BDO Conference

Last week, a number of people from our team had the opportunity to attend the 2012 BDO Siedman Alliance Conference in Las Vegas.  With the stage set at the Paris hotel, we knew this was bound to be a great week!

As members of the Alliance, we are able to stay true to our promise of giving our clients MORE by allowing access to additional national and international resources, services and technical knowledge.  Ultimately, the annual conference is a great way for us to learn from firms across the country and bring that knowledge back to our clients, employees, and community!

While many of our partners were able to delve deeper into technical areas, our marketing and HR representatives were able to learn from other firms about branding, team building, and trust.  The three-day conference concluded with all of us coming together to review the state of the industry.  With so much happening, we were excited to get home and back to work for our clients to ultimately help their bottom lines!

Oh, and we even made time to stop by Zappos.com to learn more about how they are Delivering Happiness.  Phew, what a week!

Social Security Statements Now Available Online

It was recently announced that social security statements will now be available online at socialsecurity.gov.  This new feature allows users to access their earnings and benefit information in a secure and convenient way through Statement.

The online Statement provides workers an easily accessible way to determine whether their earnings are accurately posted to their Social Security records.  In addition to helping with financial planning, this feature is important as Social Security benefits are based on average earnings over a person’s lifetime.  If the earnings information is not accurate, the person may not receive all the benefits to which he or she is entitled.

To get started, people age 18 and older must be able to provide information about themselves that matches information already on file with Social Security.  The information is verified by Experian, an external authentication service provider.  Once verified, users can create a “My Social Security” account with a unique user name and password to access their online Statement.  Users are also able to access additional information about retirement, disability and Medicare through the system.

In February 2012, Social Security resumed mailing paper Statements to workers age 60 and older if they are not already receiving Social Security benefits. Later this year, the agency plans to mail paper Statements to workers in the year they reach age 25.

For more information about the new online Statement, please go to www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement.