“Long Reach” of Sept. 11 Prompts Disaster Recovery Conference Experts Emphasize Contingency Planning

By Simon Eskow and Marietta E. Gentles

NEW YORK—Insurance, planning and government experts at a Feb. 4-5 conference addressed last year’s terrorist attacks, which continue to take a financial and emotional toll on CPAs and their clients.

“In the five months since Sept. 11, we’ve seen extraordinary signs of giving and generosity,” said Patricia Brill, during the Foundation for Accounting Education’s Disaster Recovery Conference. Brill works with Project Liberty, a federally sponsored program that provides free counseling services to people effected by the attacks.

“The other side of the coin is the aftershock still being experienced by businesses and people,” she said. “People have to make financial decisions while suffering. We’ve all been affected.”

The two-day conference offered a glimpse of the “long reach” of Sept. 11 and the tangled issues of financial planning for clients who suffered devastating personal and professional loss. Speakers discussed the lessons financial planners learned in the ensuing months, while explaining the steps government agencies like the Internal Revenue Service have taken to ease suffering and rebuild
business.

Brill and Project Liberty psychology expert Blanche Goodman lent a human face to the aftermath of Sept. 11 based on their experience counseling survivors of the attack, and offered CPAs hints on detecting emotional problems with their clients, and how best to deal with them.

“Always listen, look concerned; allow your clients to exhibit emotion,” Goodman said. “Be patient and try to be calm.”
Brill also said CPAs should take care of themselves as they deal with the stresses of helping suffering clients.

“I’ve seen the consequences of ignoring ourselves in high-pressure situations,” she said. “You are in a pressured job and profession. You need to take care of yourself.”

Hard Lessons

A group of CPAs acknowledged the vast personal toll the attacks have taken on them, and commented on the lessons they’ve learned.

“We’ve all had experience where there’s a sudden loss,” said John Lieberman, of Rosenzweig and Maffia in Manhattan, during a panel discussion on “Working with Survivors.” But this case was different, he said, and many CPAs were not prepared to deal with “grief management.”

The panel, moderated by conference Chair Andrew Blackman, of Shapiro and Lobel in Manhattan, included Peter Traphagen, of Traphagen and Traphagen in Oradell, N.J., who explored the question of how much they should get involved in the day-to-day lives, especially of new clients, who sometimes come to them seeking “something for nothing.”

They also reiterated the importance of having vital records secure and handy, echoing a panel discussion from the opening day of the conference.

For the Record: The Importance of Preserving Documentation

The bulk of the conference, however, broached issues directly related to serving clients.

On the opening day of the conference, panelists Eric Miller, president of Miller Consulting Group, and Steven Levine, of insurance carrier The Mogil Organization, discussed insurance issues that became pertinent after the World Trade Center attack during the “Life, Disability, Property and Casualty Insurance Lessons Learned from 9/11” seminar.

Miller stated that the events of Sept. 11 have brought up many issues with life-insurance coverage and the government’s distribution of financial relief to victims. He emphasized the importance of life insurance and good record keeping, saying that clients should keep lockboxes in three separate locations for important documents with the name, address and telephone number of insurers, accountants, beneficiaries and trustees.

“It is important to know that we should each take a look at our individual circumstances, and our client’s circumstances, to know what would happen, and when, in the event of a disaster,” Miller said.

Levine focused on the impact that Sept. 11 has had on large corporations. Many executives were unable to account for their employees or their job responsibilities. Also, companies were left without important documents or alternate office space. As a result, he said, there will be development of new software and database management programs to help large companies keep track of their employees.

Levine said companies should set up off-site suites in case of an emergency, adding that top executives should not be beyond staying informed of their employees’ whereabouts and should have a contingency plan for events as catastrophic as the one that occurred on Sept. 11.

“It’s quite interesting to see that a lot of businesses did not prepare properly and did not take the proper safeguards to get a handle on where they would go in a situation such as 9/11,” Levine said.

Crisis Intervention

Other speakers included Peter Bakstansky, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who spoke about the steps the bank took to help to assure liquidity and a smoothly functioning market. Charles Hall, an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service, discussed the extensions and allowances the IRS made after the attacks to help businesses and individuals recover from the attack. The conference closed with a presentation on “Planning for Death,” by Alan Straus, a sole practitioner in New York City.

“I thought it was a very enlightening conference in that it brought together different perspectives on how not only individuals but corporations should react in different types of disaster situations,” attendee Mark Israel said near the conclusion of the first day of the conference.