FAS 5: Accounting for Contingencies and Environmental Liabilities
Overview:
As executive and legislative initiatives focus more on environmental protection, accounting rules have also been changing to achieve more transparency in terms of how companies treat and estimate environmental liabilities. Many questions arise: How will different industries now need to account for their practices? Will they have to spend higher for environmental expenses? Will this impact market capitalization? What can you do to increase transparency, conform to current standards, and alleviate risks? This webcast produced by The Knowledge Group, will discuss how common accounting problems relate to environmental issues and how FAS 5: Accounting for Contingencies, can be applied to regulating environmental liabilities. This event will provide critical, timely updates and should be considered a must-attend event for anyone interested in Accounting for Contingencies and Environmental Liabilities issues. The regulations affect companies of all sizes. This event is highly recommended for companies who have any environmental risk exposure and for companies that may be involved in M&A activity in the near future.
Agenda:
SEGMENT 1: David T. Buente, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP - Overview of FAS 5/types of environmental claims/contingencies that generally trigger FAS 5 disclosure/accrual consideration – 8-10 minutes - Governmental enforcement - Private/governmental remedial liability - Private party environmental litigation (e.g. toxic tort/property damage claims) - Current enforcement trends – areas where we might expect to see new/more numerous disclosures based upon federal/state enforcement priorities - Timing Issues – 5-7 minutes - Common timeline for environmental enforcement matters - Common timeline for remedial matters - Assessing ”probable and estimable” in the context of such timelines – when does disclosure/accrual become appropriate and/or required - Legal Developments – 5 minutes - Asset retirement based liabilities – RCRA corrective action, asbestos, etc. and the evolving requirement for fair value estimation - Effect of Burlington Northern (apportionment of liability rather than strict joint and several liability under CERCLA) on existing accounting guidance on estimating remedial and toxic tort liabilities - Touch on climate change – litigation disclosure issues – would allow a reference to fact that calls for increased climate change disclosure not prompted by FAS 5 considerations, but other SEC disclosure requirements SEGMENT 2: Laura L. Leonard, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP ** Speaker Talking Points to be added soon.. ** SEGMENT 3: Gayle S. Koch, Principal, The Brattle Group - Best Practice/Standards - AICPA SOP 96-1 - ASTM standards - Environmental cost estimation - Environmental disclosure - Climate change financial disclosure (forthcoming) - Consistency Issues with Other Estimates/Disclosures - Voluntary reports - Insurance estimates - Internal management estimates - Transactions, valuations, and tax matters - Estimates disclosed by other PRPs SEGMENT 4: George Hansen, Managing Director, The Claro Group LLC Valuation of Environmental Liabilities - Definition of Fair Value - Methodologies exist to estimate fair value where no liquid market price exists – Point estimates – Decision trees – Probabilistic approaches (monte-carlo analysis) - Illustration – Sample decision tree/probabilistic model and result – Discussion of basic statistics - Application to portfolios – Portfolio must be analyzed as a portfolio, not simply as sum of individual sites – Independence/correlations among sites can be important - Discounting and risk premiums – Discount rates 1. Financial theory (CAPM) 2. Standards (FAS
Who Should Attend:
- Environmental Attorneys - Accountants - Finance Bankruptcy Attorneys - M&A Attorneys
DAVID T. BUENTE, JR. is the head of the firm’s environmental group and represents clients in complex federal environmental litigation, …
LAURA L. LEONARD focuses her practice on transfers and allocations of environmental risk in a variety of settings. Laura has …
GAYLE S. KOCH, head of The Brattle Group’s Environmental/Mass Tort Practice, has over 25 years of consulting experience focused largely …
George Hansen is a business consultant in the areas of complex claims and risk. He is a co-founder of The …
C. Gregory Rogers, J.D., CPA is President and founder of Advanced Environmental Dimensions, LLC. Mr. Rogers is recognized in Best …
Course Level:
Intermediate
Advance Preparation:
Print and review course materials
Method of Presentation:
On-demand Webcast (CLE)
Prerequisite:
NONE
Course Code:
93902
Total Credits:
2.0 CLE
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SPEAKERS' FIRMS:
About Sidley Austin LLP
Website: https://www.sidley.com/default.aspx
About The Brattle Group
Website: https://www.brattle.com/
About The Claro Group LLC
Website: https://www.theclarogroup.com/TermsAndConditions.aspx
About Advanced Environmental Dimensions, LLC
Website: https://www.advancedenvironmentaldimensions.com/about_us.htm