Vol. 25 I No. 11 I November 2011

TECHNOLOGY PACESETTERS P. 26
The best accounting resellers are moving in
brand-new directions to ;nd brand-new pro;ts
TAX SEASON PREVIEW P.29
The new regs, new laws, new technologies and
new strategies that will get you through 2012

accountingtoday.com

INSURANCE GUIDE P. 45
Everything you need to know to get the
liability coverage your ;rm needs

Accounting ;rms that have been

able to report increased revenues during the economic downturn often have niche services, strategic promotion of these services, and a hard push behind their best people and expertise to thank for that growth.

While most of these fast-grow-ing ;rms have had niche services in place for many years, the common theme of an integrated strategy in marketing, business development and cross-niche support

Revving
up your
revenue

Knuckle down on your best services and talent to compete in an uneven economy

See REVENUE on 51

BY DANIELLE LEE

PITTSBURGH’S AMBASSADOR LOCAL FIRM MALIN BERGQUIST THRIVES ON SERVING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSES ee page 10

MB CEO Jeffrey Deane

Tax to ;nancial planning: A natural progression

Most accountants involved in tax

preparation are already involved in ;nancial planning, even though they might not realize it.

“By virtue of doing tax preparations and giving tax planning advice, they’re already doing a component of ;nancial planning,” said

BY ROGER RUSSELL

CPA Barry Picker. A member of the
New York State Society of CPAs’
Personal Financial Planning Com-
mittee, Picker said that since most
CPAs are already in some part of
financial planning, “It becomes
a question of how much do they
want to extend that. ;ey can be-
come [registered investment advi-
sors], get their insurance license,
or some sort of securities license,
depending on what they want to
do. Being a CPA is a good start, but
the individual has to want to go in
that direction.”
Picker has both the Certi;ed Fi-
nancial Planner and the Personal
Financial Specialist designations.

A line in the sand

;e FAF’s proposed standards council draws a strong reply from the AICPA

;e American Institute of CPAs

has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet to the Financial Accounting Foundation, passing a resolution giving its board the option to create a separate body to develop accounting standards for private companies.

;e measure, which was overwhelmingly passed during the institute’s Fall Meeting of Council last month, came in response to a plan by the FAF to establish a new council to propose and vote on improvements to GAAP for private companies, while remaining under the auspices of the Financial Accounting Standard Board.

;e AICPA, however, had been lobbying for the creation of a separate standards board independent of FASB. A separate board had been one of the primary recom-