Succession planning

It’s the milestone you’ve worked toward for your entire career—promotion to partnership. After the announcement’s been made, you revel in the excitement and recognition of what you’ve achieved.

CPA firms are challenged today by an unprecedented pace of change and intense margin pressure, with no reason to believe the end is in sight.

This past April, I stepped onstage to deliver the keynote address to one of my firm’s largest client conferences for tax. I addressed a group of 1,200 or more professionals almost evenly balanced between men and women. In fact, in EY’s own tax practice, women represent 52 percent of the professionals.

A talent war is taking place as competition intensifies for quality high-level positions.

Many CPA firms have been expanding rapidly, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions. This has included significant geographic expansion beyond the firms’ core locations. It has also included expanding into new areas such as IT-related advisory services.

Joel Sinkin of Transition Advisors explains in this video why the location of a firm is a major factor in its M&A opportunities and value.

Joel Sinkin of Transition Advisors discusses in this video how the retention period can be a key factor when buying or selling an accounting firm.

Joel Sinkin of Transition Advisors explains in this video why valuations of accounting firms that are being bought and sold are on the decline.

Imagine a partner announces their retirement and your firm buys out the equity stake. Five years later, the partner is still working with and controlling the same client relationships as always. Worse yet, the “retired” partner is getting more and more difficult to work with every day but has been fully paid. What do you do?

This column was precipitated by my hearing of the untimely death of a sole practitioner who was a friend. His family wanted to sell the practice and was shopping around for a buyer.

Strategic planning needs to take account of the rest of your life

Retaining and attracting the next generation of qualified professionals

Grant Thornton’s new chief operating officer, Jim Brady, plans to execute the firm’s strategy and expand its presence in advisory services such as cybersecurity and strategic consulting.

I have a client who owns considerable real estate that her son manages. The son actually does a very good job maintaining the property, growing rents, and keeping vacancies to a minimum.

How some women leaders have guided CPA firms toward growing meaningful programs.

Accounting firms are looking to bring in younger employees to fill their ranks as older Baby Boomer partners start to retire, but they have to offer the right enticements if their succession planning is going to work.

One morning my wife and I were having breakfast and she asked me, “What do I do if you and Peter get killed?”

Top 100 Firm The Bonadio Group announced the implementation of a succession plan that will see founder Thomas Bonadio handing over the CEO role in three years.

Accounting firms need to rethink the roles and expectations of their partners, according to industry consultant Allan Koltin – and changes to traditional partner compensation models can help.

You’ve got yet another tax season under your belt, your grandkids are getting older and your golf game could use a little tweaking. Your thoughts of retirement have been on your mind but you have been putting off pursuing this path for various reasons, some of which may be based on some common misconceptions.