Professional Development and Event Catalog

Navigating the complexities of estate and trust administration is a vital skill for professionals, who play an integral role in the administration team. This comprehensive course is designed to equip professionals with a thorough understanding of their responsibilities and the processes involved in estate administration, enhancing their ability to address estate settlement issues effectively. Participants will be provided with a detailed overview of the professional’s role in estate and trust administration, emphasizing practical insights and strategies for managing assets, addressing the legitimacy of debts and creditors, and ensuring the proper distribution of assets. **Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com.

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This course provides financial professionals with a comprehensive understanding of trusts and their role in estate planning. Participants will learn how to determine whether a trust aligns with a client's financial goals and explore strategies to maximize tax efficiency. The course covers various trust structures and their potential to reduce income, estate, and generation-skipping taxes at both federal and state levels. Additionally, it delves into trustee responsibilities and the benefits of irrevocable life insurance trusts and dynasty trusts. With a focus on practical applications and real-world scenarios, this course equips CPAs, EAs, attorneys, bankers, and financial planners with the expertise to navigate probate avoidance, streamline asset distribution, and manage complex tax considerations. Whether working with revocable or irrevocable trusts, participants will gain the tools to enhance their clients' financial well-being across generations. *Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com

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This course equips practitioners with the knowledge to help clients navigate complex tax and financial challenges. Covering a range of difficult situations—such as divorce, bankruptcy, and other personal and business matters—this course provides key tax insights and strategic planning considerations. Participants will gain practical strategies to support clients in making informed decisions while understanding the tax implications of these situations.

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Level 1 focuses on the basic skill sets that new staff need to quickly master in order to "hit the ground running," while not overwhelming them with too much information all at once. This course explains the basics of what new auditors are generally expected to know and do. This course will focus on "why" certain procedures are performed, as well as "how" to perform typical procedures expected of new staff. This course is critical in establishing the groundwork for the expectation that all staff should critically analyze and understand the underlying purpose of procedures, as well as how to effectively and efficiently complete assigned tasks. IMPORTANT NOTE: This course takes place over two consecutive days. Registration for both days is required.

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This course includes an analysis of all of the relevant authoritative pronouncements that a CPA must have an understanding of in order to properly perform preparation, compilation and review engagements. Troublesome areas as identified in peer reviews and litigation will be addressed. This course is loaded with practical aids to enable CPAs to comply with the standards! Participants who take this course will enjoy a smooth sailing in their peer reviews...guaranteed! This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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Many public accountants desire to have a quick overview of only the most current changes to professional and ethical requirements. This course will provide an executive summary of the major changes in audit and other attest requirements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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Employees drive the written and unwritten culture at your organization. Understanding the key workplace issues and how to solve them in today's environment can maximize the returns that employees provide for an organization. We take a deep dive into the research behind the larger issues with our workforce and discuss multiple practical solutions that will enhance your leadership and growth. How can we realize the most from our staff?

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This program provides a detailed analysis of the calculations related to determining tax basis for a partnership interest. Illustrated examples with filled in forms will demonstrate how the processes works and their many potential pitfalls.  *Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com

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Most management reports are misunderstood and misused. Reports are dull and have been presented in the same manner for decades. Do your audiences sometimes fail to get the message? Learn how to grab your audiences' attention and deliver an actionable message. Discover the power of "The Trifecta" and the five secrets of effective reports and presentations. Learn how to make your messaging a "re-memorable event" and how to give the users what they need to know. We will discuss how to make your reports useful and understandable to your audience. If management does not understand the financial reports they receive (most do not) this seminar will provide keen insights to make your reports truly useful. Be the hero who delivers informative reports. We will show great examples of what to do and how.

Where is your data? Do you have it controlled and backed up? If all your data is in the Cloud, how do you verify that the backup recovery is rapid? If your data is in various silos from your application providers, how do you ensure you have the protection and disposal approaches needed? This session will help you understand and guide your IT team and providers to take the right actions to protect your business. Backup considerations, including Cloud, backup appliance, disaster recovery, and business continuity approaches, are included. If you are from the "trust but verify" school of thought, this session will help you ask the right questions.

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For many small businesses, the standards issued by the FASB may have little to no effect as they impact topics that do not reflect the type of transactions that these entities most frequently experience. This class will focus on the Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) that are most likely to impact small businesses with a focus on ASUs initiated by the Private Company Council (PCC). We'll then look at alternative reporting options to GAAP including FRF for SMEs and IFRS for SMEs for entities who don't necessarily need to prepare GAAP financial statements but want to use accrual accounting. Finally, we will transition to audit standards that small business auditors will need to implement. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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Penalty abatement is a technique that tax practitioners can utilize to help their clients reduce penalties and interest they owe to the IRS if the taxpayer can prove "reasonable cause". This informative and insightful webinar will provide you with some insider tips, practical steps and effective strategies to help your client manage IRS tax penalties and interest. Learn about various types of penalties that you may face, and the various forms and procedures used for requesting penalty and interest abatement, including First Time and Reasonable Cause abatement. Plus, learn about the procedure to follow when requesting refund of paid penalties. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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For the ambitious female finance professional, working hard and going above and beyond are necessary for success. Sadly, taking time to care for themselves can be seen as counter-productive to meeting their career goals. Over ninety percent of women executives are feeling significantly higher levels of stress that they attribute to increased responsibilities and priorities outside the workplace compared to life before the pandemic. Burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that causes exhaustion, negativity toward one's job and reduced professional efficacy. It has become so pervasive that it's now recognized as an occupational phenomenon by the World Health Organization. To reignite your enthusiasm at work, you don't necessarily need to find a new job or time for a spa day or bubble bath. You need concrete strategies to invest in your mental health without compromising your ability to rise to the next level in your career. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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This session explores the nature of analytical procedures, with significant emphasis placed upon professional standards involving the use of analytical procedures in audit and review engagements. Practical examples to illustrate the application process will also be given.

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Cybersecurity protection is one of the most important responsibilities of every CPA professional to protect the confidentiality of sensitive client information. While there are many aspects of cybersecurity that need to be addressed, the biggest vulnerability to protect against is unauthorized access to your application login credentials. Once your login credentials are breached, the cybercriminal essentially has the keys to your data kingdom. John Higgins, a national leader in the CPA technology, will demonstrate the ease with which you can protect all of your login credentials with maximum security with minimal expense. You will leave this course prepared to deploy this state of the art security tool in your organization. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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Do you find yourself challenged to achieve the results you want? While leading employees can be one of the most challenging activities, it is also one of the most impactful leadership skills few seem to master. Inspirational leadership looks like lifelong employees reaching their full potential AND impactful business results that are repeated year after year. Striking the balance between these two critical aspects does not have to be rocket science. In this power-packed course, the formula to be an Inspirational leader has been masterfully developed and covers the soft skills of Inspirational leadership and the Results Model: Goal Setting + Coaching + Follow Up with proven results from dozens of both large and small companies. These cornerstones are simple but can be hard to execute because it is HOW you do it first, then WHAT you do second. This exciting course is designed to ignite your leadership skills by putting theory into practice; drilling into real live examples and experiencing first-hand what excellence sounds like through role-playing and building your action plan. Get ready to become an inspirational leader and learn the steps required to get the results you really want. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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A discussion of the latest 2021/222 tax developments impacting individual taxpayers, with a focus on important provisions, rules and concepts. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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Every business will be sold eventually. When you have built a great business and decide to move on – you want the most you can get for that terrific organization! What are the steps to take to maximize the value realized? What do buyers really want? What are the three levers to achieve maximum value? If you want top dollar, preparing to sell takes years of planning. This seminar helps CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, Board members, controllers, and their advisors prepare for a successful sale of the organization to maximize shareholder value. We will outline the process to get the most bang for the buck. Proper exit planning demands planning and time.

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What exactly is cryptocurrency and its cousin named blockchain? Are they here to stay? This session will provide a big picture examination of the technologies and currencies by explaining how we got here. We discuss the systems and technical aspects of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. What is the broad view of the technologies that currently do, and will continue to, impact our workplace and lives?

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Many accountants desire to have a quick overview of only the most current issues in accounting and financial reporting. This course will provide an executive summary of the most important changes in U.S. GAAP. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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