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New Resource from CCH Aids FAS 157 Compliance

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., March 31, 2008) – Professionals coping with the complexities of FAS Standard 157 now have an online resource from CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business and a leading provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services (CCHGroup.com). The FAS 157 Manager, available on the CCH® Tax Research NetWork™, is an integrated collection of all the FAS 157 support materials needed to implement the standard, including specific answers to commonly encountered questions, official documents, practice aids and tools that help corporations and professionals comply with FAS 157.

FAS 157 Manager provides a question-and-answer format that walks users through the most common and complex issues related to the valuation of assets and liabilities at their “fair value,” in accordance with the new FAS 157 guidelines for financial reporting and other purposes along with quick links to practice aids, primary source material, checklists, and more. Authored by H. David Sherman, a key advisor to the FASB and SEC, it provides quick answers and practical guidance on the standardized measurements and disclosures of the fair values of existing assets and liabilities so that companies and organizations will be in compliance with the standards.

“FAS 157 is going to have an enormous impact on business enterprises of all shapes and sizes. FAS 157 sets the terms for how companies apply the principles of fair value to many of their assets and liabilities and the level to which those valuations need to be disclosed. T he fair value standards of FAS 157 are going to have a direct and important impact on how tax professionals value assets for tax purposes,” said Scott Heimgartner, CCH product manager. “The FAS 157 Manager is designed for professionals who need a practical understanding of these complex new requirements. We’ve broken things down into practical questions and on-point answers, with research integrated with practice tools and best practice examples.”

Mark Friedlich, Director of Publishing for Accounting and Auditing at CCH, states that FAS 157 will change the way many corporations, CPAs, valuation specialists, attorneys and others value certain assets and liabilities for financial reporting and other purposes.

“FAS 157 will also have significant impact on internal and external auditors responsible for examining and verifying asset and liability valuations,” Friedlich said.

Questions, Answers, Practice Aids

At the heart of the FAS 157 Manager are over 110 questions and answers that guide subscribers through the complexities of FAS 157 with answers in CCH Smart Charts TM and Interactive Research Aid formats that link directly to specific sections of FAS 157 and related Practice Aids.

Topics include: Overview and Scope of FAS 157; Definition and Measurement of Fair Value; Fair Value Hierarchy; Recurring and Non-recurring Valuation; Principal and Most Advantageous Market; Disclosure; Risk Adjustment; Exit and Entry Price; Observable and Unobservable Inputs; Effective Dates and Transition.

The answers may be viewed or quickly downloaded to Microsoft™ Word or Excel®. All research links remain “live” in the download, so information from source documents can be verified easily.

Practice aids give important information, guidance and tools that simplify FAS 157 issues, such as sample disclosures on Distribution of Assets and Liabilities in Fair Value Hierarchy; Recurring Level Three Measurements; and Distribution of Assets and Liabilities on a Nonrecurring Basis. Aids also include sample memos to the Audit Committee and to the Board of Directors, plus an Audit and Compliance Checklist.

Subscribers to the FAS 157 Manager also have access to best practices as laid out by the PCAOB, AICPA, Valuation Researcher, the Casualty Actuary Society and major accounting firms, while s ample SEC filings from Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America provide insight into the implementation of FAS 157 in financial reporting.

The underlying FAS 157 document is also provided, divided into a series of easy-to-access topics.

About the Author

H. David Sherman is Professor of Accounting at Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration. He has served on the faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Management, as a visiting faculty member at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and was the Academic Fellow in the Division of Corporate Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C.

Sherman has published in professional and academic journals including three articles in Harvard Business Review. He is co-author of Profits You Can Trust – Spotting and Surviving Accounting Landmines. He has been an invited speaker on shareholder reporting issues at national professional meetings and academic meetings in the U.S., Europe and China. He also works on managing service productivity and use of a technique referred to as Data Envelopment Analysis. His book Service Productivity Management, published in 2006, includes applications to financial services, health care and government services.

Sherman has served as a director and manager of several businesses, and has consulted on financial performance issues with major corporations, banks and the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

For More Information

For more information or to subscribe to the FAS 157 Manager, call 800-449-8114 or visit CCHGroup.com. A single-user one-year subscription begins at $995.

About CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business (CCHGroup.com) is a leading provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services. It has served tax, accounting and business professionals and their clients since 1913. Among its market-leading products are The ProSystem fx® Office, CorpSystem®, CCH® Tax Research NetWork™, Accounting Research Manager® and the U.S. Master Tax Guide®. CCH is based in Riverwoods, Ill. 

Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services globally for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal, and regulatory sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2007) of €3.4 billion ($4.8 billion), maintains operations in over 33 countries across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific and employs approximately 19,544 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com.

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