SOX Center

Think your private company is safe from new, stricter auditing standards because you’re not subject to Sarbanes Oxley? Feeling smug because you’re not experiencing the hassle and expense of SOX compliance? Thought you’d escaped the pain by taking your public company private?

Not so fast! Your time may have come: Statements of Auditing Standards 104-111 have arrived. These new standards affect every nonpublic company that needs an audit — whether it’s for bankers, insurers or shareholders. And they’re effective for financial statements for periods beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2006.

South Florida companies in all industries will be affected.

The good news is that, like SOX, these new standards are designed to help improve corporate governance, which could protect your company from risk. The new standards, dubbed ‘’risk assessment standards,'’ not only require your auditors to develop a better understanding of your internal controls and assess whether those controls would work if they were functioning as designed — they also require full documentation of these controls. The goal is for auditors to follow more specific protocols to support their opinions on whether financial statements are free from material misstatements.

MiamiHerald: New standards affect companies missed by Sarbanes Oxley

Press Release

Robert E. Schmermer, Jr.

President & CEO

Dear Shareholders,

I am pleased to report that based on a majority vote of outstanding shareholders, Meritage successfully completed a “Going Private” transaction on January 23, 2007. As a result, Meritage has withdrawn its listing (MHG) on the American Stock Exchange and terminated the registration of its common shares with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This move allows the Company to avoid the ever-increasing SEC costs (including Sarbanes Oxley Act costs) that disproportionately affect smaller public companies like Meritage.

Marketwire: Meritage Completes “Going Private” Transaction

Debate about whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is harming U.S. investment banking business could be on the agenda when Wall Street firms hold annual meetings in 2007.

Conservative pundit Steven Milloy, who co-manages the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a Potomac, Md.-based mutual fund, is pressing U.S. investment banks to provide more disclosure on the effects of the 2002 law, aimed at cleaning up corporate accounting. He’s asked Wall Street firms to offer a resolution requiring them to report to shareholders by next fall on what it costs them to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX, its benefits, and its impact on their investment banking business.

“Shareholders have a right to know how SOX impacts the Company so they can take appropriate action if warranted,” according to the petition for a “Sarbanes-Oxley Right-to-Know Report.” Milloy’s firm made the same request to Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH), Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

Market Watch: Wall Street firms asked to detail Sarbanes-Oxley’s impact