Grafter

Thank you for checking and the update John.

American. So any assistance in finding it would be appreciated. As nothing on Amazon that I could find, nor ebay. Blurb, the publisher, appears to be a print on demand outfit, bot nothing there I could find. Per google, There are a handful of places I could find, like Laguna beach books or Booksonb, that I have never heard of and who knows if legit.

If you are offering, I too would be interested. As I found that same podcast and it was a good listen (and I like collecting oddball, niche books).

Bought some abg after the recent drop. But then I trade in and out of it due to the violatity.

Starter position in ssd.

On sale for $3 on kindle this weekend.

For background, am in the US, and work as a service provider to some of the planning (usually not directly involved, as that is more the realm of estate and trust attorneys, though I know some of the tunes), so the below is based towards that. That all said, there are a number of considerations when you start getting to end of life planning. Some is what you want to happen to the money, how much you have (and if you are getting up against the current or potential future lifetime exclusion amounts) and then trying to do so in an efficient way. And efficient can be very different depending on what you want, and this is a very broad topic. If you want book suggestions, I would say: Beyond the Grave - For considerations of leaving money to kids and in trusts Various books by James Hughes Jr for family wealth topics Die with Zero by Perkins for getting use of money during life. Otherwise, for transferring assets, it is some combo of what is nicknamed: freezing, squeezing, or burning assets, which are respectively: lock in current values, using minority and illiquidity discounts, or transferring during your life (such to the various limits). Though, one piece of advice, is that estate planning is not a one and done approach. As trust tax and situs type laws keep on changing, as well as you should revisit it every time there is a major change (new kid, marriage or divorce, new type of asset), as about the only thing worse than no planning is ancient planning. As I had to deal with a will that was 40+ years old and without a lot of changes, which was a major PIA.

I have indirect experience two ways, being part of some of the succession work (mom and dad leaving the family farm to their kids) as well as know multiple people that have tenant in common interests with other family members. Everyone is in the corn belt for reference. A lot depends on the set up of how ownership came to be (was it inherited directly, or 3rd, 4th+ generations of inheritance), family dynamics (does everyone get along, do any of the owners farm it, or helped mom and dad with farming), state laws (potentially limiting the number of acres per entity), etc. That said, I've seen a few people that try to get out of the ownership interest, either selling to the other owners, or to outsiders. Either way, you are probably going to take a good haircut, due to being a minority owner and lack of liquidity and control. For the real estate attorney, do they do estate work? Are they in farm country? Or was it just someone random in your network (or found) that does RE transactions? For resources, you can google, or try looking to some of the farmer specific magazines (as I swear Farm Journal used to have a column about inheritances). As I've not seen that sort of provision before, but I can understand where it is coming from, with potential family dynamics as well as limited income potential (as most crop ground in my state is doing a 2-3% cash yield, which really doesn't support much debt; and with the price of crop ground, even a smaller piece of land would represent a fairly large chunk of cash). Usually the provisions I've seen are: some sort of buy sell agreement (limiting who can buy); a set amount of time before it can be sold, and number of votes as to major events, like selling; if it goes into an entity, that one of the members can buy it at a discount (as they farmed with the parents when the other kids went and did other off farm things; as a potentially reward to helping to grow the equity and value of the holdings).

Some of the other posters have hit upon some of the things that Enron did and some of the questions that should have been asked. However, if you are really curious, I would highly suggest reading Financial Shenanigans: How to detect accounting gimmicks & frauds in financial reports, as they have sections about each of the companies you mentioned.

PTP/LPs, like others have pointed out, can cause a lot of headaches: 1) Gains and losses in multiple states, that may require filing multiple state tax returns. Especially if there is a large sale or it produces a lot of ordinary income (Stonemar did that a few times, and I know that PA went after unitholders; I wouldn't be surprised if OK goes after MMP holders this year, due to the capital gain associated with the sale of a plant there). 2) State level bonus depreciation adjustments, which impact both the annual losses and gain when sold. 3) Most PTPs are passive to the unitholder, so losses are not deductible until there is offseting income or you dispose of the shares. But, you also need to be tracking and reporting the suspended losses (and if you change accounting firms or software, it is very easy for this info to be lost). 4) You generally need to track your own basis, both to make sure that the K-1s report the right beginning balance and for whatever you purchased or sold during the year; as well as to see if you have distributions in excess of basis (which are capital gain). In addition, when you sell, as the sale of a partnership is treated as selling the underlying assets, some of the gain will most likely be ordinary (as depreciation recaputure). You will also be hit with basis adjustments (to reflect the various partnership distributions you've received over time). 5) If you hold in an IRA, you have to be on the look out for UBIT income. And it does appear that in some cases, the IRS is treating the ordinary gain on sale of a PTP as UBIT income, which requires a 990-T to be filed (which most custodians will charge you for) and you will need to pay the appropriate tax from the IRA assets. Other than that, there are: 1) The issues with mutual funds, such as if they have a number of redemption0, they will need to sell, which very well may result in capital gains (which isn't an issue for ETFs). In addition, due to the mutual fund structure, if you buy right before the ex-dividend date, you will be hit with the full impact of the year's tax attributes that are distributed (vs buying right after, at the lower share price). 2) All of the foreign asset filings, if you hold foreign assets (and especially so with PFICs). This can range from the FBAR and Form 8938, to needing to read the tax treaty with that country to determine what your foreign filing requirement is. As the penalties for not filing when you need to file are significant (easily in the 5 digits and up).

Central Iowa.

So, functionally, what are you proposing? That if the auditor finds fraud, they need to publicly disclose it or disclose it to certain parties? As if you want to make it public disclosure, you will need to fundamentally change the current regulatory regime, as that isn't really allowed. Though, currently, auditors should be bringing findings about fraud or suspected fraud to the appropriate level of management (per AU 316.79). In addition, the PCAOB recently passed AS 3101, which will change the wording on auditor's reports for public companies when the standard becomes effective (which will help close the expectation gap of what the public thinks a financial statement audit is and what is actually required by accounting and auditing standards). But, look at it from a service company model as well. Most public company audits cost millions of dollars. The big 4 accounting firms do the majority of these audits (I've seen estimates that the percentage is in the mid to high 90s). And unfortunately, for a lot of businesses, an audit is just a cost of doing business and viewed as a commodity. So, often times the business will attempt to go with a lower cost provider (and if you start cost cutting, when pressured, people will cut corners or do the bare minimum). I mean, you can do fraud risk audits (or forensic audits after the fact), but that is an additional set of procedures that is not really encompassed in the current regulations for a financial statement audit. I've heard at least one suggestion that the SEC, and not the company's board, should be the one hiring the outside auditing firm. But if you entertain that thought, how is the SEC going to pay for it (as their current budget is in the range of $1.6 billion)? In theory, they could charge all public companies additional fees to cover it. But then, how would the economics of non-public audits be impacted? Would all bankers and granters (which are the most likely reasons reasons why non-public entities have audits) have to set up similar pools? Or would the client still be the company's board (which would probably create different audit models)?

For me, it isn't necessarily the brand (though I do like that I'm supporting the local economy by keeping my money at a community bank), but the stickiness of the relationship. As others have pointed out, moving the number of billpays contacts and re-linking 10s of outside accounts (utilities, CCs, etc) is a major pain, and they would have to do a major fubar at this point to get me to change. As it is easy enough to move funds elsewhere for better rates, and I don't have any special needs (such as wires, currency, etc). Of course, my experience may be a bit colored by having to go through the process a few years ago (and I still occasionally come across a linked account that I need to update to the new account number).

Picked up some more CMCSA on Friday and am thinking about adding yet more.