Making Mergers Work: Special Report [eBook]

About the Authors

August J. Aquila is an internationally known speaker, consultant, and author and has held leading positions in the accounting profession for more than 25 years. He is CEO of AQUILA Global Advisors, a full-service consulting firm to accounting and other professional service firms in the US, Canada UK and India. August focuses his consulting on designing compensation plans, resolving organizational and partner issues, transition planning and developing strategic plans. Click here for more by August J. Aquila

Bill Reeb, CPA, CITP, CGMA, is CEO and co-founder of Succession Institute LLC. Reeb has been consulting for three decades to all sizes of businesses, from Mom and Pop operations to Fortune 100 companies, primarily in the areas of organizational structure and processes, governance, automation, and revenue generation. See more from the Succession Institute at CPA Trendlines.

Dom Cingoranelli, CPA, CGMA, CMC, is executive vice president of consulting services and co-founder at Succession Institute LLC, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development work with offices in Colorado and Texas. He helps professional firms make the transition from “Eat What You Kill” business models to a “One-Firm” business model, and he provides general management consulting to the profession. See more from the Succession Institute at CPA Trendlines.

Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, PFS, is a partner in Withum Smith + Brown’s New Brunswick, NJ, office and has over 40 years of public accounting experience. He is a licensed certified public accountant in the states of New Jersey and New York and is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in business valuation (ABV), certified in financial forensics (CFF) and as a personal financial specialist (PFS). Ed is also admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court and has testified as an expert witness in federal and state court regarding business valuations, and twice at the House Ways and Means Committee on tax reform, fairness, and reduction. Click here for more by Edward Mendlowitz

Gary Adamson, CPA, is the CEO of Adamson Advisory, a CPA practice management consulting firm. Bringing both his managing partner and consulting experience to the table, he specializes in succession planning and strategies, firm governance and management, merger and acquisition assistance, strategic planning and firm retreats, partner compensation systems, partner agreements and retirement, partner coaching. Click here for more by Gary Adamson

Marc Rosenberg, CPA, is a nationally known consultant, author and speaker on CPA firm management, strategy, and partner issues. President of his own Chicago-based consulting firm, The Rosenberg Associates, he is founder of the most authoritative annual survey of mid-sized CPA firm performance statistics in the country, The Rosenberg Survey. He has consulted with hundreds of firms throughout his 20+ year consulting career. Accounting Today has acknowledged Marc Rosenberg as one of Top 100 Most Influential People in the CPA profession for the past 11 consecutive years and INSIDE Public Accounting has repeatedly recognized him as one of the Ten Most Recommended CPA Firm Consultants. Click here for more by Marc Rosenberg

About the ‘Making Mergers Work’ Special Report

In this Special Report, CPA Trendlines presents a carefully curated collection of articles describing some the essential management and leadership considerations in effectively integrating organizations in the event of a merger or acquisition.

Although they might want to say otherwise, acquiring firms frequently attempts to impose nearly all of its culture on the acquired firm, regardless of whether elements of the seller’s culture are objectively superior to the buyer’s, according to R. Peter Fontaine. In “Cultural Optimization,” Fontaine explains how to begin successful post-merger business integration before the contracts are even written.

August J. Aquila advises caution and provides a 24-point checklist for “the morning after” the contracts are signed.

Marc Rosenberg covers the problems peculiar to a merger of equals, beginning with the announcement to the staffs of each firm through to when the moving vans arrive for the furniture.

Ed Mendlowitz has a 23-item pre-deal checklist. But nothing beats actually visiting the office, talking with the staff and kicking the tires.

Aquila, Rosenberg, and Mendlowitz are only the beginning of what a practitioner will find in this CPA Trendlines Special Report. To be sure, there’s no such thing as a fool-proof instruction manual for merging accounting firms, and there’s no way to anticipate everything. But this Special Report could provide a good start and lead the prudent practitioner to additional questions, insights, and resources.

– Rick Telberg
for CPA Trendlines

Contents

• Cultural Optimization: Making Mergers Successful
• How to Combine Two Firms after Merger: Carefully
• 8 Questions That Staff Ask in a Merger
• 10 Special Implementation Issues in a Merger of Equals
• Information Needed When Merger Discussed
• Selling a Practice to Staff Members
• When Should You Sign a New Lease, Merge or Just Retire?
• Merging in Smaller: What to Ask
• How to Merge Sole Practitioners
• 13 Questions between Merger Equals
• More Merger Questions than You Imagined
• Today’s Top Trends in Mergers
• Checklist for Implementing a Merger
• Accounting Firm Mergers: What Could Go Wrong?
• 12 Steps to a Foolproof Merger
• Integration: Seven Keys to a Successful Merger
• Thinking Merger? Look Before You Leap
• Pre-Merger Data-Gathering Checklist
• How to Transition Clients

Checklists & Worksheets

• 2 basic types of deals
• 4 items most often over-looked
• 7 essential elements in integrating two practices
• 7 unavoidable phases in merging
• 8 difficult conversations
• 8 potential areas of incompatibility
• 10 special considerations particular to mergers of equal-sized firms
• 12 pre-planning steps to a successful transition
• 12 steps to transitioning clients
• 13 answers each partner must know
• 20 questions you can cover in one phone call
• 21 items for sole practitioners to prepare for
• 23 documents and data points required for a smooth implementation
• 24-point checklist for the morning after
• 33 questions when acquiring a smaller firm
• 34 action steps for successful implementation
• 99-item pre-merger checklist