Locally Based Accounting Firms Build Success In A Field Of Heavy Hitters

Three of the biggest South Florida-based accounting firms have built national reputations as a hometown alternative to the top financial players.

For South Florida accountants Tony Argiz, James Kaufman and Richard Berkowitz, building financial success isn’t merely a numbers game.

It’s far more personal.

As partners in three of the biggest South Florida-based accounting firms, they have grown their clientele by offering local businesses and individuals a hometown alternative to the nation’s multi-billion-dollar tax and financial services companies.

All three have cracked the ranks of the nation’s top 100 accounting companies, ranked by net income, according to the trade publication INSIDE Public Accounting. And they’ve done it largely by word-of-mouth marketing, leveraging their South Florida connections and targeting niche local clients that the national players miss.

Berkowitz, a partner with Berkowitz Dick Pollack & Brant, said the key to the firm’s success has been tapping into the region’s dominant local real estate, healthcare, hospitality, forensic service and family-owned business sectors.

For Kaufman, managing principal of Kaufman Rossin., it’s all about serving the particular needs of the affluent entrepreneurial South Florida business owners who make up the bulk of his clients.

And Argiz, a Cuban immigrant and driving force as partner with Morrison Brown Argiz & Farra, said what distinguishes his firm is its focus on the region’s international community and treating his clients, and employees, like family.

“I’ve often referred to that group of three as the South Florida phenomenon,” said Allan Koltin, president and CEO of Koltin Consulting Group Inc., which works with financial services companies. “It’s interesting if you can get one firm in the same market to hit the ball out of the park, but to have three in the same area is incredible.”

Michael Platt, principal with the Platt Group, publisher of INSIDE Public Accounting, said these firms have been ranked high for a good reason.

“Across the country, we see local firms with local roots who have the resources (either internally or through relationships) of a national or international firm that really can have a tremendous leg up on the big [firms],” Platt said. “MBAF, Kaufman Rossin and BDPB are great examples of local firms who have grown in size, scope and capability to take on just about any client need.”

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