CPAmerica ADVANTAGE
February 2023
IN THIS ISSUE:
► Serving clients in new ways through wealth management
► Preferred Provider Spotlight - Paychex
► Member News
► CPAmerica Insights - Jenn Walker
Serving clients in new ways through wealth management
After many years as an established accounting firm, you may be looking into what next steps you can take to continue supporting local individuals and families. Wealth Management can be a lucrative and exciting field for accounting firms to branch into. For many CPAmerica member firms, expanding into wealth management makes sense due to their previously established client relationships, expertise of team members and growing customer needs.
Started 25 years ago, Maxwell Locke & Ritter (ML&R) has seen substantial growth in their wealth management practice. To establish their new niche, ML&R wealth management partner, Steve Harvey, worked with a retiring tax partner who wanted to explore his other areas of interest.
“It was a big decision for the firm, and we experienced many growing pains. But even if we weren’t making money at first, five years in we knew we had something great to offer that would eventually be profitable,” said Harvey.
ML&R currently has $2 billion in client assets under management. At first, most of their clients were previously accounting firm clients referred for additional services. Roughly 10 years in, they noticed a shift and now 80% of their new clients come from referrals of existing clients or from various centers of influence (attorneys, bankers, mortgage brokers).
When establishing your wealth management entity, it’s important to know the structure you would like to create. With ML&R, clients view all services under one firm and their team selected a fee-only structure, collecting only fees overtly charged to clients, nothing
additional can be received. This further solidified relationships with clients and built additional trust.
“From the client standpoint, we appear as one firm. Our wealth management practice is a wholly owned subsidiary of the accounting firm, so every partner has a vested interest in us doing well. For regulatory purposes, we have two different entities,” explained Harvey.
When Gray Gray & Gray started their wealth management practice about 20 years ago, they knew they wanted it to be established as its own entity, Gray Private Wealth, LLC (GPW). In that time, they have evolved from launching with a hybrid advisor model, before transitioning into investment management.
“When you talk to a client or a prospect, and you ask when the last time their CPA and investment advisor sat down together to make the right decisions for that client personally, the answer is usually never,” said Dan Romano, GPW chief executive officer & chief compliance officer. “That relationship is a unique opportunity that makes our model different from others.”
This type of arrangement can help support your clients through not only general accounting knowledge, but tax knowledge, estate planning and more, explained Romano.
Currently 50% of their clients are clients on both the accounting and wealth management sides of their practice. Starting the practice, Romano is currently their only employee who works on both sides, with nine total employees in wealth management.
In the last three years, they have doubled their size, having assets under management increasing from $100 million to about $350 million.
“We have seen a lot of people selling their businesses over the last five years, and when they do that they’ve now changed their needs as a client. Having a relationship built years ago, when the time came, they remembered us and employed our services,” said Romano.
Established in 1997, Frazier & Deeter’s wealth management entity has seen exponential growth. Starting out with three partners, they knew
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they wanted to build a separate but related company. One with its own culture, that could attract top financial professionals who didn’t necessarily want to work in a traditional CPA firm. Over the years, they now have more than 100 employees, with about $7 billion in assets under management.
“We formed under the idea of being a more integrated wealth management firm with a full suite of services, including insurance, property and casualty, long-term care, estate planning and trust planning,” said Doug Liptak, SignatureFD (SFD) chief strategy officer.
Liptak explained much of their success came from keeping the wealth management side close to the accounting firm, while still remaining separate. Once the trust had been built, and wealth management was big enough to stand on their own, they were ready for the next step.
After ten years of looking like Frazier & Deeter and establishing trust with new clients, they rebranded their wealth management practice as SignatureFD in 2005. During this time period, they shifted to being an independent practice, even transitioning “Frazier & Deeter” out of their name and switching to “Financial Design.”
“We started changing the conversation towards design and innovation in the wealth management industry. Gravitating towards our ‘net worthwhile conversation’ of, how you work with clients to ‘turn their net worth into their net worthwhile,’” explained Liptak.
Additionally, SFD has formed client communities related to specific practice areas, including healthcare workers, executives, women, professional athletes and even veterinarians. Their veterinarian niche has grown so much that they created the VETWorthwhile podcast to share insights into wealth management, work-life balance and more.
All three of these member firms had the same advice to share when undertaking an expansion into wealth management. To set your firm up for success, you must have a designated employee who can devote their efforts towards wealth management full
time. That person will also have to be passionate about expanding into this area of expertise, appropriately trained and ready for some bumps in the road before making it to their triumphant destination.
If you have any questions about the wealth management practices listed above, please feel free to contact Steve Harvey (Maxwell, Locke & Ritter) at sharvey@mlrpc.com, Dan Romano (Gray Private Wealth) at dromano@grayprivatewealth.com or Doug Liptak (SignatureFD) at doug.liptak@signaturefd.com.
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Gray, Gray & Gray announces first chief people officer and 12 promotions
Gray, Gray & Gray, LLP, a consulting, accounting and business advisory firm headquartered in Canton, MA, has announced that Alison Burgett was named the firm’s first chief people officer. Burgett will work to help the firm’s more than 130 employees realize their full potential by guiding and advising them along individual career paths that balance professional success with a sustainable work/life balance. Burgett has been highly successful in people-oriented positions throughout her career. “The most valuable assets in any organization are its people,” said James DeLeo, Leading Partner at Gray, Gray & Gray. “Taking care of and nurturing our team at Gray, Gray & Gray is Alison Burgett’s mission and passion.” Gray, Gray & Gray has also announced the promotion of twelve team members: James Cotter to manager in the Sage Intacct & Advisory Services Department. Christin Schow to office manager. Shweta Singh to supervisor in the Tax Processing Department. Diane Gibson, CPA , and Aki Goto, CPA, CIA , to senior manager, and Veronica Haack to senior staff accountant in the Audit & Assurance Department. Stephanie Carabine to senior staff accountant and Ashton Vigueras-LaRochelle to senior integrations consultant in the CAAS Department. Jaclyn Linehan, MST, to senior manager and Nick Mauro, EA , to manager in the Tax Department. Cristina Therriault to senior accounting specialist and Meghan Bay to supervisor in the Internal Accounting Department.
VonLehman Announces acquisition
VonLehman CPA & Advisory Firm has announced the acquisition of Indianapolis based-firm, Sherck, Hussey, Johnson & McNaughton (SHJM), effective January 2023. SHJM’s team of tax and audit professionals joins VonLehman, regional accounting firm, bolstering the firm’s core services offerings to the Indianapolis market. SHJM, founded in downtown Indianapolis in 1943, has served the region for nearly 80 years. Among SHJM’s tenured professionals are Partners, Shawn Antell and Terry Johnson. “SHJM has cultivated relationships in Indianapolis for generations, providing the same core services VonLehman offers. There is a tremendous synergy in this partnership – one that allows us to serve the Indianapolis community with exceptional service and the highest level
of expertise,” said Adam Davey, Managing Partner at VonLehman. “We are thrilled to welcome the very talented professionals at SHJM to our team.”
bring additional capabilities to both firms in tax preparation and planning, accounting and advisory services, and financial statements and planning.
415 Group, the largest locally-owned public accounting and IT consulting firm in Stark County, Ohio, announced the promotion of Eric Schreiber to partner, along with seven additional promotions for other team members. “Eric joined 415 Group with 30 years of experience in public accounting, including more than 25 years with a Big 4 firm,” said managing partner, Rich Craig. “He has a deep well of public accounting knowledge, so we’re excited to bring him on to the partner team as he expands his leadership role at the firm.” Additional promotions include: Morgan Cannon Giebel to manager. Michael Harvey, Evan Petty and Isaac Orellana to supervisor. Jacob Duncan, Brandon Hadinger and Adam Keener have been promoted to senior associate. “It’s exciting to watch our team’s talents grow throughout the year,” said Craig. “The promotions of these eight team members show how much they care about their own growth and their hand in helping our clients.”
GRF promotes Alejandra Jensen to partner
GRF CPAs & Advisors (GRF), a leading provider of audit, accounting, tax, and advisory services worldwide, is pleased to announce that the firm has promoted Alejandra Jensen, CPA, CFE, to partner, effective January 2023. Most recently serving as a senior manager in the firm’s audit services department, Jensen has worked at GRF since 2013. “Alejandra is not only a champion of the accounting profession, she also embodies GRF’s core values of service, knowledge, and leadership,” said GRF’s president and managing partner, Jackie Cardello, CPA. “As a working mother with young children, Alejandra sets a great example for the future women leaders that she mentors and coaches at GRF.”
Cg Tax, Audit & Advisory merge in Potter & LaMarca
Cg Tax, Audit & Advisory (Cg), a New Jersey-based accounting and consulting firm, and Potter & LaMarca LLP merged effective January 2023. The merger will
Jeffrey Potter, CPA, and Fred LaMarca, CPA, CFP, founded Potter & LaMarca in 1989. Deborah Mathis, a Cg shareholder, said, “We’re thrilled to gain the skill and experience of Jeffrey, Fred, and the Potter & LaMarca team. There is quite a lot of natural synergy between our two firms surrounding industry knowledge, client service capabilities, and a unique team culture.”
Mathieson Moyski Austin & Co., LLP (MMA), located in Lisle, Ill., is merging in Deerfield, Ill.-based Business & Professional Consultants, Ltd. (BPC). The merger was effective December 2022 and created a combined firm of fortyfive professionals. According to Ron Austin, the Managing Partner of MMA, “The culture of our two firms was the driving factor. Another benefit is having strategic locations in the western and northern suburbs of Chicago, which provides a greater reach into the business community and more resources for clients of both firms.”
LMC Certified Public Accountants is proud to announce and recognize the following professionals in the firm, who have been promoted. Tax Department: Chris Kotan, CPA , principal; Jack Naftali, CPA , senior manager; Jonathan Porcelli, senior manager; Chris Cheng, EA , manager; and Jack Bibi, staff associate. Audit Department: Michael Kanjo, senior manager; Robert Vandewater, CPA , senior manager; Rosa Magliulo, semi-senior accountant; and Foster Egan, staff associate. Account Services: Miu Wong , senior accountant.
Meyers Brothers
announces promotions
Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. is proud to announce the following promotions: Samantha Calvao to associate; Andrea Latour to associate; Mallory Beauregard to senior associate; Olivia Calcasola to senior associate; Lauren Foley to senior associate; Keara Moulton to senior associate; Kelly Moulton to senior associate; Francine Murphy to senior associate; and Sarah Rose Stack to director of marketing & recruiting.
