One of the driving forces for issues in the United States is the aging of the "Baby-Boomers", people who were born between 1946 and 1964. That would make the oldest about 63 years old.
Many professionals have retired by that age, and all are making decisions with retirement in mind. These people constitute much of the leadership and human capital in our society. This article reflects the changes that the accounting profession is making as these leaders retire and new ones rise into place.
The critical issue in making the transition is the change in the accounting profession since these people were trained and started in the business. New leaders must be able to help all CPA's to conform to the new business environment, not just get through the latest batch of regulations. The critical factors related to this are:
1) There is a great shortage of researchers in the accounting field. The current teachings on risk analysis, independence, and GAAP no longer guide accountants sufficiently to do their jobs. Without researchers, there is no way to measure how effective new practices are.
2) In the next year companies are likely to begin preparing for the early use of IFRS. "The early adopters would be part of an SEC proposal to track progress on a series of milestones and decide in 2011 whether to mandate the use of IFRS by U.S. public companies beginning in 2014" (Nilsen). Some of the standards are very different than GAAP, and implementing them will requiring education of any CPA dealing with multi-national companies.
3) Succession issues also exist. The accountability in auditing depends on the supervision of an experienced CPA. Since many young CPA's work for a few years and then go to other industries, there will be issues about who will replace the working partners in a firm. Geographical issues may arise too because CPA's licenses are not valid across state lines.
4) There are still many ethnic groups th...