Family Law: Case Law Update

Overview

Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm’s ESG disclosure helps explain some of this disagreement. We predict and find that greater ESG disclosure actually leads to greater ESG rating disagreement. These findings hold using firm fixed effects and using a difference-in-differences design with mandatory ESG disclosure shocks. We also find that raters disagree more about ESG outcome metrics than input metrics (policies), and that disclosure appears to amplify disagreement more for outcomes. Last, we examine consequences of ESG disagreement and find that greater ESG disagreement is associated with higher return volatility, larger absolute price movements, and a lower likelihood of issuing external financing. Overall, our findings highlight that ESG disclosure generally exacerbates ESG rating disagreement rather than resolves it.

Highlights

• Key Court Decisions and Practical Implications
• Role of CPAs in Divorce Financial Matters
• Managing Child Support and Asset Division

Prerequisites

None.

Objectives

• Provide an in-depth analysis of pivotal court decisions to understand their significance and impact.
• Understand the practical implications of court decisions and how they influence accounting practices.
• Develop the ability to make informed decisions in your accounting practice based on legal precedents.

Preparation

None.

Notice

This is a self-study/on demand course offered by a 3rd party vendor and will NOT be accessible in the My Upcoming CPE section of the ISCPA website. Course access information will be emailed directly to you by CalCPA. The course expires one year from the purchase date. Format = Online Self-Study.