Accounting Entrepreneurs Becoming Successors Instead ...S3

Crain’s
Corporate
Profiles in
Accounting
쏋
Accounting Entrepreneurs Becoming
Successors Instead ...S3
쏋
Managing the Expansion...S4
쏋
The Rise of the Specialists...S8
쏋
Educating the Next Generation
of Accountants...S10
A Special Advertising Section to Crain’s New York Business
TODAY’S FIRM
SUCCESSION
PLANS INCLUDE
RECRUITING
TOMORROW’S
ENTREPRENEURS
BY ALEC FOEGE
W
hen Craig Wild was young, his grandfather
owned a tax accounting practice in Brooklyn.
Mr. Wild spent many a fond night and
weekend during his formative years helping his
grandfather fill out tax returns by hand. He enjoyed the
work so much, he made an agreement with his family
to work for his grandfather after graduating college
and getting his accounting license, with the intent of
eventually taking over the firm.
Unfortunately, his grandfather died during Mr. Wild’s
senior year in college. “I went to the family, and said, ‘I
still want to do this,’” he recalls. “The family’s response
was, ‘You don’t have your degree, you don’t have your
license—you can’t do anything.’ So the business was
sold, and it was sold at a huge discount, because he had
passed away.”
Now a partner at Wild, Maney & Resnick LLP, a sixpartner CPA firm in Woodbury, NY, Mr. Wild learned
the hard way that having a clear, executable succession
plan is a must for accounting firms keen on surviving,
and thriving, past the current generation of partners.
Earlier in his career, an accountant he partnered with
died from a heart attack just six months after the two
joined forces. “Now I’m out there looking for a young,
entrepreneurial CPA, someone in his or her 30s or 40s,
who’s got a little business on the side,” who he hopes to
convince to come on board, Mr. Wild says.
Looking outside the practice for potential successors has
become a common strategy among small-to-mediumsize New York-area accounting firms, an approach
made easier by the high concentration of local talent.
While senior CPA firm partners once viewed young,
entrepreneurial accountants as competitive threats, now
they are actively courting them as future leaders of their
own firms. And in many cases, the young, would-be
business founders are accepting such offers instead of
going it alone or buying another firm.
“I have seen a substantial increase in CPA firm managers
and partners seeking to either go on their own or find a
‘successor’ opportunity,” says Robert Fligel, president of
RF Resources LLC, a Manhattan-based CPA placement
firm that also helps small-to-medium-size firms create
succession strategies. Mr. Fligel says he has seen a 33%
surge in such queries over the last five years.
Increased interest in successor scenarios from ambitious
young CPAs has even encouraged some New York area
firms that already have in-house candidates in place
to rethink their futures. A firm generating $3 million
in annual revenues, whose partners asked to remain
anonymous due to the sensitive nature of their plan, had
a younger partner with rainmaking abilities and strong
client-handling skills, but not the right organizational and
strategic abilities to carry the firm into the next decade.
The senior partner wanted to start working less
and eventually retire, but hiring a new partner is an
expensive proposition for a smaller firm, especially when
factoring in the cost of releasing the new hire from any
covenants with his or her old firm. The new hire needed
to have an existing book of business and reasons for
coming on board beyond wanting a new job with equity
in the firm. “Most firms don’t hire new partners as
equity partners,” says Mr. Fligel. In this case, discussing
a succession plan as part of the negotiation, including a
timeline for increasing equity and a possible retirement
date and payout plan for the older partner, allowed both
sides to make a long-term plan and acquire some of the
stability they were ultimately looking for.
This mutually beneficial succession approach holds
strong appeal, particularly for family-owned accounting
businesses that do not want to lose control of their firm’s
future. “I want to hand-pick who my successor will be,”
says J. Timothy Sherman, managing partner at Cohen
Greve & Company, a four-partner firm with offices in
Mineola, N.Y., and Manhattan.
In a previous generation, 10 or 15 years ago, a lot of
young, entrepreneurial graduates with financial degrees
who might have traditionally gotten their licenses and
gone into the accounting profession instead tried their
luck in the far more lucrative world of investment
banking. But after the economic collapse of 2008,
investment banking jobs became far harder to come by.
Craig Wild suspects that caused newer entrepreneurial
grads to look toward accounting again, which should
benefit firms like his that are always searching for the
next generation’s leaders.
“I have seen a
substantial increase
in CPA firm managers
and partners
seeking to either
go on their own or
find a ‘successor’
opportunity,” says
Robert Fligel, president
of RF Resources LLC
“I can hire a dozen back-room, technical accountants
anytime I want,” Wild says. “I need the front-room
accountant, the entrepreneurial type who can go into a
meeting, who can go into a networking event, and who
can do a good presentation. That’s the difficult part.” 쏋
S2
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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
MANAGING THE EXPANSION: AREA
ACCOUNTING FIRMS ARE CAUTIOUSLY
SPREADING THEIR WINGS IN IMPROVED
ECONOMIC TIMES
BY ALEC FOEGE
J. Timothy Sherman, managing partner at Cohen Greve
& Company, a 22-person CPA practice with offices on
Long Island and in Manhattan, began planning his
firm’s most recent expansion under relatively difficult
circumstances. After the economic crisis of 2008 hit the
New York area, small-to-medium-size accounting firms
felt the impact harder than some larger ones, and Mr.
Sherman’s firm was no exception.
The firm had traditionally served family businesses,
distributorships, manufacturers, and garment district
firms. But those kinds of companies also were feeling
the pinch during the downturn. “I had to find new
revenue streams,” Mr. Sherman says.
As part of his plan to expand, Mr. Sherman and
two of his managers became certified for forensic
accounting. “Being auditors, we’ve always done this
kind of work,” he says. “But to
market to attorneys without a
certification fell on deaf ears. So
now we have CFEs [Certified
Fraud Examiner licenses] and
CFFs [Certified in Financial
Foresnsics].” Mr. Sherman also
hired an accountant who was
an expert in handling taxes in
divorce situations. In addition,
Cohen Greve purchased
a small firm, A.F. Notaris,
CPA, that concentrated on
physician practices and other
professional-services firms, and
more importantly, was based
in Manhattan. “We decided we
wanted a presence in New York
(Continued on S6)
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S4
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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
(Continued from S6)
“I agree firms are
looking to expand,”
says Bart Raffaele,
a partner at Gruber
Palumberi Raffaele,
PC, in Manhattan. “I
just don’t think it has
so much to do with the
economy. It has to do
with the climate of the
profession.”
City,” says Mr. Sherman. From its origins as a firm
catering to garment district businesses in midtown,
Cohen Greve saw its New York City-based clientele
diminish when it had only a Long Island location. “We
felt that not being there physically put a little bit of a
damper on the business,” says Mr. Sherman.
As the economy continues to recover, more and
more New York-area accounting firms are cautiously
exploring ways to increase the size and reach of their
businesses. Nearly 50% of New York-area CPA practices
with three or more partners are looking to gradually
expand, according to Robert Fligel, president of RF
Resources LLC, a CPA placement firm. While their
goals are generally similar, different firms have varying
ways of achieving that expansion.
Mark Goodman, managing partner at Janover, LLC,
a 20-partner firm with $30 million in revenues and
offices in Garden City, NY, and Manhattan, says his
firm first crafted an expansion plan in 1998, when the
firm had about $2 million in revenues. The method
of choice was growth through mergers with smaller
firms; Janover completed about a dozen over the next
10 years. As of this year, Mr. Goodman says, the firm is
accelerating its merger activities once again, bringing
both a $3 million Manhattan-based firm and a $4
million Long Island firm into the fold by year’s end.
In most cases, says Mr. Goodman, the mergers do
not involve a cash outlay. Instead, Janover subsumes
smaller firms, and the partners of the merged
firms become partners and owners at Janover. “The
advantages they’re getting are the infrastructure we
provide, access to clients they never had access to,
and the ability to bring more balance to their lives,
as well as an exit strategy for retirements,” he says. To
accommodate the larger headcount, Janover recently
moved its Manhattan office from a 5,000-square-foot
space to a 15,000-square-foot facility.
While an improving economy is as good a reason
to expand as any, it may not be the most important
one. “I agree firms are looking to expand,” says Bart
Raffaele, a partner at Gruber Palumberi Raffaele, PC,
in Manhattan. “I just don’t think it has so much to
do with the economy. It has to do with the climate of
the profession.” As the biggest CPA firms grow, the
smaller firms must expand to compete. “These days,
clients are looking for a one-stop shop,” Mr. Raffaele
says. Typically, in a firm’s early years, much of the
growth is organic, he says – his firm grew organically
from $600,000 to $2.4 million in revenues in its first
six years. However, Mr. Raffaele acknowledges that the
accounting profession is more competitive than
it used to be: “Now to get to the next level, you need
an acquisition.” 쏋
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S6
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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
THE RISE OF THE SPECIALISTS: HOW
ACCOUNTING FIRMS INCREASE PUBLICITY IN
A HYPERCOMPETITIVE ECONOMY
BY ALEC FOEGE
M
ost businesses could not operate without
accountants to manage their financial
reporting, but it is not always clear why they
choose one CPA firm over another. “When you go out
and compete today on a test-function client, more
often than not that client is looking for a price,” says
Norman H. Schulman, managing partner at Schulman
Lobel Wolfson Zand Abruzzo Katzen & Blackman LLP,
a 52-employee CPA firm with offices in Manhattan and
North Brunswick, N.J. “I don’t want to say they don’t
care, but it’s not that important to them whether it’s on
your stationery or somebody else’s stationery. Whatever
firm is 20 to 25% cheaper may get the job.”
entertainment sector, for which Schulman Lobel offers
specialized business management services; and law
firms, for which the firm’s forensic accounting expertise
offers value that can be relevant to litigation.
So what can an accounting firm do to differentiate
itself from the competition and still maintain pricing?
Mr. Schulman says the key is to specialize in certain
niches or industries. For his firm, those specialties
include some that happen to be vital in New York: the
“When we look into expanding, we take the
opportunity to look at the areas where we are
concentrated in and also the areas where we seem to
be most profitable in,” says Cornelius V. Kilbane Jr.,
partner-in-charge of the New York offices of Raich
CPA firms have traditionally presented themselves as
generalists — able, efficient practitioners who know
their way around any company’s books, no matter what
the need or sector. But in the ultracompetitive New
York business environment, small-and medium-size
firms typically compete against much larger ones for
clients. Increasingly, they need a draw more powerful
than better customer service to gain an edge.
Ende Malter & Co. LLP, a 30-partner CPA firm with
five locations.
Tax accounting is one of those areas, says Mr. Kilbane.
Even though REM-Coe is now a Top 100 firm, “the
competition for test work remains fierce,” he says,
particularly when it comes to pricing.
As a way to further differentiate, the firm has recently
been developing subspecialties in certain types of
tax work. “We do very well with high-net-worth
individuals,” Mr. Kilbane says. “We do a lot of estate
and trust planning with those individuals, which
sometimes leads to other kinds of opportunities.”
Similarly, Raich Ende has mined its international
tax practice for new growth, reflecting the rapid
globalization of economies, particularly in the
New York area. Mr. Kilbane says the firm has been
(Continued on S10)
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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
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S9
Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
(Continued from S8)
able to expand this part of its
business through its connection
with PrimeGlobal, a large not-forprofit association of independent
accounting firms that coordinates
communications between firms in
North America, Europe, Latin America
and Asia. “We’ve started to show some
of the fruits of the seeds that have been
planted over the past couple years, in
terms of building relationships with
firms around the world,” he says.
Other firms keep specialties in mind
when making new hires. “We’re looking
for people who bring niches we want
to get into or that expand niches we’re
already in,” says Mark Goodman, a
managing partner at Janove, LLr. “We’re
looking for people in real estate, for
example, because we have a strong real
estate niche, but we also look into niches
we’re not in that we feel will provide
growth.”
While most New York-area CPAs still make the case that
they are full-service firms that can assist customers in
any industry, partners increasingly see the importance
on drilling down in a few areas of expertise. When the
competition gets tough, says Mr. Schulman, “it’s good to
have areas where one can differentiate, and say, ‘We do a
better job, and here’s why.’” 쏋
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
AREA
ACCOUNTING
SCHOOLS ADAPT
TO A RAPIDLY
EVOLVING
BUSINESS
LANDSCAPE
BY ALEC FOEGE
A
ttending college for accounting in the financial center of the
world, New York City, has its benefits, among them access
to a wider range of accounting career opportunities than
anywhere else in the world. It also can be intimidating.
Today’s accounting students understand that they must master
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accounting, and auditing, but also broader business concepts such as
risk management, financial investments, and real estate. As business in
New York becomes more complex, more global, and more data-driven,
the demands on educators and students intensify.
(Continued on S12)
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S10
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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting
(Continued from S10)
Fortunately, some of the top feeder schools for New
York-area accounting firms have been honing their
academic programs and perspectives to cater to the
rapidly changing business environment. These colleges
and universities recognize that the old stereotype of
the accountant as a socially inept number-cruncher
has faded away as the nature of business has evolved.
Today’s young CPAs can pursue a variety of careers
once unimaginable to their predecessors, but to do so,
they must develop a variety of skills rarely associated
with their profession in the past.
“The accountant is no longer a back-room technician,”
says H. Fenwick Huss, dean of the Zicklin School of
Business at Baruch College, part of The City University
of New York (CUNY) system.
“What it takes to be self-sufficient in
the current climate is to have that
set of soft skills. Accounting students
really have to have a much larger
toolbox than they did before.”
To address that shift, the Zicklin School now offers
communications-intensive versions of courses in
subjects such as advanced accounting. “In the past, that
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would have been a very technical, problems-oriented
course,” says Mr. Huss. “It still focuses on problems and
technical aspects, but it also has a great deal of writing
that the students have to do, presentations that they
have to make.”
While accountancy has always been regarded as a
steady, sensible occupation, it rarely has held the appeal
it currently enjoys. A previous generation of financially
adept graduates followed the big money to Wall Street
and investment banking, but the 2008 economic
crisis made such a path far less enticing. Since 2010,
the number of undergraduate and graduate students
obtaining accounting degrees at the Zicklin School has
grown by 50%.
At the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham
University in the Bronx, where a third of the
undergraduates are accounting majors, students
receive a diverse liberal arts education. “Accounting is
a profession that needs well-rounded individuals,” says
the school’s dean, Donna M. Rapaccioli. “Gone are the
days of the green-eyeshade-wearing bean-counter.”
Fordham also addresses the rapidly changing business
climate by offering courses mirroring the latest trends
in the industry, such as forensic accounting. And
in a reflection of the demands placed upon today’s
accounting professionals, Fordham’s business graduate
program offers a variety of academic options to fulfill
the 150 semester hours of education required for
CPA certification, including master’s degrees in tax or
accounting, or an MBA, which can expand students’
career options. “The majority of our accounting
graduates still begin their careers at the Big Four firms,”
says Ms. Rapaccioli, “but there’s a growing group who
go on to hedge funds, law firms, and technology firms.”
At Pace University in Manhattan, which was founded
as an accounting school in 1906, educators take a
historical perspective on the profession, viewing today’s
innovations as part of a continuum with the past.
“Traditionally, accounting has always been one of the
most data-driven professions,” says Neil Braun, dean of
Pace’s Lubin School of Business. “Now you think about
what has happened to the world in the last decade
in terms of the volume of data generated by every
business; the digitalization of business means that all
transactions are tracked, all processes are tracked.” As a
result, up-to-date IT skills are now an accounting grad
must-have.
Along those lines, Mr. Braun says he recently asked a
recruiter from one of the Big Four accounting firms if
there were one thing he could do to make his students
more attractive to her company. She responded,
without missing a beat, “Make sure they’re certified in
advanced Excel.”
“The CPA is probably the worst-marketed professional
certification there is,” Mr. Braun says, jokingly. New
York City’s top schools for accounting are changing
that situation by informing students of their diverse
options in today’s business world.
“Today’s students are very interested in the culture of
the places they’re going to be working,” says Zicklin’s
Huss. “The firms are recognizing that as well. It’s not
just a job; it’s a whole life.” 쏋
ROSEN SEYMOUR SHAPSS MARTIN & COMPANY LLP
VISION. SOLUTIONS. GROWTH.
FIRM OVERVIEW
Rosen Seymour Shapss Martin & Company LLP
(”RSSM”) is one of the premier middle market accounting firms in the New York Metro Area headquartered in New York City with an office in Garden
City, New York. In addition to the traditional services
of accounting, auditing, tax planning & preparation,
RSSM offers consulting services including; transaction
and financial due diligence, litigation support, forensic accounting, business valuations, mergers & acquisitions due diligence, retirement planning, estate planning, fiduciary services, employee & executive benefits,
and full service outsourcing. Our firm has historically
been heavily involved in assisting our clients in obtaining bank financing, as well as raising capital. Through
our unique experience in this ever changing global environment and contacts in this area as well as our indepth knowledge of the financial marketplace, we
work with our clients and their financial staff in preparing cash flow projections and assist in their financial requirement presentations to various financial
institutions. Additionally, we offer services on both
a national and international level through our membership in PrimeGlobal, a worldwide association of
independent accounting firms.
INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
Our clients are widely diversified and include; real estate,
manufacturing, construction, wholesalers, food & beverage, importers & distributors, apparel, publishing &
printing, insurance, broker dealers, solar energy, health-
S12
care, private equity funds, investment banks, secured
lenders, technology, & software companies, hedge
funds/investment partnerships, not-for-profit organizations, retail, service & trade contractors, as well as
professionals, including high net worth individuals
through our tax practice and family office practice.
THE RSSM TEAM
We have created a highly motivated team of trained
professionals and partners who respond to our clients’
requirements. Our approach is unique and our partners are totally involved with each and every client
transaction from start to finish. RSSM is also utilized
as a “reference-room” providing guidance to various
companies and institutions on subjects such as how
to monitor specialized assets, specific industry analyses, and accountingand tax issues both domestic
and foreign.
CONTACT
757 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Ph: 212.303.1800
Fax: 212.755.5600
E:
W:
[email protected]
www.rssmcpa.com
Michael Bernstein, CPA
Managing Partner