A Special Advertising Section to Crain’s New York Business

� Accounting Entrepreneurs Becoming Successors Instead ...S3

� Managing the Expansion...S4

� The Rise of the Specialists...S8

� Educating the Next Generation of Accountants...S10

Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting

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TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEURS

Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

When 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 six-partner 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-medium-size 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 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.” �

“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

BY ALEC FOEGE

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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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MANAGING THE EXPANSION: AREA ACCOUNTING FIRMS ARE CAUTIOUSLY SPREADING THEIR WINGS IN IMPROVED ECONOMIC TIMES

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

BY ALEC FOEGE

(Continued on S6)

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Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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“New York City is the financial capital of the world; we have significant resources which we are able to put at our clients’ disposal right here,” says Charly Weinstein, CEO of EisnerAmper LLP. “One of the firm’s greatest strengths is our ability to connect our clients with the capital markets. We are strongly positioned in the emerging technology community, thereby connecting the two most important drivers of economic activity in New York today: technology and capital.”

EisnerAmper is one of the largest full-service account-ing and advisory firms in the U.S. The firm provides audit, accounting and tax services, as well as corporate finance, internal audit and risk management, litigation consulting, forensic accounting and other profession-al services to clients across all the major industries; working with high net worth individuals, family offices, closely-held businesses, and start-up, middle-market, and Fortune 500 companies.

EisnerAmper is recognized internationally as one of the premier CPA firms providing services to the financial services industry. This in turn fuels our knowledge of the capital markets, helping clients with mergers and acquisitions, debt financing, due diligence, valuation, international expansion, restructuring and more.

EisnerAmper is one of the nation’s leading auditors of SEC registrants and maintains one of the largest public company practices of any independent firm, providing services to more than 150 public companies. Eisner-

Amper is the fifth largest CPA firm in the New York area and represents the alternative to the Big Four.

“What has made us successful is the drive to seek out entrepreneurial leaders. This keeps us active in emerg-ing markets and in turn drives our own growth,” says Weinstein. “Our clients’ success contributes to our own, and vice versa. Our expertise is in helping companies grow, from start-up through IPO.”

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(Continued from S6)

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.” �

“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.”

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S8

Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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THE RISE OF THE SPECIALISTS: HOW ACCOUNTING FIRMS INCREASE PUBLICITY IN A HYPERCOMPETITIVE ECONOMY

BY ALEC FOEGE

Most 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.”

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

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.

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.

“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

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)

Pictured above: The professionals at Grassi & Co. at an out of office team building event

S9

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S10

Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

able to expand this part of its business through its connection with PrimeGlobal, a large not-for-profit 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.’” �

AREA ACCOUNTING SCHOOLS ADAPT TO A RAPIDLY EVOLVING BUSINESS LANDSCAPE

BY ALEC FOEGE

Attending 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

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(Continued from S8)

(Continued on S12)

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S12

Crain’s Corporate Profiles in Accounting A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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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.

To address that shift, the Zicklin School now offers communications-intensive versions of courses in subjects such as advanced accounting. “In the past, that

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.” �

(Continued from S10)

“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.”