Click Minimizing the risk of malpractice claims from lateral hires
By Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ARM, ACIArb Many accounting firms have aggressive plans to build their practices and expand the range of services available to clients. Growth strategy is often comprises of several elements: Organic growth is the simplest and arises from marketing, business and employee development and cross selling services to clients. Mergers and acquisition […]
Using Indemnification Clauses to protect your firm
by Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ARM, ACIArb All CPAs know that a signed engagement letter is a crucial tool in the defense of a professional negligence lawsuit. The engagement letter memorializes the terms of the engagement, details what services you are performing and more importantly, the services you are NOT offering (i.e. you will not detect […]
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Rickard Jorgensen - Posted in Accountants' risk management, being sued, client communications, Client relations, due diligence, engagement letters, engagement letters, file documentation, indemnification clause, insurance, Mediation, risk management, settlement negotiation, Uncategorized
Jan, 28, 2019
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Control of client funds
by Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ARM, ACIArb If your CPA firm has control of client funds and can write checks on clients’ bank or investment accounts you may have an exposure to CPAs or firm staff abusing the signatory authority by stealing or misusing the client funds in the firm’s custody and control. This could apply to bill […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, being sued, Client relations, Coverage, coverage limitations, Crime coverage, criminal behaviour, policy coverage, policy wording, risk management, security
- Jan, 03, 2019
- No Comments.
Early Notice to insurers and claims mitigation has many benefits
by Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ARM, ACIArb. From a purely risk management perspective, bringing your insurer into the claims process is extremely prudent and can save you a lot of money. The following outlines reasons why you should contact your malpractice insurer or insurance agent: Reporting a potential claim enables your malpractice insurer to work on […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, being sued, Claims, claims notification, due diligence, insurance, policy coverage, professional liability claims, risk management, Uncategorized
- Oct, 03, 2018
- No Comments.
Mergers and Acquisitions – due diligence and the risk management process
There has been a spate of firm consolidations in the past few years and the pace is unlikely to slow down. Retirements, business expansion, consolidation of practice areas or acquisition of a new specialty drive the reasons to merge firms together. Due diligence is essential in the evaluation of the firm. Identifying issues before a […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, due diligence, mergers, policy coverage, prior acts coverage, risk management
- Jun, 06, 2018
- No Comments.
Example IRS Circular 230 Email Disclaimer
A client recently requested an appropriate disclaimer for email communications. Ralph Picardi, risk management consultant to CPAGold™, suggested the following clause. This is a repeat of our earlier posting here but worth restating. Example IRS Circular 230 Email Disclaimer (Following 2014 Revisions to Treasury Regulations) This example email disclaimer is intended solely for general educational […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, email risk management, professional liability claims, Ralph G. Picardi, risk management, Tax Services, Uncategorized
- Jan, 04, 2018
- No Comments.
An overview of the client screening process
By Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ACIArb, ARM Extracted from Evaluating Clients – Engagement risk screening for CPA firms. There are solid reasons for screening new clients. Many involve not getting paid, exposure to lawsuits or even the stress related to difficult individuals. Effective client screening can avoid these problems. Implementing a formal screening process is the […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' risk management, Client relations, Client screening, due diligence, engagement letters, engagement letters, lawsuit, professional liability claims, risk management, Uncategorized
- Aug, 08, 2017
- No Comments.
Fee Collection – a malpractice risk
Counter suits arising from fee disputes are one of the most common sources of malpractice claims against CPAs. In fact, such suits are a great risk for many professionals. Any steps taken to avoid a collection becoming a malpractice claim are essential. One of the key areas of attention should be a documented Collection Procedure. […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, professional liability claims, Uncategorized
- Mar, 09, 2017
- No Comments.
Examples of Limitation of Liability Clauses
By Seth L. Laver, (with additional remarks by Rickard Jorgensen). Following the recent article (here) about limitation of liability clauses, I asked Seth L. Laver if he could suggest a limitation of liability wording for engagement letters. This was the response: Before we get to the proposed language, a disclaimer: the enforcement of these clauses vary […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, Seth l. Laver
- Feb, 17, 2016
- No Comments.
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