NYSSCPA Members in the News

The CPA Journal
Firm News – Oct. 14, 2016
Accounting Today
The CPA Journal, the New York State Society of CPAs monthly accounting magazine, has been named a finalist for the 2016 Folio: Eddie & Ozzie Awards in the “Association/Non-Profit Business to Business - Full Issue” Category for its June 2016 issue.

Tom Walpole (Rochester)
Steps to prevent identity theft
WROC News 8
CPA Tom Walpole discussed steps you should take to prevent identity theft Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. "The first thing you should do is keep all your information safe," said Walpole.  "That's vital. Monitor your information -- your personal information -- and if you think you've had a problem, act quickly. Those are three things right there." Part of keeping your information safe is properly disposing of it.  "Anything that has any information on it that may be available to somebody else that's dangerous, shred it," said Walpole.

Other Accounting and Financial News Stories

Rising interest rates may slow but not shock city's economy
Crain’s New York Business
The rock-bottom housing prices that have helped power a city housing boom, stoke Wall Street profits and fill city coffers are expected to finally rise when the Federal Reserve meets in December. But economists say a rate hike—which would be only the second in 10 years—won’t jolt the city’s economy, because the financial markets have largely priced in the change. “I don’t think it will affect property values,” said Barbara Byrne Denham, an economist at the Manhattan-based real estate data firm Reis.

How Women CEOs Overcame Bad Jobs, Bad Bosses
Wall Street Journal
Anne Mulcahy eventually ran Xerox Corp., the giant copier and printer company. But she started out as a Xerox sales representative in 1976. “Sales has the purity of quantitative results,” Mulcahy remembered, amid the noisy lunchtime clatter of a Manhattan restaurant. At the outset, however, Mulcahy got little pleasure from selling Xerox products. “A lot of cold calling, a lot of rejection,” she recalled. “I don’t think I was a naturally gifted sales rep,” she said. One of two Xerox saleswomen in the Boston area, Mulcahy harbored a deep fear of failure.

What All Tax Professionals Should Know About Client Retirement Portfolios
Accounting Today
The triumvirate of financial professionals (tax professional, estate counsel and investment advisor), collectively provide the expertise necessary to deliver a complete solution for high-net-worth clients. It has been our experience, however, that the tax professional who is an expert in tax management, compliance and tax-aware consulting, often has a closer relationship with clients. And with this deeper relationship comes an outsize role and greater responsibility to act as the “financial quarterback.”

CFTC Poised to Modify Source-Code Proposal
Wall Street Journal
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is preparing to scale back controversial aspects of a regulatory plan to prevent automated trading glitches from roiling futures and derivatives markets, according to people familiar with the CFTC’s thinking, though its new approach is unlikely to mollify critics. The CFTC is expected as early as this month to float modifications to a proposal that would give the regulator access to the complex computer code that drives high-frequency trading firms’ trading decisions, these people said.

The Smaller GSE Accounting Lawsuit Alleging Fraud Was Settled
Seeking Alpha
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been and still is Freddie Mac's auditor while Deloitte is Fannie Mae's auditor. Earlier this month, the United States Department of Justice suggested that this matter was not an issue of state law. Investors in Freddie Mac filed a lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers for accounting fraud while FHFA was in charge of determining what was in Freddie Mac's financial statements.

Early Gains on Wall Street Fade, Leaving Stocks Barely Higher
New York Times
Stocks on Wall Street gave up large early gains and finished barely higher on Friday. Banks and technology companies traded higher, while stocks that pay large dividends fell thanks to a jump in bond yields. Stocks were on track for big gains early in the day as reports showed that consumers in both the United States and China appeared to be spending more.

Grant Thornton Wins Securities Class-Action Suit
Accounting Today
Grant Thornton International Ltd. has prevailed in a class-action lawsuit brought by three Louisiana pension funds against the firm. The pension funds, Firefighters’ Retirement System, Municipal Employees Retirement System of Louisiana, and New Orleans Firefighters’ Pension & Relief Fund, filed suit against 23 defendants in a state court, including Grant Thornton and Citco Group Limited, claiming unjust enrichment, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and other claims in violation of Louisiana securities laws as a result of a $100 million investment loss.

Investors May Be Misjudging U.S. Election Volatility
Wall Street Journal
Stock investors jolted by the volatility spike after the British referendum are overlooking the potential for another shock from the U.S. election, Wall Street analysts say. “Brexit was a big wake-up call. Investors knew that the likelihood of the Leave camp succeeding was greater than zero but they still underestimated the odds and few people hedged ahead of the vote,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research.

Why firms will forever fail to be full-service
Lawyers Weekly
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, PwC legal partner Natalie Kurdian (pictured) chatted about the difference between traditional law firms and the services offered by the big four accounting firms following their expansion into other areas of work. “I’d say [law firms] definitely have full service in terms of the legal aspects,” Ms Kurdian said. “

Janet Yellen Says Labor and Inflation Complicate Fed’s Plans to Raise Rates
New York Times
Janet L. Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, did not talk on Friday about the Fed’s plans for its benchmark interest rate. Instead, she talked about why those plans have been so hard to make. In a wide-ranging speech, Ms. Yellen said the Fed was struggling to understand the behavior of the labor market and the weakness of inflation.

J.P. Morgan Has ‘High-Class’ Problem
Wall Street Journal
Thanks to the Sapphire Reserve,  J.P. Morgan  Chase & Co. is enjoying “high-class problems” in its credit-card business, Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said. J.P. Morgan earlier this year launched the latest in its Sapphire card series, called the Reserve, that has electrified points collectors drawn by its 100,000-point sign-up bonus and other goodies, despite a $450 annual fee. The card was in such strong demand, the bank ran out of the hard metal used to give it some extra heft for that fee.