CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

• Author: MASON, LAURIE
• Position: Accounting associations propose new accounting credentials

CPAs and AICPA Grapple With XYZ and the Future of C-P-A

THE AICPA'S NEW XYZ INITIATIVE proposes to do nothing less than create an entirely new profession, one open to CPAs and nonCPAs alike. CPAs who see a conflict of interest in the initiative are asking: Why can't you love me the way I am?

By establishing global ethics and competency standards, XYZ's creators (the AICPA and seven other accounting associations worldwide) intend for this new designation to professionalize and standardize the now rather amorphous constellation of disciplines that CPAs and other business professionals use to operate in the international business arena. (For more information on currently available XYZ specifics, see the sidebar on Page 18.)

TWO SIDES TO THE COIN

The way some CPAs see it, by proposing the new credential, the AICPA is telling them that their own professional credential is doomed--or if it isn't headed that way already, XYZ will certainly kill it.

"It totally denigrates the CPA designation," says AICPA Council member and past chair Robert Israeloff, a partner with Israeloff, Trattner & Co. in New York. "It gives stature to the people I compete with. I'm out every day trying o do the right thing and to be recognized as much more than just a financial CPA, but we run into competition now from nonCPAs trying to sell the same services. Why should we now have o run against nonCPAs who have bee given the XYZ designation?"

Others think XYZ, a credential for which AICPA members who have five years of work experience will be eligible, could be a boon to CPAs already operating in the global marketplace.

"A specialist credential appeals to buyers of services," says CaICPA Vice President David George, a partner with Riverside-based Soren, McAdam, George Investment Advisory Services LLP, CPAs. "If you had a medical problem, and let's say it was cancer, you're no going to go to a orthopedist, even though that person is an MD. You're going to want to go to the specialist. So hen you're a buyer of services you're going to look for a specialist."

If the new credential plays out the way its designers hope it will, there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when "global specialist" will be synonymous with XYZ.

The AICPA Council will vote in October on whether or not to bring the XYZ credential up for a membership vote, which would take place in the spring. Only if the member ship approves the credential will the AICPA pursue it; as yet it's unclear exactly how much information members will have bout XYZ for the spring vote.

In the interim, one thing is certain: If the council approves a membership vote, you'll hear a lot about XYZ. Between those two votes, the AICPA plans a major communications blitz to educate its members on the plan--but it may not be an easy sell.

CPAs SEE RED

To understand the rancor XYZ is generating in some quarters, it helps to appreciate just how much the proposed credential threatens to throw the CPA profession into an identity crisis. What, in fact, does it mean to be a CPA in It today's complex world economy--one by the e-revolution--where financial professionals who are smart bout their choices can make boatloads of money--fast?

"There's a fundamental question in the profession today, about the role of reed," says business journalist Rick Telberg, editorial director of Pro2Net and former editor-in-chief of Accounting Today. "How do accountants balance their public responsibility to be independent and objective with their personal responsibility to make a living? The same question goes to the AICPA. What responsibility do they have to steward vs. heir responsibility to heed their...