Accounting
IIA CEO looks ahead as internal audit expands globally
Anthony Pugliese, president and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors, is traveling the world as his organization expands globally, while laying the groundwork for priorities in the decade ahead.
The IIA released its
“There are a lot of misconceptions about what internal audit is,” he told Accounting Today. “The current perceptions do not align with what the profession actually does.”
The report points to the need for internal auditors to embrace advanced technology. “We can see our members all basically think technology is critical, but we’re not seeing the kind of uptake that would actually demonstrate that we’re going to be known for being technology savvy,” said Pugliese.
The report recommends internal auditors need to expand the entire scope of the work they’re doing. That aligns with a separate set of
Other priorities include connecting internal audit with the strategy of a company as well as growing the pipeline of internal auditors.
“When we position internal audit in front of a bunch of accounting students, the reaction is actually really positive,” said Pugliese. “They see it as a completely different path, and one that doesn’t carry the reputation negatively of public accounting, which I think they’re trying to get away from. Actually we’ve seen a lot of students get excited by the fact that they can become internal auditors and still work for a big firm. So the two can actually co-exist on their resume, on their CV, and that’s really attractive.”
Internal auditors have increasingly become fraud fighters. “We found out in our Vision project that more and more internal auditors are becoming responsible for functions other than internal audit,” said Pugliese. “What we’re seeing now is that they’re moving functions like compliance or fraud into internal audit’s bailiwick.”
Pugliese is seeing growing interest in climate change and sustainability risks.
“Last year, in 2023 our members around the world rated climate change sustainability reporting as the 14th most prevalent risk, and then this year, it moved to 13,” he said. “But in three years, our members predict it’ll be either four or five.”
The IIA released its updated
The IIA has been releasing tools to help internal auditors adjust to the updated standards. “Getting ready for the standards has been a big deal for us,” said Pugliese. “We’ve been releasing tool after tool after tool, some free, some we charge for, because the world that relies on internal audit is affected as well.”
The IIA is seeing more demand for such material as the organization expands globally. “You could pick up an internal auditor’s opinion on cyber and it would carry the same weight in Africa as it would in Latin America or North America, that there could be a level of reliance, and that’s because of all of our advocacy work, that we felt that was important,” said Pugliese. “We get out there and tell governments, you can rely on internal auditors to help you do some of this work. Having a standard around topics is not very unusual in the accounting world, but it is in the internal audit world.”
The IIA has been growing and has now crossed the 250,000-member mark. “We’ll end up this year probably at 255,000 with a lot of growth occurring in Asia and the Middle East, which is great,” said Pugliese. “We really didn’t have a strong market in the Middle East even five years ago, so we’re happy about that.”
He has been finding growing interest in Saudi Arabia, Oman and other Gulf countries, as well as parts of Asia like China and Japan. The Saudi Minister of Audit sits on the IIA’s global board.
“When they give out awards to say this is the best internal audit team of the year, or the most innovative team of the year, it’s a really big deal,” said Pugliese.
He noted that many countries around the world have what they call Supreme Audit Institutions, SAIs, and there’s an association for these Supreme Audit Institutions known as INTOSAI, the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. The IIA has been getting more involved in such groups.
In the U.S., the IIA has also been working more closely with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board after
The IIA started a letter-writing campaign and met with four of the PCAOB’s board members, including a former internal auditor, Christina Ho. Eventually the objectionable section was deleted in the final version of the standard, and the PCAOB even apologized in the disposition of comments.
“You couldn’t ask for a better outcome,” said Pugliese. “It was no disrespect, no harm intended. But, because of that, we started a relationship and now, when they call and they want to have a really solid task force on any given topic, they’ll reach out to us for an internal auditor, and that really is nice. So it was kind of lemonade out of lemons as a result of that, but it was not a fun process to go up against the PCAOB.”
The IIA started its own political action committee last year and plans to do more advocacy work in the U.S. and abroad. “We’re introducing some advanced advocacy strategies next year to start lobbying national governments outside of the United States,” said Pugliese. “They’re not quite used to the system that we have in place, where you hire people in Washington, and they target the right people setting laws that are relevant to you, and you go talk to them, and hopefully you get an output. This is very different. We’re doing it in Africa and we’re trying to make sure that their advocacy needs are met. We’ll probably have one in the Middle East, which is very unusual, but that’s more of an informing function for the countries that are more monarchy based. You don’t typically lobby a monarchy. In Latin America as well, we’re going to start lobbying those governments to more adequately recognize what internal audit does.”
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As the 2025 tax season continues and the April 15 deadline gets closer, many are still waiting to file their taxes.
For the third consecutive year, Wyoming has the most tax procrastinators, while Wisconsin has the fewest tax procrastinators, after coming in at No. 47 in 2024.
Read more about the states that procrastinate the most and least on taxes (the lower the ranking, the more likely they are to wait to file their taxes).
States that procrastinate the most on taxes
States that procrastinate the least on taxes
Tens of millions of lower-income retirement savers could soon get up to $1,000 in matching contributions toward their nest eggs each year — but they’ll need financial advisors’ help.
That’s the key takeaway from
READ MORE:
Financial advisors often focus on high net worth clients whose wealth stretches far beyond that eligibility. However, they also frequently work with clients whose businesses sponsor
“The impact is intuitively the biggest when people are changing their behavior, taking full advantage,” said Spencer Look, an associate director of retirement studies with
Advisors, employers and other parts of the 401(k) and retirement-savings ecosystem require some time to “not only to get the infrastructure, the plumbing in place,” but try to “target the potentially eligible participants in their plans and make sure they understand this is free money to them,” said Jack VanDerhei, the director of retirement studies with
“It’s a given that, if
What the study found
The current saver’s credit has reached fewer than 6% of filers due to design shortcomings like the requirement that they have an income-tax liability and a lack of knowledge among eligible savers, Morningstar’s report said. The researchers found “reasons to believe that the saver’s match will be more effective than the saver’s credit,” including the facts that savers will no longer be obligated to have federal income tax liability, that the money “will be directly deposited into their retirement accounts — a more tangible benefit that could encourage greater participation,” and that the law instructs agencies such as the Treasury Department to promote it, they wrote.
“That said, the success of the saver’s match will largely depend on how effectively it is implemented,” Look and VanDerhei wrote. “To maximize impact, the government and retirement industry should reduce barriers and minimize savings friction wherever possible, within limits. Clear and accessible communication and education — including an awareness campaign — are also critical to ensure qualified individuals understand and use the program effectively.”
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The maximum match of $1,000 on top of the first $2,000 in retirement savings each year will go to taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income of $20,500 or less as individuals, $30,750 or lower for heads of households and as much as $41,000 among couples. For those with higher modified adjusted gross income, the matching contributions phase out at respective levels of $35,500, $53,250 and $71,000. Among millennials and Gen Z savers, roughly 49% of Hispanic households, 44% of Black Americans, 29% of white taxpayers and 26% of other racial and ethnic groups will qualify for some level of matching contributions.
Using census data on those generations in terms of gender, marriage status and race and a simulation model called the “Morningstar Model of U.S. Retirement Outcomes,” Look and VanDerhei predicted that single women’s wealth at retirement could jump 13%, that of Black savers could grow 15% and Hispanic households could surge by 12%. Those figures assume that they get the highest matching contribution in 2027 and retire when they’re 65 years old, and that the program spurs more people to open retirement accounts and save more in order to take advantage. But even without behavioral changes, the saver’s match could boost the generations’ retirement nest eggs by 8%.
“When looking at the results from different demographic perspectives, we found that single women, non-Hispanic Black Americans and Hispanic Americans see greater benefits compared with other groups,” Look and VanDerhei wrote. “Moreover, our results show that workers in industries with a higher risk of running short of money in retirement are projected to experience a more significant increase in their retirement wealth under the new program.”
Help needed
The match necessitates “buy-in from everyone” across employees, employers, advisors, recordkeepers and governments, plus ample financial wellness education, according to Pam Hess, the
“Peoiple need help meeting their short-term financial struggles,” Hess said. “Employers are coming up with other solutions to help their workforce. You put those together with the saver’s match, and it could be really meaningful.”
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Until the policy starts in 2027, advisors could get a head start by trying to increase the number of households using the existing credit, according to Catherine Collinson,
“Most people don’t wake up in the morning thinking about taxes everyday, unless it’s April 14 — the day before everything is due,” Collinson said, noting that many people also push back on the idea that they are among the “low-to-moderate income retirement savers” eligible for the credit. “The general public does not relate to that messaging, so this is where it’s so critical for financial advisors who can help to get the word out.”
More ways to get involved
On the other side of the equation, the sponsors and recordkeepers could use a nudge from the advisors to ensure they’re giving the employees the means to get the biggest match “systematically, in a way that is doable and viable,” Hess said. Right now, many employers simply don’t “have all the information they need to know who’s eligible and who’s not,” based on their modified adjusted gross income, she noted.
“We know that engaging employees is really hard — getting that connection is increasingly hard in a noisy world,” Hess said. “First you have to figure out who qualifies, and then you have to get the dollars from the government into that account, which is not a connection that’s in place today.”
Advisors’ expertise could overcome some further barriers to participation based on the continuing problems that “there’s still a major trust issue going on any time the government gets involved” and some people may not understand how to open an IRA, VanDerhei said. They’ll also be able to point out that the match would benefit “a lot of people” to a certain extent, so it’s not just for those of the lowest means, Look said.
“Pro bono work, volunteering to help educate and talk through with people in the community who may be eligible is very, very important,” he said.
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board today published a post-implementation review report on GASB Statement No. 72, Fair Value Measurement and Application.
The
The report concludes that Statement 72 resolved the underlying need for the statement, which involved valuation issues from a financial reporting perspective. It also concludes that the statement was operational and its application provides financial-report users with decision-useful information such as fair value measurements used in the analysis of governmental financial information and fair value-related disclosures.
Statement 72 is eligible to undergo more extensive PIR procedures, culminating in a final report.
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