Members of the accounting profession are being challenged to gain a deep understanding of how ledger technology and digital currencies work.  As the use cases for blockchain multiply, accountants and auditors need to consider how the existing accounting and auditing rules relate to distributed ledger technology. To read the full article in the Journal of Accountancy, click: Blockchain Considerations for Man ...

A financial planner who admitted to defrauding his client out of nearly $1 million through a signature-forging scheme received a prison sentence of four-and-a-half years.  William P. Carlson Jr. pleaded guilty to mail fraud in the U.S. District Court in Chicago and agreed to pay restitution of $911,000 in connection with the five-year scam. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: Advisor Gets ...

Research Says “No” In any business sector, one of the biggest challenges is to differentiate oneself. For a variety of reasons, this is especially difficult in the accounting and valuation and appraisal field, where many firms struggle to find ways to stand out. In fact, most firms end up making essentially the same claims about what makes them different. In this article, Dr. Frederiksen discusses his findi ...

Opportunities for Valuation Pros The widespread destruction left in the path of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria provides ample ground and opportunities for CVA professionals to assist the public. In this article, the author, a CVA, details those opportunities. ...

Accounting Standards Update 2016-01 has generally flown under the radar since it was released almost two years ago.  However, this accounting update has the potential to significantly affect financial reporting by public and private companies with minority equity investments—including corporate entities with a portfolio of venture capital investments.  This whitepaper provides an overview of the accounting ...

Retirees with multiple retirement accounts are advised to have a tax-efficient way of tapping into these accounts to minimize the tax bite, writes Morningstar's Christine Benz.  Retirees who have reached the age of 70 1/2 should take required minimum distributions from tax-deferred accounts, while those who are younger should draw from their taxable accounts, selling assets with the highest cost basis first ...

Is there an inexpensive, easy-to-use, third-party add-on solution for achieving drillable financial statements when your small business accounting system does not offer that functionality? To read the full article in the Journal of Accountancy, click: Accounting and ERP Systems: A Look Inside Drillable Financial Statements. ...

Enterprises, Assets, and Services With the emergence of value-based reimbursement, such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), clinically integrated networks (CINs), and bundled payment models, which rely on achieving the “Triple Aim” of healthcare at lower cost, U.S. hospitals are increasingly looking to change how services are being delivered by seeking more collaborative relationships with physicians, ...

Principles, Methods, and Applications Everett P. Harry, III and Jeffrey H. Kinrich assembled 45 authors, chosen for their expertise in lost profits damages, and contributed and co-edited this comprehensive lost profits damages “how to” book. The authors pay tribute to Robert L. Dunn, among others, for his vision in identifying the need for this book. The book marks an attempt by the authors to provide a sin ...

Accounting Standards Update 2016-01 has generally flown under the radar since it was released almost two years ago.  However, this accounting update has the potential to significantly affect financial reporting.  Mercer Capital’s forthcoming whitepaper on ASU 2016-01 will provide an overview of the accounting standards changes as they pertain to companies with equity investments and a few best practice cons ...

Officials at the SEC and FINRA have been talking a lot lately about how they have been ramping up their use of sophisticated technologies to root out questionable conduct among the firms they regulate.  It turns out that they are expecting advisors and brokers to do the same. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: Regulators Want Firms to Ramp Up Fintech Accountability. ...

Even firms that believe they are too small to matter should think again.  If a cyberattack happens at the firm's outsourced CRM partner, portfolio management vendor or custodian, and clients' personal information is compromised, where is your client going to turn first to demand an explanation? To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: When Your Vendor is Hacked, Doing Nothing Won't Cut it. ...

As the temperature drops and the holidays creep in, case after case either settles or, even better, is granted a three-month continuance. Now you finally have the time to take a long hard look at the lessons you have learned this year, lessons you have applied from years past, and start defining next year’s conquest(s), whatever they may be. This fourth article of the Unimpeachable Neutrality series discuss ...

From Publicly Traded Companies Where can valuation professionals find compensation data? In this article, Stephen Kirkland discusses leading sources to find compensation of publicly traded companies. ...

In Barron’s November 20 cover story, “The Trouble with Unicorns,” Alex Eule discusses some of the finer points of venture-stage valuation that are often overlooked in the press.  Travis Harms, Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group Lead, explains that this article is prompted by the dual observations that (1) a large number of venture-backed companies are achieving unicorn status, and (2) desp ...

Priding itself on being a technology company first, Betterment has learned it needs a deeper human touch to sustain its advisor platform.  RIAs are often impressed by the slick interface of Betterment for Advisors, its contemporary user experience and the way it helps speed onboarding and back office tasks.  But, the young firm can’t scale on technology alone. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, ...

Clients are boosting their cash positions by taking gains off the table as they hedge against the possibility of a selloff, according to the latest Retirement Advisor Confidence Index—Financial Planning’s barometer of business conditions for wealth managers. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: Clients Build Defensive Cash Positions Even as Bullishness Rises. ...

Key Strategies and Steps In the November 2, 2017 article, the author shared some thoughts on what to avoid when developing your website. In this article, the author focuses on the positive: strategies and steps to get you where you want to go. ...

Insights for Your Practice Four cases are presented in this article that provide valuation, litigation support professionals, and M&A advisors insight regarding how courts are addressing damages claims, challenges to experts, appraisal action challenges, and claims of fraud and breach of contract in connection with M&A transactions. Although the cases are from Delaware and California, they provide i ...

In this week’s blog post, we present a select reading list that has helped us keep up with recent legislative developments around equity and executive compensation. To read the full article in Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog, click: Win Some, and Then Some: Equity Compensation Tax Reform. This article is republished from Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog.  It is reprinted with permission.  ...