New research reports from FERF.

• Position: FEI NEWS - Financial Executives Research Foundation

Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) will release four new research reports at FEI's Current Financial Reporting Issues (CFRI) conference, Nov. 14-15 at the Marriott Marquis in New York.

1. FERF/Duff& Phelps 2077 Goodwill Impairment Study--Now in its third year of publication, the joint survey continues to examine general and industry goodwill impairment trends, as well as the relative performance of companies that have impaired their goodwill versus companies that have not. Some highlights of this year's study include:

   * Total goodwill impaired in calendar year 2010 increased from $26 billion to $30 billion;

   * Financial services firms continued to have the greatest proportion of total impairments in 2010; and

   * Most of the underperformance of companies that recorded goodwill impairment occurs prior to the actual impairment charge, consistent with last year's findings

2. Economic Indicators and Their Impact on Business Decisions, conducted in collaboration with Merrill DataSite, examines what, if any, economic indicators senior financial executives use in making business decisions. The report provides best practices and benchmarking information to allow financial executives to gauge their own company's practices and better understand how economic indicators can be used in the business planning process.

3. Social Media and Its Associated Risks, conducted in partnership with Grant Thornton, looks at how social media is changing the face of business in the U.S. and around the world. Senior financial executives will get practical guidance for developing their social media policies and learn about risks to be considered regarding social media plans and strategies.

   The research report will also cover corporate governance issues, codes of ethics around social media, internal control issues and social media audits.

4. The XBRL Preparedness Survey was conducted in collaboration with the SEC Professionals Group. All public companies that file with the SEC must now tag their financial statements using extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), and detail tagging of footnotes has presented a number of challenges.

   This research report, based on responses from more than 300 executives, examines the additional time and effort required for XBRL tagging and resources required, and provides interesting insights into company...