Whitman Advisory LLC

Transition Advisors (www.transitionadvisors.com) is a highly specialized consulting firm focused on helping CPA firms with their growth and succession strategies through M & A. Their principals have consulted on over 800 closings of CPA firms and have assisted hundreds of firms with internal succession planning and owner agreements over the past 30 years.

They can be contacted at:

Joel Sinkin, President: jsinkin@transitionadvisors.com or 631-493-0022

Terry Putney, CPA, CEO: tputney@transitionadvisors.com or 913-766-0877

Joel and Terry have consistently been recognized in the Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting. They have been frequent speakers at past CPAmerica conferences.

The primary services Transition Advisors provides include:

• Planning for growth through M & A
• Support for transactions whereby a firm has already identified a target firm either to acquire or merge into
• Assessment and/or restructure of an owner agreement
• Assessment of a firm’s ability to manage partner succession and remain independent
• Specifically, tactics for buyout of retiring partners and admitting new partners
• Consideration and planning for merging upstream
• Managing partner compensation in an owner agreement
• Retreats on the above topics

Under a special arrangement CPAmerica has with Transition Advisors, member firms may access the above services and educational sessions as follows:

• Transition Advisors will offer members firms free consultation by phone to answer any questions they may have about how the above topics affect their firms. It is anticipated these consultations will be brief (about 15 minutes). More substantial consultation may result in Transition Advisors and the CPAmerica firm reaching an agreement on a fee for the services provided.
• Transition Advisors is available to provide its services to CPAmerica firms under its normal engagement parameters and fee structure. The firm will tailor its services to meet the unique needs of a CPAmerica firm regardless of size and location. 
• Transition Advisors will facilitate virtual roundtables and offer CPE webinars on the above topics strictly for CPAmerica member firms.

Some examples of how a CPAmerica firm might utilize this relationship with Transition Advisors include:

• You have started dialogue with another firm about a merger or acquisition and want to get a second opinion on whether or not you should continue to pursue the opportunity and, if so, how you should structure the deal.
• You have concerns about whether the buyout or retirement of a senior partner is going to be managed properly by your current owner agreement.
• You have had some preliminary thoughts about merging your firm to accomplish a strategic objective. You want to consider the ramifications of doing that for you and your partners might be.
• It has been a while since you admitted a new partner to your firm and the way you did that last time does not feel right anymore. You would like some ideas of how that might work better now. 

Feel free to contact either Joel or Terry even if all you want to do is find out more about their services and how they are provided so you know what to expect when a need arises.