NYSSCPA Members in the News

Matt Bryant (Rochester)
Financial advice for fathers
WROC Rochester First
As we approach Father's Day this coming weekend, CPA Matt Bryant offered up some financial advice for Dads Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. Bryant said fathers should set up an allowance for their children at a young age to see money coming in and to learn that items have a value to them.

Gary Carpenter (Syracuse)
Tips for grandparents who want to help with college tuition
Tampa Bay Times
A college education was once regarded as a relatively affordable route to lifelong prosperity, but in recent years it has become a hobbling financial burden for many families. As a result, older generations are often stepping up to help their families with college funding. According to a Fidelity Investments survey of its investors — a more affluent group than the average — more than half of grandparents "are saving or plan to start saving to help pay for college costs."

Other Accounting and Finance News Stories

Home Sales and Taxes: How Much Will You Owe?
Wall Street Journal
If you sell your home at a profit, how much of your gain will disappear into Uncle Sam’s pockets? This is one of the questions readers ask most often. The topic is particularly timely today, amid growing evidence of continued strength generally in the housing markets. In most cases, the tax rules on the sale of your primary residence are highly favorable.

SEC returns to its roots with accounting fraud crackdown
Financial Times
With the price of oil less than half its 2014 level, US financial watchdogs are on alert for accounting fraud in the oil patch. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled accounting fraud charges with the chief executive of Miller Energy Resources’ Alaskan subsidiary, the company’s chief financial officer and its external accountant.

Regulators to Banks: We’ll Size Up Your Risks
Wall Street Journal
International regulators want to limit banks’ leeway in assessing the riskiness of their assets, a step that critics say could crimp lending, dent profits and worsen risk rather than reduce it. A committee of overseers in Basel, Switzerland, since the end of last year has proposed five different rules that would require banks to use standardized calculations instead of their own when measuring possible losses on everything from loans to interest rates to fraud.

Hedge Fund Managers Work to Stanch Loss of Investors
New York Times
Hedge fund titans once ran their firms like elite private clubs, picking who made it past the velvet rope and how much they would pay for access to supercharged performance. Years of poor performance have now led a number of funds to consider something more like general admission. Some big-name investors — MetLife, American International Group and the New York City pension plan, among them — have recently begun to withdraw their money from hedge funds in larger numbers.

Social Security COLA Could Be Zero in 2017, Senior Group Fears
ThinkAdvisor
With inflation running low, a group that advocates for 1.2 million retired veterans and other seniors says older Americans should expect another year of bad news when it comes to Social Security cost-of-living adjustments. The Senior Citizens League “is concerned,” according to Chairman Ed Cates. “There appears to be a high risk of either an extremely low annual cost–of–living adjustment (COLA) next year, or worse — none at all.” COLAs are based on changes in the third-quarter Consumer Price Index for urban consumers and go into effect each January.

After Record Week, How Much Lower Can Bond Yields Go?
Wall Street Journal
Record-shattering declines in government-bond yields are forcing investors to reassess once again just how low interest rates can go. The 10-year German government-bond yield closed at an all-time low of 0.028% Friday, putting it on the cusp of expanding the record global pool of negative-yielding sovereign debt. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note settled at 1.639% Friday, the lowest closing since May 2013.