Weaver: Beyond the Numbers

Dan Graves, CPA, Partner with Weaver Risk Advisory Services, and Rebecca Goldstein, CPS, Partner with Weaver’s Assurance Services Team, returned from the recently held 2021 CCBO (Community College Business Officers), where they gave a joint presentation on grant compliance. They shared their experiences and insights from the conference with Adam Jones, Weaver’s State Government Practice Leader.

“The presentation Dan and I gave went through the whole gamut of the grant lifecycle,” Goldstein explained. “We started with what does the grant cycle look like, and emphasizing, ‘you need to think about compliance, not just at the beginning or end, but throughout the grant lifecycle.’”

There are many new fund streams available for community colleges due to COVID relief packages, therefore, Goldstein and Graves discussed the importance of understanding what funding is available and the compliance rules involved.

“One of the things that a lot of questions and a lot of topics about the conference were about the HEERF and CARES funding,” Graves said. “The COVID relief funding was a huge topic throughout the conference, and with those dollars comes a lot of special new purchases and new things that colleges and universities typically haven’t spent money on with grant funds.” One challenge for educators is to ensure they have the appropriate internal controls and reporting in place so that whatever funds they spend are valid expenditures.

Another hot topic at the conference was the emergence of data and making data-driven decisions. “That encompasses anything from registration to a lot of the initiatives that the federal government is using federal funds to make sure they achieve educational outcomes,” Graves said. “They’re using data-driven decisions through the enrollment process and the registration process.” On the operational side, artificial intelligence helps generate automated workflows and better communication with students.

Howard Altshuler and Rob Nowak invited Charlie Anastasia to Weaver’s Beyond the Numbers — Real Estate Edition, to give his insight on life in New York City pre-Thanksgiving 2021.

“You definitely will see a lot more people in the city, which is really refreshing,” Anastasia said. The last six months have seen an increase in traffic, visitors and crowds, and now the holiday season should bring even more.

Similarly, Anastasia noted that the residential market is hot with people hunting for bargains in the city, coming back and looking to find apartments once again in the city. Conversely, retail has re-mained slow with some shops still closed.

While the office population is also still slow to return to “normal,” with office occupancy lighter than expected, there are positive signs for the city with Broadway and movie theaters reopening, restau-rants booming, and the holidays attracting shoppers and travelers.

When asked about what office life in the city will look like in the future, Anastasia doesn’t envision most companies returning to the traditional five-day in the office work schedule. Instead, it’ll likely be a hybrid flex schedule.

Despite the vaccine mandate for New York City, Anastasia noted that “people are playing this chess board strategically” as to when companies are bringing employees back into the office or checking on vaccinations.

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers Podcast, hosts Rob Nowak, Partner, Tax Services at Weaver, and Howard Altshuler, Partner-in-Charge, Real Estate Services at Weaver, discuss climate change and adaptability for the real estate industry.

This past year we’ve seen extreme weather events creating stress on buildings, infrastructure and the supply chain. Texas faced unprecedented heavy winter storms, which caused major disruptions for the region. There have been extreme wildfires, and most recently a hurricane caused destruction with flooding and deaths on the Gulf Coast and up the East Coast. “Regardless of your position on climate change, it’s pretty much given that storms and weather events are getting worse and worse,” Altshuler stated.

“We’re building real estate today that’s going to be here for 30, 40, 50, 100 years, so should we be planning for the fact that there can be more extreme weather events, more stresses on real estate, and start to build that into our design and construction,” Altshuler stated.

What will it take to get there? “I would not be surprised if at some point in the near future we saw a tax deduction or tax credit around sustainability of real estate,” Nowak commented.

Listen to learn more about the future of sustainability and adaptability in real estate.

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers, Host Tyler Kern talked with Sandra Dunphy, Director Energy Compliance Services, and Greg Staiti, Partner Energy Compliance Services. Dunphy and Staiti recently attended the Opis RFS, RINs & Biofuels Forum in Chicago.

Dunphy has been with Weaver for almost 11 years, and she leads the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) team. She and her team help companies navigate the regulations and how they work. As the first conference speaker this year, she gave an overview of the conference’s agenda.

But, the big news out of this year’s conference was the delay in the EPA’s regulation announcement.

“The timing of the conference this year was quite interesting,” Dunphy noted. “We have annual objectives that EPA publishes each year of the period of the regulations. We have now been waiting for an announcement related to 2021 about the standards the industry to try to meet.”

These standards are called Renewable Volume Obligations. Usually, they have them by the end of November before the compliance year, which means they should have had them by November 2020.

“Ironically, in the conference last year, we said we were waiting for the EPA’s announcement, and here we are a year later still waiting for that announcement,” Dunphy said.

Staiti has been with Weaver since 2012. He oversees the consulting part of the practice within Weaver’s Energy Consulting Services. They focus on the transportation fuels regulation that affects all the fuels that go into vehicles. His presentation focused on feedstocks and other issues that are an obstacle under current RFS regulations.

“Both of our presentations were very heavy on the regulatory framework for renewable fuels,” Staiti said. “But, mine, in particular, focused on some of the challenges within the existing regulatory structure that could inhibit the expansion of opportunities for renewable fuels and their associated feedstocks, under the current regulations.”

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers, Host Tyler Kern talked with Sandra Dunphy, Director Energy Compliance Services, and Greg Staiti, Partner Energy Compliance Services. Dunphy and Staiti recently attended the Opis RFS, RINs & Biofuels Forum in Chicago.

Dunphy has been with Weaver for almost 11 years, and she leads the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) team. She and her team help companies navigate the regulations and how they work. As the first conference speaker this year, she gave an overview of the conference’s agenda.

But, the big news out of this year’s conference was the delay in the EPA’s regulation announcement.

“The timing of the conference this year was quite interesting,” Dunphy noted. “We have annual objectives that EPA publishes each year of the period of the regulations. We have now been waiting for an announcement related to 2021 about the standards the industry to try to meet.”

These standards are called Renewable Volume Obligations. Usually, they have them by the end of November before the compliance year, which means they should have had them by November 2020.

“Ironically, in the conference last year, we said we were waiting for the EPA’s announcement, and here we are a year later still waiting for that announcement,” Dunphy said.

Staiti has been with Weaver since 2012. He oversees the consulting part of the practice within Weaver’s Energy Consulting Services. They focus on the transportation fuels regulation that affects all the fuels that go into vehicles. His presentation focused on feedstocks and other issues that are an obstacle under current RFS regulations.

“Both of our presentations were very heavy on the regulatory framework for renewable fuels,” Staiti said. “But, mine, in particular, focused on some of the challenges within the existing regulatory structure that could inhibit the expansion of opportunities for renewable fuels and their associated feedstocks, under the current regulations.”

Often, traditional lending products keep homeowners on the debt treadmill and may not be the best way for homeowners to pursue renovations, consolidate debt, or put their kids through college. With that being said, Unison lets homeowners unlock their home equity without taking on any additional debt, allowing these homeowners to achieve their goals in a way that makes them more financially stable.

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers, Hosts Rob Nowak, Real Estate Industry Tax Partner with Weaver, and Howard Altshuler, Partner in Charge of Real Estate services, sat down with Theo Haugen, Director of Home Partnership at Unison to further explore what Unison can do for homeowners.

In a nutshell, Unison allows homeowners to tap into their home equity without any monthly payments or interest. Unison invests in the home, along with the homeowner, and shares the future gain or loss when the homeowner decides to sell.

“This is a two-part thing here,” Haugen said. “We are giving homeowners the opportunity to tap into their home equity without taking on additional debt. But on the flip side, we are giving institutional investors access to residential real estate as an asset class.”

Unison starts by doing an appraisal of the home to get a starting value. In the future, if the house sells for more, they share in that increase, but if it sells for less, they share in the decrease. They are risk-sharing with the homeowners.

Haugen explains that at Unison, the main goal is to help the homeowners achieve their financial goals, avoid more debt, make better financial decisions, and eventually sell their home for more money. And if they make more money, Unison makes more money, and the investors make more money.

Once funded, Unison can help people understand the options that are available to them and point them to resources when they experience financial instability, such as medical or credit card debt. As Haugen states, “we’re helping people succeed financially, which helps them maintain their home, pay their mortgage.”

“It’s not adversarial,” Haugen said. “We succeed when the homeowners succeed as well.”

The tax assessor’s notice isn’t always the final say on what taxpayers must remit. Companies can easily appeal these decisions with a proactive appeal strategy for their real and personal property taxes .

Property tax can encompass a large portion of your company’s tax burden and with rising assessments there is a feeling of uncertainty in an already unpredictable economy. Weaver’s state and local tax professionals, Jason Armstrong, Senior Manager, and Shane Stewart, Partner-in-Charge, join Tyler Kern for an episode of Weaver Beyond the Numbers to discuss how and why organizations should take a second look at their property tax appeal process.

Both Armstrong and Stewart bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the topic. First, Armstrong explained, “Businesses receive the appraisal and projected amount due. If you don’t agree with this, you have the right to appeal.”

“The tax is not yet due, and you have a period of time to reduce it,” Stewart added. 

The process can be as simple as a tax professional talking with the assessor and sharing information to disputes the value. Some appeals will need go to a board hearing. Armstrong explained, “It’s high-level, and you have only 15 minutes to state your case. Then the board makes a decision, which can also be appealed.”

In appealing, Stewart noted, “You want to have someone with the technical ability to present the facts, and someone with relationships with jurisdictions.”

Mistakes are also made in the assessment process, and having a professional who can uncover these oversights can help with the appeals process. So, what are the top mistakes in assessments? Armstrong highlighted several: “The assessor can make a mistake of course, but I see errors in understanding the useful life of assets. Obsolescence, either functional or economic, is another area where mistakes are made. Functional describes the loss of value due to the inefficiencies of an asset. Economic refers to loss of value due to external factors.”

Not looking at an assessment can mean overpaying for years. Stewart explained, “Most taxpayers don’t even know they can appeal, so be aware of this as a way to save money.”

With Weaver’s expertise in dealing with complicated property tax issues along with a deep understanding of the property tax appeal process, the team is equipped to make sure your business is minimizing its tax liability.  

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On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers, Host Adam Jones discussed grant compliance with Brandon Tanous, Partner Risk Advisory Services, and Travis Casner, Managing Director of Forensics and Litigation Services. Specifically, they covered the increased availability of grant money from the federal and state level, and more importantly, avoiding fraud in the grant management cycle.

The best way to avoid fraud and adhere to grant compliance is by having a good system of internal controls. Whether it’s higher education, state or local municipalities, or not-for-profits, the question is always where to start. Each organization is going to have a different level of maturity when it comes to these internal controls.

“Most of recipients learn very quickly that every grant has strings attached,” explained Tanous, whose focus is state and local government and has 13 years of experience building internal controls around grant compliance. “An internal control that we always want to see is, first and foremost, is an understanding the grant criteria, with documented policies and procedures, and segregation of duty.”

Tanous elaborated that too often, you see people trying to do too many things. Having those internal controls, and not having the same person initiating and executing and approving all transactions, and making sure there is a healthy number of people working on the project.

The first place to start is by working on policies and procedures, so people know what they’re supposed to do and how the protocols should be performed. Those policies and procedures should also reflect the current environment.

“The common deficiencies we see are that people don’t have those [policies and procedures] established,” Tanous said.

A primary concern is how quickly fraud can occur when proper controls are not in place. This becomes a bigger challenge when working with a decentralized organization that needs a centralized process.

“We are now able to use analytics to benchmark spending and identify abnormalities,” said Casner who has managed numerous financial forensics investigations involving allegations of fraud. “Why might an organization be paying more than their peers for a good or services? Is there a legitimate reason or something nefarious going on?”

Casner went on to say that some of the most common fraud happens in the procurement processes. From kick-backs to bribery, not having proper controls around purchasing can open your entity up for fraudulent activity.

Taking a proactive approach to combating fraud by utilizing analytics can help identify red flags and schemes before they occur, especially as it relates to grant management.

Listen to the full episode to hear all of Tanous and Casner’s insights.

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Weaver’s professionals are known for helping government clients address problems, achieve compliance, and prevent fraud or loss. Visit weaver.com for more thought leadership.

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers Real Estate Edition Podcast, hosts Rob Nowak, Partner, Tax Services at Weaver and Howard Altshuler, Partner-in-Charge, Real Estate Services at Weaver, talked about their predictions for industry trends for the rest of 2021 and into 2022.

“If I had my sunglasses, I’d be putting them on because the future is bright,” Altshuler said. “Overall, the market is looking really well.”

Retail is recovering to a great extent, and people are getting out and about. We see hospitality is doing well, especially concerning non-business travel. Industrial/multi-family/single-family rental, and self-storage, that stuff never slowed down, according to Altshuler.

The lessons that were learned during the first portion of the pandemic might also come back to bear during the current Delta variant wave of COVID-19, according to Nowak. But, things might be different if there continue to be different and continuing variants.

“The industry had figured out, in many ways, how to adapt to the pandemic, which is why real estate sort of led the way in terms of economic recovery,” Nowak said.

One area they haven’t spent a ton of time on but dug into on this episode is single-family rentals, as they can bridge the gap of affordability between apartment buildings and folks who might not be able to afford a single-family home.

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers Real Estate Edition Podcast, hosts Rob Nowak, Partner, Tax Services at Weaver and Howard Altshuler, Partner-in-Charge, Real Estate Services at Weaver, talked about the Pros and Cons of Real Estate Funds Vs. Real Estate Partnerships with Scott Winkler, Senior Manager, Audit Investment Funds, Weaver.

“I think the biggest advantage of an investment fund over a partnership is they’re going to be nimble,” Winkler said. “With an investment fund, you’re usually able to obtain a subscription line of credit from the bank.”

This allows investors to have quick access to capital so that you can move quickly in a time-sensitive deal. This is an advantage over a private partnership unless someone has something on the shelf, which not many folks do, according to Altshuler. If they don’t, they will have to go out, get documents ready, make sure everyone is on board in the partnership, and it is more time consuming.

This has led to a proliferation of real estate funds, according to Nowak. “Deal flow is a little constricted right now, and good deals are hard to come by. I think if you have a fund structure in place, it just enables you to move on that deal significantly faster.”

Other differences include promote and fee structures, which may provide more benefits to investment partnerships over funds.

Listen to hear more about the differences between real estate investment partnerships and real estate funds.