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Website
of the Month: A Second Look at Camico
By Susan
B. Anders
JULY 2007 - The
website for Camico, www.camico.com,
a mutual insurance company, was previously reviewed in the August
2005 issue of The CPA Journal. Camico provides professional
liability insurance and risk management services to CPAs, and actively
provides policyholders with information to ward off or reduce claims.
Many of these tools are available on Camico’s website, which
also provides good design examples for marketing a professional
services firm.
Camico
has added a substantial number of resources to the members-only
section, and reorganized and redesigned the entire website. Some
features of the site are better organized than others, and new
users may encounter a learning
curve when looking for resources.
Readers
who were familiar with the old Camico site will find the redesigned
website to be more polished in appearance, including the addition
of customer testimonials throughout. The top menu bars are essentially
the same, offering links to “Contact Us,” “Jobs,”
“About Camico,” “For the Media,” and “Privacy”
above the name banner. Below the banner are links for “Products,”
“Risk Management Services,” “Premium Estimate,”
and a new button for “Membership.” The
main pages present the same menu bars and banner as the homepage.
The webpage print formatting has been improved, which is useful
for the many available HTML resources.
On
the homepage, the member log-in has been moved to a more obvious
location below the main menu bars and logo banner. The names of
the 15 sponsoring CPA societies are now hyperlinked from the homepage
to the societies’ websites. The “Tip of the Month”
and “Advisory Alerts” existed before the August 2005
review; however, a notice about CPA exemption from privacy notices
has been added.
General
Public
The
website has added an extensive slideshow presentation, “Camico
Video,” under the “About Camico” main page.
The slideshow includes video clips and sound bites from personnel
and policyholders, covering background information on the company
and its services. “Apply Now” offers links to application
forms, sample policies, and premium estimate forms.
“Where
We Practice,” under “About Camico,” has been
expanded to connect to “Get a Premium Estimate,” a
new section that offers a search feature for locating insurance
agents, and a link to application forms and supplemental forms
housed under the “Products” main page.
“For
the Media” offers connections to subsidiary pages for the
company’s press kit, press releases, and information about
its 20th anniversary. Press releases include “When Competency
Becomes an Ethics Issue … or More,” 20 risk management
tips, and a study which indicates that most professional liability
insurance claims come from tax engagements.
The
“Products” main page offers downloadable Word and
PDF sample policies, as well as links to subsidiary pages for
policy coverage and features and application forms. A checklist
for CPA firm merger and dissolution issues is also available.
The “Risk Management Services” section includes PDF
brochures and customer testimonials for each service. A link to
purchase “The CPA’s Guide to Effective Engagement
Letters” is available under “Practice Management Tools.”
A
copy of Treasury Regulations section 1.6011-4, outlining reportable
transactions, can be found under “Premium Estimate”
by selecting No. 3, “Browse Our Applications & Supplements,”
and looking on the right side of the “Apply for a Policy”
webpage. The PDF document includes a listing of Treasury Regulations,
Revenue Rulings, and Notices that address specific listed transactions.
While the location of this document on the website is puzzling,
it is a handy resource for anyone concerned with tax shelters.
Members
Only
The
members-only section offers a “Reference Library”
and “Continuing Professional Education” as its main
features. The Reference Library has been expanded and reorganized,
and includes downloadable sample engagement letters, cases, and
“War Stories” in Word documents. Unfortunately, the
examples that were formerly presented in the public area under
“Risk Management” are no longer available. It would
be nice to see a selection of these items available to the public
again.
The
“Reference Library” is organized into folders for
“Scope of Service,” “Risk Management,”
“CPE,” “Camico Publications,” “Camico
Partnerships,” and “Alert Documents.” “Scope
of Service” includes tax, PFP/investment advising, attest,
and accounting/bookkeeping, among others. “Tax” is
further organized into partnership, other, individual, estate,
corporate, and articles and war stories. Most of these categories
provide engagement letters and selected claims, which are brief
summaries of an event that resulted in an insurance claim and
the amount paid out on the policyholder’s behalf.
“Risk
Management” offers 20 main folders, including third-party
reliance, records retention and destruction, and documentation
issues. The “Risk Management” resources are more varied
than the “Scope of Services” materials. For example,
“Risk Management” offers a checklist of problem prevention
areas for CPA firms and a sample engagement letter covering audits,
reviews, compilations, and other services to comply with AICPA
Interpretation 101-3.
Susan
B. Anders, PhD, CPA, is a professor of accounting at St.
Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, N.Y.
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