Seminar on Contingent Loss Reporting, FASB Statements No. 5 and No. 143, and FIN 47

A presentation and seminar titled “Contingent Loss Reporting, FASB Statements No. 5 and No. 143, and FIN 47,” offered to the American Bar Association Section on Environment/Energy & Resources, Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee on May 9, 2006 in Detroit, Michigan and in October 2006 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a new interpretation – FASB Interpretation No. 47 (“FIN 47”) – dealing with FASB Statement No. 143, and clarifying when and how companies must estimate and recognize costs that they will incur in the future when they retire fixed assets. Environmental liabilities – e.g., hazardous waste disposal and asbestos abatement requirements – were featured as prime examples to which the new interpretation applies. Public companies were required to implement FIN 47, and to report any associated charges to earnings, no later than the end of the fiscal year ending after December 15, 2005. This presentation addressed the challenges of these new standards.