Money Mind Blog

Archive for April, 2011

Many people do not really know what forensic accounting is all about. Forensic accounting is really the practical accounting, auditing and investigative skills in a company’s financial statements of behavior in legal matters.

Forensic accounting consists of three main areas, including litigation support, investigation and resolution. Litigation support to actual presentation of the financial issues related to existing or pending litigation. Under such circumstances, the forensic accounting professionals have mostly responsible for quantifying the damage caused to the parties involved in legal disputes in these cases brought to court.

The study took place in the prosecution, such as false accounting, internal theft, securities fraud, insurance fraud, corruption, and so on. Additional measures taken after a thorough study is conducted.

On the other hand, when a dispute is submitted to the court, the forensic accountant is acting as an expert witness for the related problems. It will also be responsible for developing the necessary evidence. Forensic accountants are specialized auditors. They also called forensic accountants or auditors investigating authorities.

They specialize in examining white collar crimes. Crime in financial transactions in a company, namely money laundering. Most of the time, they get involved in the investigation of securities fraud, contract disputes and other illegal activities such as bribery and embezzlement.

Forensic accountants use their knowledge of accounting and finance, and corporate and company in their daily routine. They are also well equipped with all the updated business information, government regulation, financial reporting systems, accounting and auditing standards, and litigation processes and procedures when they make their task.

Moreover, besides the requisite knowledge, it is important for them to two important skills, including investigative techniques and evidence gathering skills needed for their task.

Forensic accountants have an important role in assisting the government and the public to discover the accounting scandals and economic crime caused by individuals, companies and organized criminal networks. In contrast, for accountants and auditors, as forensic accountants to perform audits, they are actively looking for signs of fraud and they use their skills to determine whether a company or a financial transaction is illegal.

Forensic accountants are part of the expansion of the legal team and they are responsible for preparing and reviewing financial data. Their responsibilities are as follows:

• Investigating and analyzing financial data, especially in complex or potentially criminal financial transactions
• Developing computer applications to analyze, compare and interpret the financial facts and figures
• Transform their findings in the reports to related people for their financial decisions
• Assisting in legal proceedings, including the preparation of documentation and acting as expert witness at trials

One of the worst things about being in debt is often the interest. If you can’t afford to repay what you owe, the interest can start to mount up very quickly – especially if you owe money on high-interest forms of credit such as credit cards and overdrafts.

However, there is help available. One option may be a debt management plan: an informal arrangement between you and your lenders in which your unsecured debt repayments are made affordable again.

In many cases, the interest and other charges on debts covered by the arrangement will be frozen (depending on what your lenders will agree) – which stops your debts from getting any bigger while you’re trying to repay them.

How debt management works
A debt management plan helps you to repay your unsecured debts at a pace you can manage. Your payments will be reduced to an affordable level, based on what you can afford after your other essential living costs have been covered. You’ll usually carry on repaying your debts in this way until your circumstances improve – or if that doesn’t happen, until your debts have been fully repaid.

As we mentioned earlier, interest and charges will often be frozen during a debt management plan (although like the debt management plan itself, this is completely at your lenders’ discretion). If your lenders agree to this, your debts won’t be able to grow, so you’ll be able to repay them more quickly than if interest was still being charged.

However, note that if interest and charges aren’t frozen, the longer repayment period will mean you pay more in the long run. Also remember that because you’ll no longer be making the debt repayments you originally agreed, your credit rating can be affected.

Is it right for me?
A debt management plan could help to make your unmanageable debts manageable again. But remember that like any debt solution, it’s not right for everyone.

If you can’t commit to regular payments, or if you don’t think you can afford to repay everything you owe within a reasonable timeframe, then you may need to consider an alternative debt solution.

Take our debt test to find out whether you could qualify for a debt management plan.

There are just too many credit card products available. Have you ever wondered why almost all lenders and many more credit card firms keep on rolling out and introducing new credit card offers? It is quite logical that such businesses earn well. Almost all people own and use a credit card, two, or even more. It is very important that you conduct a credit card comparison first before getting a particular product with exceptional and attractive credit card offers.

Each product has different sets of credit card offers. That is because all cards are specifically intended for or targeted to particular types of consumers. Credit card users are categorised based on their usage. For each category, there are specified credit card offers. A credit card comparison would be most useful in looking at those categories and the corresponding credit card offerings.

Manual comparison

To do a credit card comparison manually, start getting quotes and feature information of different credit card products. Take note of annual fees, purchase, cash advance annual percentage rate (APR), introductory offers, rewards, and other fee structures. There are also special features and additional perks offered uniquely by every product in specific categories. Such credit card offers are aimed at luring consumers into getting credit card products.

It would be best if you would make a manual list of credit card offerings/features in a piece of paper. This serves as your simple credit card comparison. List down credit card products side by side so that you could easily compare interest rates, charges, credit card offers, and other perks. You would notice that there are credit card features that are present in some products, but not offered in others. In return, those cards lacking specific features may present other luring factors and come-ons.

Fees and introductory offers

Annual fees differ by categories. For instance, no-annual fee credit cards may implement higher interest rates and fees, while those with annual charges may offer lower APR on purchases and cash advances. Credit cards that feature rewards like airline miles usually impose significant or higher annual fees. Purchase APRs are usually significantly lower compared to APRs for cash advances.

When doing a credit card comparison, do not overlook special introductory credit card features. There are products offering lower interest rates and 0% introductory offers. Some credit cards highlight waived annual fees, particularly on the first year.

Manual credit card comparison could be a little tedious. Thus, if you aim to compare credit card features before you get a card product, you could also perform a credit card comparison using the available online comparison tools. Such services abound in the Internet. They could be most useful in that your search would be more specified, covering credit card offers from products available in specific states. Such tools facilitate credit card comparison in just seconds or several minutes, in contrast to manual comparisons that could take so much time, effort, and patience.

Andrew is a contributing author. He has been working in the finance industry for several years as a debt consolidation loanspecialist. When he is not working, Andrew shares his knowledge on the internet.