• An overview of the U.S. wealth-transfer tax system and potential costs to private enterprise owners who don't plan ahead.
• How successful families have traditionally passed wealth through trusts and other tax-efficient vehicles.
• Why lower business valuations and interest rates near historic lows may provide favorable conditions for launching tax-efficient succession plans now.

• Assessing your overall vision and strategy for business succession and related issues, including identifying and preparing future leaders.
• Talents and skills the successor management team will need, and strategies and leading practices for addressing gaps.
• A case study illustrating how unseen obstacles can stall progress

• Implementing stronger controls given the current identity crisis.
• Building stronger identity and data management program elements.
• Survey results of leading companies on key privacy and data protection activities.

• Identifying and assessing key business partner risks.
• Evaluating effectiveness of your business partner's controls and accuracy of information flows.
• Understanding compliance of monetary and nonmonetary obligations.

• How a comprehensive view of organizational IT risks can support business strategy.
• How an understanding of future technology risks can support more informed decision making.
• Why IT internal audit should be brought into new product discussions early to assess potential technology risks.

• Red flags, common fraud patterns, and top fraud schemes more likely to appear in an economic downturn.
• Leading practices that companies can employ to detect, deter, and prevent fraud during times of cost-cutting and resource constraints.
• Critical steps in the investigation process if allegations of fraud arise, including internal and outside regulatory investigations.

• Factoring long-term cyclicality and risk into capital planning and methods for managing the portfolio dynamically.
• A portfolio view of capital planning projects – systems, tools, and data needed for effective what-if analyses at the portfolio level.
• Capital planning and investor relations – innovative ways of communicating with the capital markets.

• The importance of distressed due diligence, and nuances to consider.
• Areas and procedures that are often overlooked when dealing with troubled entities.
• Deal execution structures, including asset versus stock transactions and 363 sales.

• The findings of a joint study that investigates how boards and shareowners have endeavored to engage in meaningful dialogue.
• How financial executives can support communication models.
• Identifying the business issues to be addressed by director-shareholder communications.

Hear about the constraints, risks, and benefits associated with open discussions between boards and investors about governance and compensation.

• The board's role in oversight of risks associated with potential fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, International Financial Reporting Standards, M&A, and extended business relationships.
• Steps the board can take to stay informed on key issues and associated risks.
• Financial executives' responsibility to the board in addressing risk factors related to key issues.

• How to implement an audit committee assessment process to identify areas for improvement.
• How to document and implement improvement recommendations.
• The finance team's role in improving audit committee meetings, information, communication, education, and leadership.

• How environmental and social performance factors may change financial reporting requirements, including the expansion of risk factor disclosures by public companies.
• Financial implications of potential U.S. carbon regulations that could force the monetization of such emissions.
• Possible effects of these issues on customer perception, brand equity, and human resources.

• The performance gaps between median- and low-cost finance organizations based on the results of a recent Deloitte Global Benchmarking Center study.
• Effective practices correlating with improved finance performance.
• A case study in the insurance industry that reveals performance opportunities in finance operations as compared with other industries.

• How the new statements affect tax accounting for uncertain tax positions, deferred taxes, and valuation allowances.
• Tax consequences at transition for past and prospective acquisitions.
• Fine-tuning tax due-diligence practices, including pressure points on effective tax rate, FIN 48 liabilities, and valuation allowances.

• Common weaknesses in tax provision processes, including tight timelines, data collection, and reliance on spreadsheets.
• Leading practices for improving the tax provision process, including the integration of current payable reconciliations, deferred tax account validations, alignment with compliance, and automation.
• Risk mitigation through the better management of people, process, and technology.

• The proposed amendment to change current hedge accounting rules.
• FASB's decision to eliminate qualifying special-purpose entities and its impact on securitization accounting.
• FASB's project to revise the current consolidation model for variable interest entities.

• Issues not resolved at the June 2008 meeting.
• Additional issues added to the EITF agenda.

• Quarterly update of accounting developments.
• Recent positions of the FASB and SEC staffs.
• Other hot topics.

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