FEI Weekly

February 16, 2018

SEC wants advisors to come clean about high-fee fund shares, a checklist for catching resume mistakes.

Private Equity Firm Buys PwC's U.S. Public Sector Business

Accounting Today

PricewaterhouseCoopers signed an agreement this week to sell its U.S. Public Sector business to the private equity firm Veritas Capital. "Today’s announcement enables our US firm the opportunity for continued growth and investment to best provide ongoing quality and value to our clients,” said PwC US chairman and senior partner Tim Ryan in a statement.

Amazon's CFO on Their Recent Layoffs

Yahoo! Finance

Amazon is working on the consolidation of Amazon Prime Now and AmazonFresh, which has caused layoffs in the company headquarters. The layoff, first reported by the Seattle Times on Monday, affected “several hundred” employees. The merge may help deliver Whole Foods. Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky has previously signaled the possibility of the three businesses joining forces. “Over time, you’ll see more cooperation and more working together between AmazonFresh, Prime Now and Whole Foods as we explore different ways to serve the customer,” he said on an earnings call last October.

UK Blames Russia for Last Year's Cyber-Attack on Ukraine

BBC

The UK government has taken the unusual step of publicly accusing Russia of June's NotPetya ransomware attack. Russia has denied responsibility for the NotPetya attack - which is estimated to have cost companies more than $1.2bn - and pointed out that Russian firms were among those whose systems were affected. Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said, "The UK government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack."

SEC Invites Investors to Fess Up to High-Fee Fund Shares

CNBC

The SEC this week said they are giving investment advisory firms a pass on fines if they come clean by June 12 that they put clients in high-fee shares of mutual funds. They would also need to reimburse clients for those higher fees and any gains they missed out on. The SEC's enforcement division, in announcing its self-reporting program, said there is "significant concern that many investment advisors have not been complying with their obligation" to disclose conflicts related to high-fee shares and that "investor harm involving this lack of disclosure may be widespread."

The Best Checklist to Catch Resume Mistakes

Glassdoor

Start by double-checking that everything on your resume should be on a resume to begin with. Age, nationality, criminal record, marital status, gender, professional headshot, and unrelated hobbies do not need to be included. Next, get someone to read over your resume and share their thoughts. Check your verbs: resumes should be written using the past tense (the one exception being when you’re describing your current job). Avoid using pronouns. Be aware that formatting mistakes lead recruiters to believe that you’re not as detail-oriented and meticulous as they’d prefer. Finally, scrutinize all the questionable assumptions you’ve made earlier on to prevent yourself from making foreseeable mistakes.