August 2009

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

FALL 2009

Greetings to Members of the FIA Section:

By all accounts, the FIA breakfast on Wednesday, August 5^th in New York City was a success. The by-laws were approved and the suggested officers were approved by more than 100 members attending the meeting. We sold 160 tickets for the breakfast. As of July 28, 2009, we had 216 FIA members. Amazing to me.

I certainly wish to thank the AICPA's Forensic and Valuation Services section and the new CFF group for helping sponsor the breakfast and business meeting. Thank you Elaine Leggett.

As recommended by the AICPA, Sharyn Maggio, from Eatontown, N.J. introduced our speaker, Ramona R. Farrell. Ms. Sharyn gave a short example of her testimony in Dina M. McGreevy's divorce proceedings against former N.J. Governor James E. McGreevy. Sharyn testified that James E. McGreevy had no celebrity value.

Ramona R. Farrell with Ueltzen & Company in Sacramento spoke to the group about the characteristics and skills of the forensic accountant (FC). For her slides, go here. Her co-author, Charles Davis helped Ramona deliver the results of a questionnaire sent to attorneys, academics, and CPAs. They found these five essential traits and characteristics of a FC (ranked):

                                                      Attorney         Academic              CPA

Analytical                                             1                      1                      1

Detail oriented                                      2                      -                       3

Ethical                                                  3                      2                      3

Inquisitive                                             -                       4                      2

Insightful                                               5                      -                       -

Intuitive                                                -                       -                       5

Persistent                                              -                       5                      -

Responsive                                           4                      -                       -

Skeptical                                              -                       3                      4

            Another interesting slide identified the six most frequent reasons why forensic accountants are ineffective:

                                                                             Attorney               CPA

Ineffective oral communication                                       2                      3

Ineffective written communication                                  -                       5

Lack of investigative intuitiveness                                   5                      2

Inability to simplify information                                       1                      4

Inability to identify key issues                                         4                      1

Inability to understand the goals of a case                       3                      -

I asked the group if they would like to start a journal. The group voted almost unanimously to consider an electronic or paper journal.

After the breakfast most of the executive committee met and discussed the future directions of the section.

There is some good news and bad news. After the AAA annual meeting, Richard Riley wrote to me and resigned as Vice-President, Academic. The good news is as directed by the by-laws, the executive committee voted Tim Louwers, James Madison University, as the Interim Vice-President, Academic. A full vote for a replacement will occur next year at the normal time for officers' election.

I am working on a possible FIA journal as well as a mid-year meeting. Send me suggestions for your section, and I still need more members for some of my committees. Go to the committee site, and let me know on which committee you would like to serve. I need someone to be editor of our newsletter, The Forensic Educator.

Have a great Fall semester. It's great to be a forensic accountant!

 
Sincerely,

D. Larry Crumbley
KPMG Endowed Professor
Louisiana State University
3106 A Patrick Taylor

Baton Rouge, LA 70803

225.578.6231
Email: dcrumbl@lsu.edu