Insights: Financial Statement Audit

De-risking strategies in pension plans are currently much discussed by corporate management and pension plan fiduciaries. These strategies may include adopting a liability driven investment (LDI) strategy or purchasing participating annuity contracts (buy-in contracts) on the asset side to decrease volatility and manage cash flow.

Mobile devices transform the way your organization serves customers and generates business, as well as communicates with your employees and stakeholders. These same devices bring new and increased risks to your organization’s data, competitive advantage/intellectual property, and reputation. Managing these risks requires a holistic approach, which goes beyond just securing the software on a device.

The bodies that establish US and international accounting standards have released new guidance on the timing of companies’ revenue recognition. The new guidance from FASB and the IASB have been in development for more than a decade and are intended to enhance comparability of revenue recognition practices across companies, industries, jurisdictions, and capital markets. FASB’s version of the guidance was published in ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. This article provides an overview of the converged guidance, along with a brief look at the potential impact on certain industries.

After several years of deliberation among various NAIC committees and working groups, working capital finance investments (WCFIs) were approved as admitted assets for insurance companies effective January 1, 2014.

On February 19, 2014 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced it would abandon its rewrite of existing US GAAP through the Insurance Contracts Exposure Draft and instead focus on targeted improvements to the existing standards for long-duration contracts and targeted disclosure enhancements for short-duration contracts. On April 16, 2014 the FASB began its discussions on those improvements and disclosures that should be included in the scope of this project.