The following letter was sent to Wanda Lorenz, CPA, chair of the AICPA Accounting and Review Services Committee:

I have heard that your committee may reconsider "plain paper financial statements." As a long-time practitioner, I have had a negative feeling about such so-called financial statements as I believe they demean the professionality of certified public accountants. These statements are intended to avoid responsibility by those who prepare and are associated with said financial statements, but, to the contrary, clients have historically submitted such statements to banks and credit grantors despite caveats, footnotes, and "poison warning" appended thereto.

Current SSARS standards provide all the tools to guide practitioners, and I hope that pressure on your committee will not bend your adherence to high technical standards. *

Eli Mason