Sage North America, whose accounting software has largely been displaced by QuickBooks at accounting firms, is going on the road as part of a program to renew relationships with accounting professionals. And it plans a certification program for its Peachtree software for the first time. The company is also hiring accountants who will help their colleagues in running tax and accounting businesses, instead of trying to sell them software. Read more...

GilmanCiocia and its subsidiary Prime Capital Services have been censured by the SEC and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of penalties and interest as the result of the sale of illiquid variable annuities to senior citizens in Florida from 2000 through 2005. The actions came as the result of an Offer in Settlement made by the financial planning organizations to settle allegations regarding fraudulent sale of annuities and lack of supervision of representatives who made the sales of unsuitable investment securities to investors over the age of 65..

Read more...

Republic Bancorp, which is providing funds for refunds loans for two tax preparation chains, planned to drop some independent preparers as it moved into the 2010 tax season. The company did not cite any relationship between that decision and its agreeing to provide increased funding to the Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tax operations. However, its report about financial results for 2009 said that an increase in anticipated business from the chains would be offset by the decline in income from the independents. Read more...