The CAmagazine annual Personal Financial Planning issue

Strategies for troubled times
To what strategies should financial advisors turn to in a period of financial turbulence and how should they communicate with their clients?

Due diligence
The Madoff fraud has increased the critical importance of due diligence before investing. The article will list the recent frauds, explain the behaviour that allowed them to be carried out, and show that these conditions are not limited to hedge fund type investments.

December 2009

Climate change and Business
To mark the Copenhagen world environmental conference  opening this month, CAmagazine is publishing an article on how environmental and sustainability issues  are changing the playing field. This is already creating opportunities for chartered accountants in risk, regulation, reporting and other roles.

Articling in industry
The CA profession recently changed the Practical Experience Requirement for obtaining the CA designation by allowing CA students to article in industry. This article will cover why the profession decided to make this monumental change, how it will be affected and what it means for the trainers, the students and potential employers.

January/February 2010

The CICA’s third compensation survey
The 2009 Professional Compensation Survey examines compensation for CAs across the spectrum of financial services and specializations in CA firms, industry, and non-profits. The article will offer a snapshot of CA compensation since the last survey of 2007 (for examples, see, “Salary success,” Jan-Feb 2008, and “What is your worth?” Jan-Feb 2006), and look at different aspects of the survey and tell us what they mean for the profession.

CAs in the Vancouver Olympics
The Vancouver Olympic Committee had three senior executive CAs in its rank. The article will look at their contribution to the making of one of the most unique events in the world, including the challenges they had to meet, how they overcame the problems, and how their CA background helped.

March 2010

Why clients change accountants
Knowing why clients change accounting firms is the first step to retaining them and gaining an edge in acquiring new ones!

Profile of leading CAs
The list we are working on includes:

• Sergio Marchione, CEO, Fiat Group and Chrysler
• Jim Balsillie – CEO of RIM, and NHL franchise seeker
• Aaron Regent – Barrick Gold
• Stephen Wetmor, president and CEO – Canadian Tire
• Nadir Mohamed, CEO, Rogers
• Réjean Robitaille, president and CEO, Laurentian Bank of Canada
• Benoit La Salle, CEO and owner of a mining company in Nigeria
• Carol Wild, CEO of The Toronto Board of Trade
  

April 2010

Internal auditors and the financial crisis
What was the contribution of internal auditors to their organization in the financial and economic crisis, particularly regarding governance issues? Was their performance up to the expectations of management and audit committees? The answers might not please everyone, but there are certainly lessons to be learned and best practices to be reviewed to help improve effectiveness and efficiency.

The decade ahead
In business you can never stop planning for the future. Hindsight is easy, but foresight is a major challenge. As we enter the new decade, the global marketplace will continue to get more competitive, compelling business leaders to make their organizations more agile, productive, innovative etc. The story will be a roundup of top Canadian business leaders espousing on what they envision to be the greatest issues confronting Canadian business in the next 10 years, examining the challenges and how best to meet them and how prepared they are to meet those challenges.

May 2010

Accounting diversity
In today’s world, embracing diversity has become a good business practice. Canada has 6 million people who were born outside the country, and people of a different sexual orientation are considered part of the diversity of the country. Many businesses now accept the importance of incorporating diversity into their business practices: banks, for instance, now recognize that employing people of different ethnicities brings in customers. How far have the big and medium accounting firms gone in what is becoming accepted business practice in North America? Do they need to implement more programs to attract people from diverse communities?

Raising Capital
One of the most significant issues confronting CAs is assisting their respective organizations and/or clients in the search for capital. This article will demonstrate that there is no shortage of capital and that the private equity community is active and looking to buy or invest in Canadian companies.

June-July 2010

IFRS – Six months to go
With only six months to go before the formal adoption of IFRS, the time to plan is now behind. In fact, publicly accountable entities already have to report under both GAAP and IFRS. How are companies coping? Are they on schedule, on budget? And the final question: do they think the transition was worth the time, the effort and the cost?

Profile of a leading CA (See list above - March 2010)

August 2010

The CAmagazine sustainability scorecard
As companies try to adjust to new environmental and sustainability requirements, they are looking for standards and guidance to help them meet these objectives and measure progress. The CICA is working on developing the first Green Sustainability Scorecard.

CAs offering environmentally friendly services
A service piece, this article would look at various services CA firms could offer their clients to help them meet their environmental goals.

September 2010

The CAmagazine annual IT issue

Top 10 tech issues
A survey of CAs with the CA-IT designation finds out what are the most important information technology issues for the year ahead.

October 2010

CA: an international designation
More than 7,000 Canadian CAs live abroad. While the majority are in the US and Bermuda, some have ventured as far afield as Brunei Darussalam and Vanuatu. This feature would profile international members to see what it is like to live and practise in a foreign country. Subjects would include CAs who work for big firms and plan to return to Canada as well as those who work in industry or local firms and have decided to stay on.

Doing business in a global economy
With an increasingly globalized economy, the ability to understand different customs and ways of doing business is premium. CAs who are adept at this will be in increasing demand. The feature will be a guide through the various pathways and pitfalls that exist in a world in which customs and practices differ greatly.

November 2010

The CAmagazine annual Personal Financial Planning issue

Family issues
What to do if the spouse or another member of the family wants to join the family business.

Selling the business?
To avoid the pitfalls of large sums of money coming your way following the sale of your business, the article will look at what portfolio planning you need to do before you sell that business.

December 2010

Using social networking tools for business:
Social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs are no longer just for socializing. They’re also being used for business. This article would look at the benefits and how-to of using social networking to run your business, wherever you may be.

The super CA: dissecting the characteristics of a good CA:
So what makes a good CA? Are they good at math, good at sports, organized, outgoing? We are familiar with the stereotypes: the bean counter, nitpicker etc. Most Canadians think of the taxman when accounting is mentioned. But  there’s more to them than the myth. Through human resource specialists and headhunters, we will look at the personality type that excels in the profession and what traits make a good CA, a top 10 type list. While debunking the stereotypes the story will present a picture of the typical young CA, what attracts him or her to the profession and what makes them succeed in the profession.