Attempt at a Poll

[Mike Mac]

Somebody suggested a poll on this question and I was also interested
in the number of people who carried this insurance.

This is my first attempt at building a poll so we'll see how it worked.

[Snaggletooth]

Biased Poll

Mike with all respect, there is a built-in bias that will distort poll results.

Scarcely a soul who DOESN'T have E&O insurance is going to admit it.
Half of all readers may not have E&O, but your poll results are going to
reflect 10-1 that we do.

Very much like asking people to tell us whether they are honest or not...

Hang out on this message board, though. It's good having you.

Regards, Ron Jordan, Manchester, TN

[Black Bart]

Wait! Wait!

Scarcely a soul who DOESN'T have E&O insurance is going to admit it.

Very much like asking people to tell us whether they are honest or not...

Hang out on this message board...It's good having you.

I'll tell him (and also Thomtax who I was gonna answer, but -- hard to believe -- I got too busy)!

Okay, MM/Tom -- Here's the cold, hard, unvarnished truth. I am an EA and my off-brand E&O is so cheap that it isn't worth two cents ($185 annually -- $10K coverage -- lawyer furnished? -- no idea; probably not). Now -- don't tell anyone.

Yours truly, BB

P.S. About that honesty thing; I've slipped a bit with age -- around age 45, I embezzled three boxes of paper clips (discreetly--over a period of many months) from the company who owned the building where my office was. But it all worked out -- the zealot who owned the place billed me ($1.95) for them. Unfortunately, he didn't have many customers and my clientele traffic used his services a lot, so when I later moved out (actually, not over the paper clips) he lost about $20,000 a year in trade.

I don't know if this means crime does/does not pay, or don't steal paper clips, or do let people steal paper clips, or what goes around comes around, or whatever. However, I do know that I felt bad about those paper clips for a good long while.

P.P.S. Oops, sorry; I'm like some of my colleagues here -- I tend to ramble a bit. Nice poll you did, though. Come back and see us.

"Conscience! What a thing!" -- Humphrey Bogart, Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

[OldJack]

Well... when you ask questions in a poll you have to be concerned that you are not going to offend anyone. Some might think that you consider only EA's to be important when you list them separate and lump everyone else in a non-pool. I understand that you are more interested in EA's opinion since you are probably an EA, but what would you think of a pole that excluded EA's opinions. Just because we don't have EA after our name does not mean we are not important people.

[jainen]

a formal group

>>what would you think of a pole that excluded EA's opinions<<

There is a formal group like that, called the bar association.

[Mike Mac]

To those who may have been offended

Old Jack and any others who may have taken offense with the poll
layout.....The reason I did it the way I did was that was what "ST"
was hoping for on the original string of this message (see below). Also thought
it gave me a learning opportunity in structuring a little broader poll.
Personally I don't really care what type of tax professional responds
to the query. It seems to me that posters to this board by and large
fit into the "intelligent" category no matter what initials they may carry
behind their names.


S T
Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Riverside, Ca
Posts: 803

?? Curious


I would be curious to know how many of the EA's at least on this board carry the E & O insurance for their practice.

If I knew how to do the poll I would set it up, but I dont, so maybe Black Bart will come in behind me and do the poll. I am overloaded on computer technology right now, so can't spend the time to figure out how to post the poll.

Sandy

[thomtax]

Polling EAs causing hurt feelings

Well... when you ask questions in a poll you have to be concerned that you are not going to offend anyone. Some might think that you consider only EA's to be important when you list them separate and lump everyone else in a non-pool. I understand that you are more interested in EA's opinion since you are probably an EA, but what would you think of a pole that excluded EA's opinions. Just because we don't have EA after our name does not mean we are not important people.

I don't know about MMs thoughts on the poll, but if you look at the poll, it includes non EAs. One reason that I was hoping for the EA section was that probably many more of the CPAs have a much more varied business, such as audits, etc, that would skew the rates paid for the insurance.

Of course, I have been known to hurt feelings when I was doing my best not to do so.

LT

[Snaggletooth]

Good Grief

MM, don't buy any of this crap. You are new to the board and old fogeys like Jack are pulling your leg. You can't hurt his feelings - he's 99 years old and refers to 55-year-olds as "young whippersnappers."

Actually, Old Jack is a CPA -- and a very good one, with lots of good and accurate advice.

Hang out with us here on the board - we're lots of fun!

[S T]

Discrimination

Sorry Old Jack, I didn't mean to discriminate when I asked about EA's and E&O Insurance and MM was kind enough to post a poll based on that earlier post.

Presumption on my part that most of the CPA's posting on this Board would probably have the E&O Coverage.

I was more interested in the E&O coverage for EA's as the insurance companies seem to provide products according to designations. As an EA I have found companies that will only offer coverage to CPA's or Attorneys. Then there are companies that only offer coverage for Tax Preparer's (Calif) and then companies that have coverage available for EA's.

Sandy

[OldJack]

Sandy & Mike,

No offense was taken. I simply wanted to point out that most everyone on this forum are professionals with some kind of letters attached to their name. This is not just a EA, CPA, or Attorney board. And for those that don't have a title... most have many years experience and they are professionals also.

edit: I didn't mean to imply that one should not poll a specific group, rather just not give the impression that everyone else was not as important. If the poll had just asked for EA's opinion I would not have thought anything about it. no big deal.