Research on CPA Firms Building Financial Services Practices

CEG Worldwide LLC, an independent research firm, has conducted several studies within the CPA industry and has observed:

Accounting Industry Poised for Change

"The accounting industry is poised for widespread change, with dramatic growth expected in the number of CPA firms providing financial services. At the same time, there is a significant market of prospects interest in obtaining these services from their CPAs, were they to be offered."

Potential to Serve Clients as Their Most Trusted Advisor

CPA firms that enter the investment services market "understand that one of the greatest potentials for significantly growing their practices comes from better serving their existing clients. As their clients' most trusted advisers, many CPAs recognize that they are in a unique position to simultaneously improve client service and capitalize on the expansion of financial services. At the same time, the research points to a high level of interest and willingness on the part of clients and prospects in obtaining these services from CPAs."

Your Clients Are Looking to You, their CPA, to Provide Financial Services

Per the study, "Research points to a high probability that your clients are looking to their CPAs to provide [financial] services. And if they don't provide them someone else will."

The Success of Outsourcing

CEG Worldwide also provided research on firms using back office support. They found that:
  • Vast majority of advisors are failing to provide their clients with what they want most – their time. Outsourcing support activities can enhance an advisor's success. Advisors who spent more than 60 percent of their time in direct client contact had annual incomes that were triple the income of advisors who spent 30-60 percent of their time with clients and nearly six times the income of advisors who spent less than 30 percent of their time in front of clients.
  • CPA firms that "leverage outside providers for their financial services practice are, regardless of size (as measured by the number of CPAs in the firm), more successful than the firms with in-house financial services practices."