November 19, 2008 at 3:52 am · Filed under Accountants
A new wealth management service is being launched by Norfolk accountancy firm Martin & Acock.
Clare Goodswen, 39, has switched to the firm to take the post of director of personal tax after 21 years with Larking Gowen.
The new service will cover offer advice for individuals, based around complex tax planning issues. This will include advice on capital taxes and planning with regard to trusts, as well as trust management and administration.
Martin & Acock operations director Jeremy Robson said: “Clare is a prominent professional in the business community and very highly regarded across Norfolk as a leading tax specialist.
“We are delighted that she has joined Martin & Acock in this important new role and her considerable technical expertise and practical experience will bring an extra dimension to the firm.”
Mrs Goodswen said: “The current economic climate brings challenges to individuals as well as businesses and, as the UK tax system becomes more complex, this new service will provide access to a trusted advisor who can liaise with solicitors, stockbrokers and financial advisors to ensure that private clients are receiving up-to-date advice to help minimise their tax liabilities both immediately and in the longer term.”
Based in The Close in Norwich, Martin & Acock also has offices in Attleborough, Swaffham and Watton.
http://business.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=BIZOnline&category=Business&tBrand=BIZ
November 17, 2008 at 5:48 am · Filed under Accountants
What would you say about a proposed accounting change which is value destroying, detached from reality, undermines confidence in the financial institutions using it, and spreads confusion?
Par for the course, probably, given the furore over the use of fair-value accounting. This time though it is not the accountants who are in the driving seat and it is not banks and pension funds in the firing line. The coming change under discussion is the proposal that the life assurance companies should from late next year use new standards to replace - or rather enhance - their embedded value approach to calculating profit with something called MCEV, market consistent embedded value.
The motive is honourable enough. The accounts of life offices are like the Schleswig Holstein question beloved of 19th-century historians, which was said to be understood by only three people - one dead, one mad, and one who had forgotten. The core problem is that life assurance is a long-term business, and it is only when the contract matures after 25 years that the company can genuinely say how profitable it has been.
To overcome this, various accounting techniques have been developed to assess and recognise implied profit throughout the life of the contract. Unfortunately, the resultant accounts are complex, the jargon impenetrable and the permitted variations so considerable that even the best analysts find it difficult to compare one life assurer with another.
Thus for the best of intentions the chief financial officers’ forum - a club of the senior financial executives from European firms - decided they should overlay this with a new measure which in essence grafts fair value accounting on to what they do at present by marking all the long-term assets to market.
This might have seemed a good idea at the time, but as implementation looms next spring a lot of British companies are getting cold feet. Not surprising, since it will have a devastating effect on declared profitability.
In the words of one finance director, a company will in essence declare 24 years of losses on a life contract then a colossal profit in year 25. This is because everything in the balance sheet which relies on an equity return is going to have to be discounted at the very much lower risk-free rate - until it matures and is found after all to have made a substantially greater amount.
It hits companies differently, depending on the mix of equities and bonds in their portfolios, and, crucially, on the mix between conventional policies and unit-linked - the latter being held at market price already. That can make it even more mystifying - Prudential will suffer here yet not in Asia.
Arguably, therefore, it will be even more confusing than what we have now - and it certainly seems to have wrong-footed even the best of the analysts, who having done the sums themselves, have come out with wildly differing results.
In the bearish corner sits Andrew Crean at Citigroup. He claims that four of the five UK life players will see an adverse impact on embedded value and new business profits - with falls, or at least the perception of falls, of 20% plus in the latter. But Crean’s estimates vary significantly with those of Greig Paterson at KBW, who has a fall of only 5% in new business profits.
And just as the sector averages diverge, so do the estimates for individual businesses, all of which raises doubts about the ability of the analysts to agree on balance sheet values of these businesses under MCEV principles. This is hardly the time to start raising additional, unnecessary doubts about insurers’ balance sheets.
It is tempting to blame the accountants, but as this does not come from them it counts as supplementary disclosure rather than a new accounting standard. The net effect is the same. All will have to comply: those who don’t will be accused of hiding something - unless they all refuse to comply.
They should be encouraged down this course. Comparability is indeed a problem, but this is quite the wrong answer.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/columnists/article.html?in_article_id=457356&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=4
November 14, 2008 at 1:23 am · Filed under Accountants
Volunteer members of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants will answer financial-related questions free of charge from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at 1-800-342-3197 Ext. 554. Questions may also be submitted at ficpa.org/ficpa/PublicResources/FinancialFitnessFriday/ on the Internet.
Additional financial resources on the group’s Web site include an annual checklist of the Top 10 ways to stay financially fit, and tips from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
“We typically hold Financial Fitness Friday in April, just after tax season,” said Sharon Lassar, chair of the FICPA Financial Literacy Committee.
“This year, in light of our economy, we decided to include an additional call-in day to help Florida residents when they need it most.”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/local/newsletter/orl-biznews-cpas111308,0,5108662.story
November 13, 2008 at 12:14 am · Filed under Accountants
Small and medium businesses do not trust their bank managers to give good financial advice, according to a new study.
The research shows that 70% of small businesses choose their accountants over bank managers to consult on financial issues, while only 47% see their bank managers as trusted advisers.
Conducted commercial credit agency Graydon UK, the survey found that 68% of respondents sought financial advice only when they think it is necessary. Some 36% admitted they had not met their accountants or bank managers over the past year, with 24% saying the lack of contact was down to a lack of faith in their advisers’ knowledge or because of poor advice received in the past.
Graydon UK managing director Martin Williams said: “The traditional ‘grey haired pillar of society’ stereotype of the bank manager as a trusted and respected source of financial advice has faded into the past. But as the economy hits upon hard times and banks become increasingly nervous about credit limits, SMEs need now, more than ever, to maintain a close dialogue with their bank managers.”
Nearly one in three firms surveyed said they are seeking more financial advice now than they were a year ago, with 37% expecting a need for more advice over the coming year.
http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842907599755450/accountants-trusted-over-bank-managers.html
