56.

Barbara Lubin, Esq., LL.M., is an associate at Panitz & Kossoff LLP, where she focuses on tax controversy. Before joining the firm, her practice was focused on civil and criminal tax litigation. She also served as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County before obtaining an LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law in 2008.