Accounting Books

Great book - very informative. Attorney Miller really knows his stuff (as he should since he's been around pretty much since the birth of the venture capitalist industry.)

Edwin L. Miller displays a powerful ability to present the complexity of Mergers and Acquisitions into understandable and straight-forward prose. His education from Harvard Law School and his 35 years of experience as a securities attorney form a powerful base from which to write, and he combines this with a potent talent to clearly convey the information he has gained over the decades into an accurate and digestible format that makes this book superior. This is a must-read for technologists, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested in selling or buying a venture. The book Lifecycle of a Technology Company, by the same author is also solid and informative. Easily five stars.

This is an extremely useful guide for the business practitioner in the sometimes complex arena of mergers and acquisitions. The book provides clear guidance through the process from start to finish. Highly recommended.

'Mergers and Acquisitions' has helped me to eliminate mis-conceptions on acquisitions and has provided me with a clear perspective on selling ones business. What I truly liked was the step by step guide through the overall selling process.

I can only recommend ' Mergers and Acquisitions' to anyone involved in M&A activities.

Great book!

This is an excellent first retail banking book. It covers all the topics of banking business, going from banking terms through Basilea, banking crashes or even a few notes on credit management. It's a perfect book for those who want to go through the retail banking world, or those who want to unerstand how the retail banking works. An state-of-the art exposition!!!

This book is an overview of the international banking industry. Instead of focusing on banking in a particular country, the author discussed general types of banks, banking services, banking regulations in different countries, ways how the regulations influence banking in countries with various types of economy and financial systems (USA, Britain, EU countries, Japan, emerging economies of Russia, China, Latin America and Islamic countries). The large part of the book is devoted to analysis of bank failures and survival of banks in financial crises. The book contains enormous amount of compressed material and real-world examples.

The book is written in clear language and can be read without prior knowledge in the field, except the chapter on the competitive issues in banking, which requires some understanding of basic methods of Econometrics. The book gives brief introduction into financial securities and derivatives, but some prior knowledge is preferable for better understanding of the material.

The book was written with the particular university course in mind, but the scope and depth of the presented material make it useful for anyone who wishes to broaden his understanding of international finance.

This book is great reading for anyone in the financial world that needs to know how modern banking works. Great for professionals and students that need a real comprehensive view of international modern banking.

This book has been thought as a course manual, but it reads like a divulgative work on modern international and multinational banking. The numerous examples come from some of the big issues faced by different banks in different countries, and the open-minded approach of the author gives you the chance to easily grasp the big picture.

I have been buying Morningstar books for mutual funds since 2006. There are a lot of books about how/what mutual funds are, but this is the only kind available for evaluating PAST mutual funds performance. (The other one is from Lipper, which is only available from the web).

Morningstar has a long history to keep track of mutual funds and ETFs data. This gives them an advantage to publish their views on various mutual funds. However, readers must be aware that the ratings are based on historical performance. Nobody can predict the market, but if a fund manager performs well over a long time, it is very likely he/she will perform well in the future.

This book also provide some insight info such as the manager has his/her own money in, and risk data. A plus of the book is that it provides 50 free mutual fund reports downloadable from Moringstar website.

A must have for mutual fund selectors.

I really enjoyed the analysis provided, it seemed to cover most of the bases I wanted to learn about, expenses, tax efficiency, volatility, returns.
Obviously it gets dated. It appears to be published early in the year. Be sure to get the latest.

While many people buy mutual funds because they find them easier than building their own portfolio of individual stocks, in fact buying into these funds is in some ways more complex than buying individual company stocks. How do you know what the fund in invested in (companies and sectors), fees, turnover, who the manager is, what their performance has been, how the fund has performed relative to its peers, and much more? It is not an easy task. This handy book provides you with loads of great information for 500 funds picked by Morningstar.

This isn't to say that you should necessarily buy the funds listed here. Morningstar also includes funds you should probably avoid (you have to make your own choices as to what is right for you). One of the interesting things I notices is that simply because something has a four or five star rating doesn't mean that you should buy the fund. This is due to the past performance versus future return probability. It might well be that a well performing fund is now trading at a high price and that the likely future return cannot justify the price. So, the analyst rating also has to be balanced.

The editors have packed a huge amount of information onto each of these pages. You get a snapshot of governance and management (with a stewardship score), a chart of performance, a graph with an historical profile, a star rating including risk for several periods, a portfolio analysis, and a few paragraphs providing Morningstar's take on the fund, and contact information. In the back of the book are several lists that slice and dice the various funds different ways according to specific criteria.

Since funds do not remain static for the entire year, another nice feature of the book is that you can download up to 50 fresh charts during the calendar year. One word of caution that I learned by hard experience is that if you block pop-ups, you need to make an exception for Morningstar. You will try to download the new chart, your count will decrement, but you won't get the chart because you browser will have blocked the pop-up containing the new chart! That was a tad frustrating.

Terrific and interesting information.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Great book very informative,a must have if looking to invest in mutual funds

This book answered many of the financial questions that I was too ashamed to ask. Even though I went to business school, much of the financial world and the language that accompanies it was foreign to me. Rather than having to venture into this overwhelming territory unassisted, I read this book and was able to start making smart decisions about my finances and my life. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn about money or improve their financial standing. Most importantly, the book was interesting and inspiring.

This book is an increadible resource for someone who is looking to increase their financial "common sense". After reading this book, I immediately contacted my financial advisor and consulted with him about some of Russell Bailyn's interesting perspectives (and I'm already seeing results!). Navigating the Financial Blogosphere is easy to read and easy to follow. It provides some great, practical tips which will help you increase your networth starting today! I highly, highly recommend it!

Russell Bailyn's views on today's financial market are inventive and refreshing. He's wealth of knowledge really shows and eventhough it may be his first book i'm sure it won't be his last. His ideas give me a new outlook on my personal finances and how I make decisions. This book is a must have!

This was a nice little book written by a young professional who works as a wealth manager. It's a personal finance or young person's financial planning book. I liked the way the book presented the material in clear and digestible snippets. I read a book not too long ago that was similar in format. See Blogging and Podcasting (ISBN: 1419584359). In both books the authors promote themselves through blogging. And instead of writing their books as a separate and distinct activity as compared to their blogs, they lift a lot of their content from their blogs and spruce it up a little before calling it a book.

This book has 27 chapters divided up into the following four sections:

1. First perspectives on money (chapters 1-5)
2. Building wealth requires planing (chapters 6-13)
3. Living in a financial world (chapters 14-21)
4. Think long-term about money management (chapters 22-27)

The chapters are short which is why I equate them to spruced-up blog entries. And the number of chapters is large, another reason this book has the feel of a blog rather than something that was put together originally as a book.

The book is well-written and easy to read and follow. It cites much of its content to Web sites and links that can be found online. If you want to learn about some of the things the Internet has to offer regarding personal finance and financial planning, then I highly recommend this book. If you are just wanting to familiarize yourself with personal finance and financial planning, then this would be a nice book to read, too. However, it's not a treatise on the subject. 5 stars!

Found this book in a bag of books sent by a friend. Discovered it to be extremely down to earth. Being at the other end of the financial ruler(Retired) I discovered much of the content of this book I had learned and exercised which brought me to financial security in my fiftys.It is all in there for the young to learn. I will add one though. Watch the rich and live the way they do. The rich are not the flamboyant spenders,you will have to search for the quiet ones, they have the money and will always have it.Wealth is held, not thrown around like a football.One more tip; When you eleminate debt and stay out of it you are in todays world earning at least 8 to 18 percent per annum. That will give you a good start.

This wonderfully written (and quick read) has over 300 great tips ranging from filled how to save money, earn more money, and how to invest your money. A lot of this information is common sense but it is very nice to have it in a handy book form (also would make an excellent stocking stuffer, it's February and I'm already thinking of next Christmas....)

So why listen to Nancy Dunnan?

Well she is a well respected financial advisor that has been on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg she writes for Your Money magazine among others.

One of my favorite tips in this book is this and I quote:

"After writing your rent or mortgage check, make the next one out for savings. Begin saving 1% of your take-home pay and increase it by 1% each month. By the end of a year you'll be saving a respectable 12%."

Now I think that is wonderful since in my opinion I think a lot of people don't save money because it seems like they can't "live" without all of the money they make. This one tip explains to me that if I just live on 1% less each month (and save the money) I will have more money later on. The other tips in this book are very good as well, check it out.

Reed Floren

Nancy Dunnan's book should be on one of those page-a-day calendar cubes.

This is a fun book of handy advice about handling your money from somebody who obviously knows what she's talking about. I liked this so much I bought five copies for my nephews and nieces so they'll get a good start with their money.

I was put in charge of figuring out Business Contact Manager in our office. I got this book after many fruitless attempts at the HELP tab. The first thing I tried to find out was target marketing out of Business Contact Manager and there it was, in this book. It has made the transition from ACT way easier for us.

I needed a book that would transition me from not using Business Contact Manager at all to using it in my every day routine. This book worked. The information was appropriate and presented in a logical fashion. The book was short enough that I could read it cover to cover. A good pick.

This is a very good resource to have on hand for anyone new to Outlook's Business Contact Manager. The layout is clear, important concepts are covered and there are a fair amount of screen shots. It is easy to jump to what you need. However, for something intended for "dummies," or those of us brand new to the program, they do not spend enough time on just getting started. For example, at the beginning they tell you how to create a database (yup, I need to know that). Then they jump right into importing to it from Excel or other sources (bam! huh?). After I created my database I couldn't tell if it was there since my view in Outlook didn't change! More step by step screen shots at this point were needed. Now, how about a simple example of how to manually enter a new contact? I have a pile of business cards on my desk to input (in addition to a bunch more in Excel). A few lines on how to get one contact into my new database so I could see what's happening would have been very helpful. Start simple, right? They forgot to do so.

However, the program is quite extensive and a book simply can't give someone the knowledge a class could. The book was well worth the money as a reference tool, but I'm still looking for a class because nothing beats hands on learning.

Lon Ornstein might have co-authored a Dummies' book, but he's no dummy. His company is a well-known third-party developer of CRM enhancments - first with the ACT! product line and now Outlook 2007/BCM. Like all Dummies' books, this one is easy to read and understand, and gets right to the "meat" of using BCM. Highly recommended if you're trying to make the switch from ACT!, or if you need to extend the capabilities of Outlook 2007 for a small-midsize business.

Mand and Whipple do an excellent job describing how finance, business centers and top management can work together more effectively for optimum performance. The concept is powerful, and the examples from actual events are very stimulating. Best of all, they use a dialog method to make the message really come alive. "Listening" to the CEO and CFO discuss partnering makes the reader realize that the concept is not just another management theory, but can be readily applied to his or her situation as well.

A very concise and well-written book which appeals to the financial executive and the MBA student. The CFO's role is clearly delineated with the support of actual cases and experiences as noted by the authors. I found this book to be interesting and a "quick-read" and was an excellent summation of the role of the CFO in the 21st corporations.

A very thorough and easy to read book. The experience of the authors is clearly evident. Highly recommend to anyone working in finance or corporations!

PARTNERING FOR PERFORMANCE: Unleashing the Power of Finance in the 21st Century Organization, Martin G. Mand and William Whipple III, AMACOM, 2000.

As an attorney practicing corporate law in Delaware, I have been involved in many acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, etc., and have an understanding of the imperative for all companies and businesses to increase shareholder value. "Partnering for Performance" is the first book that I can recall reading which provides a lucid explanation of how a company can do so. The discussion is enlivened by numerous real world examples, as well as by an engaging dialog between the CEO and CFO of a hypothetical company.

The book goes on to sketch the wide range of activities that are conducted under the Finance umbrella, and offer suggestions as to how the value of these activities can be enhanced. There are two key thrusts the author recommends, which in many companies will require a significant culture change:

* Finance people must rethink their roles, and make the transition from functioning as analysts and controllers to "Shareholder Value Enabling."

* The business people and finance people in a company must work together as equal partners, otherwise known as "Partnering for Performance."

Drawing on their considerable experience as financial practitioners, the authors do not merely advocate such changes in principle. They also explain the obstacles to implementation, and offer solid suggestions for achieving the desired changes. The suggested game plan includes new roles and responsibilities for business people and finance people alike, demonstration projects such as overhauling the budget process, the integration of talented finance people into business teams, incentives for change, communications and training, and sample diagnostic tools (such as a corporate troubleshooting guide).

In sum, "Partnering for Performance" offers valuable insights about a low cost, low risk approach to increasing shareholder value. The book should be of considerable interest and value to a broad audience.

This is an awesome text. In a subject area as dynamic as executive and other compensation, this book hands it to you on a "golden" platter. A must on every human resource executives bookshelf. A must for the compensation student. This book has it all and is worth the price.

This is an excellent book on rewards and compensation. I keep this book on my shelf and refer to it constantly. And, I require all my managers to keep a copy too. The coverage is complete, the writing is clear, and the book is "must have" for anyone who needs information on executive compensation.

With executive pay under more extensive scrutiny than ever, I found this book an excellent way to resolve the dilemma about how to pay for performance. While my company's circumstances mean that there are no clear cut solutions, this was the only book I could find that laid out all the alternatives clearly and concisely. Overall, this is the best book on reward I have ever read, and I am sure I will be coming back to it again and again as my standard reference guide.

I read this book from cover to cover and loved every word of it! I couldn't put it down! Although it was a bith pricy, I feel that it was worth every cent.

The five stars rating is not enough. No need to say more words after all the previous reviews.

An excelent help for managing a business. Very practical, proven in real businesses and related with high level strategy

I rarely get excited about textbooks, but this particular treatment of strategy, balancing leading and lagging indicators with a view of past, present and future, was enlightening. This book should be a "must read" for any mid- or senior- level manager. It shows how to make your decisions more fact-based and less 'art'. With the coming of age of "management of knowledge" this is a great tool to use to improve business processes. Definitely worth every single penny spent - but especially if you are interested in learning tangible methods!

WITHOUT QUESTION this book is the best practical business text I have ever read. Thank you Robert for unequivocally adding value - in a meaningful and tangible way that can be taken to the market and capitalised on. It's books like this that inspire me to invest (what would otherwise be leisure) time in learning & continuing my education.

The book is clear, concise, comprehensive & practical, and helped wrap together many general strategy concepts into an effective action based set of implementation tools. VERY, VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Victor Finmann has to be one of the best minds in the country when it comes to definitive answers on the toughest retirement distribution guestions. His book is well thought out and is easy to follow to find your needed answers. You can not hold yourself out to be an 'expert' in this field without the help and guidance of Victors book.
I'm fortunate to know Victor personally and to call him my friend. We belong to a professional organization and I get the pleasure of hearing Victor speak often. He is an excellent public speaker. He is able to make a very difficult subject understandable and enjoyable.
Without this reference book you will be out of your league.
Buy it today and become an expert.

I just re-read PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT DISTRIBUTIONS over the holidays!

Mr. Finmann's book is the most comprehensive book on retirement distributions that I have ever read. I now feel a new level of confidence when assisting my clients (and their CPAs and attorneys) with this complex area of planning. Retirement distribution planning is going to be a big planning focus in future, I am now prepared.

W. W. (Buzz) Hankinson, CLU, ChFC
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional

Victor Finmann is one of the few national experts on the subject of Retirement Distribution Planning. He has distilled the issues into a very readable and complete text that is an important 'go-to' resource for advisors. I strongly recommend the book to any professional advising clients with retirement assets.

Victor Finmann's book, "Planning For Retirement Distributions" is an excellent resource for professionals practicing in the retirement market. To really become proficient and to remain competitive in the retirement field, Finmann's book is essential reading. If you purchase this book, it could be the best investment you will make in 2004.

Richard E. Deam CFP®