Investment Accounting, Fair Value & Derivatives
My specialty is investment securities and derivatives — the accounting that sits at the intersection of judgment, valuation, and documentation, and that most finance teams face too rarely to staff for. I also take on the broader technical accounting work described below. Engagements run from a single memo to a multi-month implementation, on-site in the Bay Area or remote nationwide.
Investment Accounting & Derivatives
Investment securities and hedge accounting are where I go deepest. Trained in the San Francisco offices of PwC and Deloitte auditing banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, and mutual funds is where that came from — and audit is the right training for this work, because every position I write is written for the person who will challenge it.
Investment securities — ASC 320/321/323: classification and reclassification · available-for-sale and held-to-maturity treatment · impairment · equity securities without readily determinable fair value · equity method application, including basis differences and changes in ownership
Fair value — ASC 820: leveling judgments and transfers between levels · valuation technique selection and documentation · hard-to-value and illiquid positions · pricing-service and third-party valuation review · the disclosure package your auditors expect
Derivatives and hedging — ASC 815: identifying embedded derivatives · hedge designation and contemporaneous documentation · effectiveness testing at inception and ongoing · fair value, cash flow, and net investment hedges · discontinuation and de-designation · assessing hedge documentation an auditor has questioned, and scoping what follows
You get: a written position with authoritative citations, the calculations and entries behind it, draft disclosure language, and my availability when your audit team asks about it.
Typical fit: a controller at a bank, broker-dealer, fund, or corporate treasury who has a position, a portfolio, or a hedge program that nobody internally has the specific background to conclude on.
Technical Accounting Advisory
Outside the investment specialty, I take on the general run of technical accounting questions — the ones that need research, a written conclusion, and someone willing to defend it.
Common issues: revenue recognition and contract modifications (ASC 606) · lease classification and transition (ASC 842) · financial statement preparation and SEC reporting, including 10-Q, 10-K, footnote disclosure and XBRL
You get: a written technical memo with authoritative citations, a summary you can hand to your audit committee, and the journal entries or disclosure language to put it into effect.
Typical fit: a controller who has an unusual transaction and no one internally who has seen one before.
Internal Controls & SOX Compliance
Whether it's your first SOX cycle, your sixth, or a control that's already failing, the work is the same: figure out what the control should be, write it down so it can be tested, and make sure it actually operates.
Scope includes: risk assessment and scoping · process walkthroughs and narratives · control design and documentation · testing programs and workpapers · deficiency evaluation and remediation plans · preparing for your first external auditor ICFR opinion
Ongoing support: annual walkthrough and narrative refresh · scoping and risk assessment updates as the business changes · operating effectiveness testing through the cycle · control redesign after a system implementation or reorganization · additional capacity during testing season · responding to the external auditor's ICFR requests
You get: control matrices and narratives written to the standard your auditors will test against, a tested-and-evidenced conclusion, and a remediation path with dates attached.
Typical fit: a company approaching accelerated filer status, one that just got an unwelcome comment in a management letter, or a lean team that runs SOX every year and needs a senior pair of hands without adding headcount.
Implementation & Audit Support
Adopting a new standard, or getting through an audit with your quarter intact. Covered in detail on the Implementation & Audit Support page.
Subcontract & White-Label for CPA Firms
If your firm has a client with a technical accounting issue outside your current bench, I take on that work as a subcontractor — under your firm's name if you prefer, with clean engagement terms and no approach to your client.
The practice is built for this kind of work: standard implementations, one-off memos, and SOX support where staffing it internally doesn't pencil out. Independence and confidentiality terms are documented up front.
Contact me directly to discuss capacity and rates.
Smaller Companies
Not everything needs a formal engagement. A close that's gone sideways, a clean-up before an audit, a one-off accounting question — get in touch and I'll tell you plainly whether it's worth my time or yours.
Industries
Financial services: banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, mutual funds, and venture capital funds. I audited these institutions at PwC and Deloitte in San Francisco, then worked in-house as Assistant Group Controller at Wells Fargo Bank and Senior Compliance Manager at Standard Chartered Bank in Korea, followed by consulting engagements with banking clients. This is where my investment accounting, fair value, and derivatives work has lived.
Technology: two years at Apple leading SOX compliance and ASC 842 lease accounting for the Real Estate & Development organization, and consulting at Google on the revenue recognition workstream of a $5 billion M&A integration and an SAP Treasury implementation for in-house banking.
Systems: Clearwater Analytics, GTreasury, SAP S/4HANA and SAP RAR, Workiva, BlackLine, IBM TRIRIGA. I work in the systems these functions run on, not only in the guidance.
How Engagements Work
A short call. Thirty minutes, free. You describe the situation; I tell you what it likely involves.
A written scope. What I'll deliver, what I need from you, timing, and fee — fixed-fee where the scope allows, hourly where it genuinely can't be bounded.
The work. You hear from me as it progresses, not only at the end.
Delivery and defense. You get the deliverable, and I stay available to your auditors on it.