CPE + Events Catalog

Seniors face issues that complicate return preparation and planning. When to apply for social security? How is it taxed? What if they continue to work? Will an increased standard deduction affect charitable planning? Will downsizing affect interest and property tax deductions and payments? How to help children or grandchildren pay for a home or a college education? We'll explore these questions and more.

It's no secret that elections are consequential for a variety of reasons. One key area that experts are watching in light of the 2024 election is tax policy. Kasey Pittman, Director of Tax Policy, at Baker Tilly, walks viewers through the provisions which are set to expire at the end of 2025. She provides her insights regarding potential avenues for tax reform, highlighting the reconciliation process and its limitations. Pittman delves into the impact of a Republican unified government and what that could mean for tax reform, such as in the state and local tax arena. She also explores the challenges that tax advisors and businesses may face in 2025 and how those advisors can best support their clients.

This course equips CPAs and financial experts with practical strategies to deliver clear, confident, and defensible testimony during direct examination. You'll learn how to prepare effectively, structure your testimony, and communicate complex financial analysis in a way that judges and juries can understand. Topics include advance case preparation, file documentation and privilege awareness, scripting direct testimony, using courtroom graphics, and managing credibility under legal scrutiny. Real-world examples and best practices are shared to help you strengthen your effectiveness, maintain independence, and avoid common pitfalls in litigation testimony.

Business succession is not just a legal transition - it's a financial turning point. In this practical session, veteran business attorney Jason B. Meyer, Esq. outlines the governance, structural, and planning steps that help protect enterprise value and prevent costly disruption. Designed for CPAs, CFOs, and financial advisors, this course focuses on strengthening charter documents, mitigating continuity risks, preparing for due diligence, and coordinating legal and tax strategy to support smooth ownership transitions - whether to family, employees, or external buyers.

This course dives deep into key supplemental schedules of IRS Form 990, giving you clear insights into public support tests, lobbying activities, and essential financial and compensation disclosures. Learn the rules, spot common mistakes, and discover practical planning strategies to strengthen your nonprofit's reporting and stay compliant. - This session was recorded on May 29, 2025, for CalCPA's Not-for-Profit Organizations Conference.

Divorce is not only a legal process, but also a life-changing financial event. There are three forums for divorce: mediation, collaboration, and traditional litigation. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods like mediation and collaboration offer confidential and discreet ways to resolve issues without traditional litigation. A divorce financial planner can help navigate the process and provide expert advice on financial and tax decisions. Lili Vasileff, President of Wealth Protection Management, joins this segment to discuss the various forums of divorce, compare forms of alternative dispute resolution, and explore top trends.

Surveys and field studies find that diverse teams are high-performing teams. Diverse teams value different perspectives and encourage the participation of team members through psychological safety, leading to higher team performance. Team diversity is an office-level characteristic, that is distinguishable from other characteristics studied in prior auditing literature, that has an incremental effect on audit quality. The positive association between team diversity and audit quality is robust to controlling other audit office and client characteristics. This positive association is even stronger for more complex and non-routine audit engagements.

This study examines associations between auditor provided tax compliance and tax planning services and tax avoidance and tax risk. Collectively, our results suggest that companies paying their auditors for tax planning advice are more effective tax planners (in terms of higher tax avoidance and lower tax risk) than firms that do not engage their auditor for tax work. Our tax avoidance results are more pronounced for clients of auditors with more tax expertise and longer tenure, as well as for firms with higher tax and operational complexity. We also find that our tax avoidance results hold only when firms also engage their auditors for tax compliance work, which is consistent with auditors seeking to minimize reputation threats. Our study's unique hand-collected panel dataset provides a more precise and nuanced perspective on the role auditors play in tax outcomes.

Preparing fiduciary income tax returns can be daunting, even for experienced practitioners. Form 1041 (federal) and Form 541 (California) share similarities with individual income tax returns, but fiduciary rules introduce important complexities. This course offers a practical, step-by-step approach to Form 1041/541 preparation, covering everything from obtaining an EIN and understanding governing documents to reporting income, deductions, elections, and distributions. Designed for those preparing their first fiduciary return or seeking a solid refresher, this course equips participants to navigate fiduciary taxation with confidence.

This practical and forward-looking course introduces accounting professionals to the specialized field of forensic accounting, with a focus on how to strategically expand an existing practice into litigation support and investigative services. Designed and presented by Brian Peter Brinig, JD, CPA/ABV, ASA, this course walks you through the full landscape of forensic accounting'from foundational distinctions between investigative and litigation tracks, to the technical, ethical, and marketing strategies needed to succeed in this high-demand profession. You'll learn how to identify profitable niches, navigate the adversarial litigation environment, apply professional standards, and avoid common pitfalls such as conflicts of interest and overstepping professional boundaries. With emphasis on real-world implementation, this course provides essential tools to launch and grow a respected forensic practice grounded in objectivity, credibility, and compliance.

Are you ready to strengthen your accounting practice through ethical leadership? In this engaging 4-hour course, you'll learn how to build a successful, resilient practice by mastering the key principles of ethical intelligence. You'll discover how to hire and retain high-performing team members who embody honesty, accountability, care, and courage. You'll apply the principles of ethical intelligence-Do No Harm, Make Things Better, Respect Others, Be Fair, and Care-to enhance your practice's financial health and long-term stability. We'll also explore the power of gratitude in creating a positive work environment, reducing turnover, and strengthening client relationships. Plus, you'll confront "zombie" myths that can undermine your practice and learn how to protect your business from financial and ethical risks. Through practical tools and interactive exercises, you'll ensure your practice is ethical, resilient, and financially secure for the long term. Who knew a 4-hour ethics course could be so practical-and fun? This course offers NASBA-approved non-technical (behavioral) ethics credit and counts toward your 80-hour CPE requirement; however, it does not satisfy the California Board of Accountancy's four-hour technical (regulatory) ethics requirement.

This study uses difference-in-differences (DiD) analyses to examine the consequences of adopting the U.S. critical audit matter (CAM) disclosure requirement for preparers and users of financial reports. The CAM requirement is one of the largest expansions of the U.S. audit report since the 1940s. We document significant changes to financial statement footnotes referenced by CAMs, which suggests an indirect consequence where management disclosure changes in areas that are expected to be scrutinized following auditor-provided disclosure. Results also suggest that, on average, CAM disclosures do not provide incremental information to the market. To further examine market reaction, we develop well-specified prediction models for the expected number and subject areas of CAMs. We find limited initial evidence that the market reacts negatively when unexpected CAMs are disclosed. Overall, the findings provide insights on the new CAM standard and particularly demonstrate its relevance to management disclosure decisions and to the market.

Everyone agrees we need to administer useful employee evaluations. However, few managers take the necessary time to effectively plan for upcoming reviews or think about how to correctly administer each one. As a result, an employee review can be an unhelpful and negative event'or could be a great catalyst for future high performance. Gain insight to the performance cycle; learn the importance of continuous improvement through coaching; and identify 360s and other forms of data, among other topics. The webcast was originally broadcast on July 18, 2016. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course.

Qualified Opportunity Zones remain a powerful yet complex planning tool for financial professionals. In this course, Trent Baeckl explores the evolution of the Opportunity Zone program, key tax incentives, and critical planning considerations ahead of the 2026 gain recognition deadline. Participants will gain practical insight into compliance, reporting, geographic distinctions, and strategic decision-making to help clients evaluate Opportunity Zone investments with greater clarity and confidence.

Benefit plan audits, a material but less understood public accounting service, represent a non-audit service that is - audit-related. - We explore the implications of benefit plan audits for the financial statement audit and find that performing a benefit plan audit for a company significantly increases the likelihood that the firm will be selected as a company's financial statement auditor in the future, particularly for smaller audit firms. Companies that engage the same audit firm for both their benefit plan and financial statement audits have a significantly lower likelihood of misstatements and shorter audit report lags. There is also evidence consistent with the joint provision of these services creating greater bonding and higher switching costs for the financial statement audit. The findings speak to the continued debate over the effective market expansion of financial statement audit providers, audit quality determinants, and audit efficiencies.

Despite the growing interest in blockchain (BC) technology, recent research shows mixed perceptions due to its risks and returns. We utilize event study methodology to examine overall market reactions and to delineate how specific contexts associated with BC technology influence market reactions. Using 149 BC technology adoptions announced between January 2015 and December 2019, we find positive abnormal returns, reflecting investors - optimistic perception toward BC technology adoption. Specifically, we find that abnormal returns from BC technology are higher when used in a transformative strategic role and offered by leading vendors, suggesting that investors view this adoption as a value-enhancing activity. Our results are robust to the use of an alternative sample and different methods of measuring variables. Overall, our study provides insights for academics and practitioners to better understand the market value of BC technology adoptions.

A compelling narrative of Tom Hardin's Tipper X experience, offering vital lessons in ethics tailored for the accounting profession. By intertwining personal experiences with practical insights, this session seeks to clarify the intricacies of ethical decision-making, emphasizing the importance of integrity and accountability in professional practice. This session was recorded on March 19, 2024 at the 2024 Fraud & Forensic Accounting Virtual Conference.

Businesses are increasingly evaluated on factors beyond their balance sheets. Jennifer Harrity explores the realm of sustainability and the unique role accounting firms play in offering this essential service, providing a comprehensive view of clients and their organizational health. We will define sustainability in the context of modern business and discuss its emergence as a significant disruptor. You will discover how accounting firms can integrate into this progressive landscape and gain insights into one of the fastest-growing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks: B Corporation certification.

After this session examining the psychology of investigators and perpetrators, you'll never think about fraud the same way again. This story-based presentation will use first-hand accounts and the latest research to show why some traditional investigational practices are more harmful than helpful. This course exposes myths and dangers lurking in our assumptions about fraud. We'll explore misunderstandings about skepticism and learn how auditors and investigators may unwittingly assist the same fraud schemes they are trying to thwart. We will challenge the industry's "sacred cows" and help develop more effective thinking approaches for fraud investigation, detection and deterrence.

Laurie Smith, Tax Partner at Wiss & Company, LLP, outlines how recent tax reforms require a shift from compliance to strategic advisory. This session explores key provisions and how they interact to impact planning. Attendees will learn to identify modeling risks, clarify client misconceptions, and recognize when deeper analysis is needed to guide smarter, multi-year tax decisions.