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Investments
LESSONS OF A BEAR MARKET
Maureen Nevin Duffy
How are CPA/financial planners helping their clients weather the first significant bear market in a decade? Most are meeting the challenge with equal parts of diversification, perspiration and inspiration. At the same time they are laying the groundwork so clients will be better prepared for the next market decline.

Practice Management/Financial Planning Consulting
THE INTERNET AS AN INVESTMENT TOOL
Sarah Phelan
The Web has revolutionized the retail securities marketplace and is rapidly changing the financial arenas in which CPAs and their clients interact. Here’s some of what it can do for CPA/financial planners and investors.

Personal Financial Planning
SEC JURISDICTION OVER INVESTMENT ADVICE
Brian Carroll
CPAs who advise their clients on investment products and services may need to register with the SEC or a state agency. This article offers some guidance on what kind of activity will—and will not—trigger the need to register.

Litigation/Consulting
AN EXPERT WITNESS CAN MAKE OR BREAK A CASE
George L. Johnson and Cynthia Waller Vallario
A visual approach for both the planning stage of the lawsuit and during testimony can help a CPA succeed on the witness stand.

Fraud
RECOVERY OF EMBEZZLED ASSETS HALF A WORLD AWAY
Marc A. Siegel
Huge sums of money from Persian Gulf government agencies allegedly had been embezzled for more than a decade. Members of a CPA firm traveled to the Middle East to help the client’s attorneys build a case for recovering them.

Technology
READY TO PULL THE PLUG?
Clyde T. Stambaugh and Don Chamberlain
The big drawback to a conventional local area network is the need to tether each computer to a cable. Now advances in technology make it practical to unplug and go wireless—remaining in touch with your network’s files and the Internet.

Tax
REVERSE EXCHANGES COME OF AGE
Ronald L. Raitz and Bridgette M. Raitz
To provide taxpayers with guidance on certain like-kind exchanges, the IRS issued revenue procedure 2000-37 in September 2000. The ruling outlines the steps and requirements taxpayers must follow to complete a “parking exchange,” a particular kind of section 1031 exchange.

The Fraud Beat
IRRATIONAL RATIOS
Joseph T. Wells
Plugging numbers from a financial statement into certain formulas can yield clues or even telltale signs there’s manipulation going on in a company. The ZZZZ Best case is a perfect example of what auditors could have uncovered if they’d had a more recently developed set of ratios to use.

Insurance Issues
AVOIDING INSURANCE ERRORS
Neil Alexander
With agents focused on closing the deal, CPAs can help clients avoid costly transaction mistakes.

HIGHLIGHTS

News Digest
E-commerce…Financial Reporting…Government Auditing…International…Personal Financial Planning…Privacy… Technology…FYI.

The Internet
Smart stops on the Web.

By the Numbers
To reduce taxes, people of moderate wealth are employing sophisticated financial planning techniques once used only by the very affluent.

At a Glance: Charts and Graphics
Accountants take tech lead.
CFOs say no to Internet tax.
Double take.

Checklist
Starting an investment advisory practice.

Tax Matters
Service providers don’t need to use the accrual method.
Tax Brief. Court denies an attempt to reduce a taxable estate by checks written before but paid after death.
Line Items.
Tax Case. Back wages and payment of FICA and FUTA.

Tax Focus
New tax act expands education IRAs.

From the Tax Adviser
The Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000.

Technology Q&A
A better Open file dialogue screen... Anonymous comments...Make Excel look like a columnar pad...Get the right underline…Home in on a target worksheet…Locate the largest (and the smallest) number… Shortcuts…A gift of tick marks.

For the Practicing Auditor
Research Summary 17: Audit Report Lag.
Research Summary 18: The 1995 Reform Act and Auditor Litigation.

Golden Business Ideas
Practical ideas for improving your business.

In This Issue