From the editor.

Just how different is it being a CFO earlier, or later, in one's career? That's an intriguing subject we elected to explore by interviewing two sets of CFOs: ones still in their 30s, the others over 60. There are differences, of course, but the similarities might surprise you. Six CFOs of public companies, large and small, were interviewed by Executive Editor Ellen M. Heffes and writer Gregory Millman. They talked about how they progressed to their current post, the quest for personal balance and their take on the current issues they face. It all makes for compelling reading.

Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance issues have kept many financial executives awake at night. Following the second FEI forum on 404 compliance in September, Financial Executives Research Foundation Director of Research William Sinnett and Ellen Heffes spoke with several participants about the practices helping them achieve better, easier and less-costly approaches to compliance.

For an update on what the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is doing and thinking, read writer Bruce Fraser's interview with the board's chief auditor, Douglas Carmichael. While the views expressed are his own (of course), Carmichael reviews issues like auditor independence, how Auditing Standard 2 is working out in practice and upcoming standards, like one on audit quality review.

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The complexity of accounting standards is a constant migraine for many preparers. FEI's CEO, Colleen Cunningham, argues for simplification in her President's Page in this issue, and Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz also weighs in on the subject. In an interview in the Financial Reporting column, Herz contends that powerful forces seem to be perpetuating complex standards despite efforts to make them clearer.

In the wake of a pair of hurricanes that devastated much of the Gulf Coast, questions are rightfully being raised about how well the insurance industry is prepared to handle future storms, whose severity could quite possibly be accentuated by climate change. State insurance commissioners, in fact, are asking the collective industry to look long and hard at its risk models, and to adjust them as needed.

Companies concerned with the book effects of long-term incentives should focus not only on the amount but on the behavior of these costs, writes Towers Perrin consultant Richard Ericson. Using "performance share" or "performance unit" grants, he writes, can greatly reduce the variability of earnings when compared to a policy of stock option or restricted stock grants recorded under the FASB's new expensing rule, FAS 123(R).

It's hardly surprising that many companies have moved toward the Internet for booking travel, especially for routine flights: the cost savings over transactions done through an agent can be tremendous. Writer Bruce McCracken interviews CFOs and others who have incorporated online travel procedures as a specific tool for curbing costs.

And, in "The Brave New World of IFRS," two accounting professors review the way in which international financial reporting standards have taken hold as the deadline for adoption has arrived. While the demand for further detail and clarification is expected to rise, certain European companies, like Belgacom and Solvay, have concluded that embracing them is worth any small world of pain that comes with them.