News from Your Accounting Association
CPAmerica Advantage What’s in a name? WEC’s Cost Segregation Group is now CSG Strategic Tax Consultants We recently spoke to Matt Needam and Will McCadden of (CSG), a subsidiary of member firm (WEC), on their recent rebrand and why it came about. Needa m has been w ith the firm since 2008. He is an electrical engineer and has led the CSG as director since 2013. Needa m commented, “CSG is a division within WEC that has historically focused on cost segregation studies.” He added, "In 1999 WEC was an early adopter of providing cost segregation services. In fact, Commerce Clearing House (CCH) consulted with us to help them improve some of the tools they were developing, and that relationship led to CCH engaging us to author the industry standard on cost segregation, The Practical Guide to Cost Segregation. Local CPA firms also engaged us to provide the service to their clients which is why we originally branded ourselves as the Cost Segregation Group. We merely acted as an extension of their practice. Before long, we were performing these studies all
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across the country for other practices.”
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From Member Services article P. 4 Will McCadden, CSG’s project manager, went on to say, “This interaction with other firms across the country taught us that the number one concern of many CPA firms is, ‘What is my competition talking to my clients about?’ In an attempt to address that [concern], we expanded our serCPAmerica's International vice offering first to WEC clients; it included Group Meeting - expand your R&D tax credits, 179D and 45L studies. Once firm's worldwide reach we developed the necessary expertise, we CPAmerica's International Group Meeting is set for Atlanta, Georgia, offered these services as an outsourced soluin the heart of Atlanta's Midtown. tion to our CPA firm clients.” The luxurious Four Seasons Hotel Needam continued, “As we diversified our product offerings, The Cost Segregation Group name no longer adequately identified who we were. We broadened the scope of our name while maintaining our roots by changing it to CSG Strategic Tax Consultants. We really wanted to remember the 18 years of history that we had created because many people know us by the old name. Being able to create synergy between the two names has been one of the trickiest parts of the rebrand."
Atlanta will host the annual event on Nov. 28-30.
We have reserved a block of rooms at $225/night (plus tax).* To ensure yours at the discounted rate, call the Four Seasons Hotel at 404-881-9898 and reference the code phrase "CPAmerica" or for more info on the CPAmerica website, visit: https:// tinyurl.com/ yc88ud9v
CPAmerica International Group Meeting
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What Exactly Does Cyber Liability Insurance Cover? Bill Thompson from CPA Mutual examines the question.
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ers are about hackers and other breaches in data security.
ing client information. The more often that stories are in the news about data breaches, the more concerned firm lead-
Data breach laws have now been adopted by 47 states in the U.S. Potential exposures and risks for closely held company directors and officers are reaching the level of publicly-held companies, according to CPA Mutual, a national risk retention group and accounting firm liability coverage provider. Judges are less likely to throw out claims than they were in the past, even for small and mid-sized independent public accounting firms. Liability not only affects the business, but also can
ccounting firms not only have the challenge of protecting their information as a business, but also protect-
* Group rate available until November 6
extend to individual leaders. According to CPA Mutual, since offering cyber coverage to their clients, members have experienced 18 cyber losses. On average, these have cost just under $17,000 with the most expensive claim to date coming in at $166,000. Since 2015, the number of claims has doubled each year. Some insurers, like CPA Mutual, that offer cyber liability insurance also have resources for risk mitigation and disaster planning. However, cyber liability insurance primarily covers the costs associated
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