Welcome to Luca!globe
CPA Journal Current Issue!    Navigation Tips!
Main Menu
CPA Journal
FAE
Professional Libary
Professional Forums
Member Services
Marketplace
Committees
Chapters
    Search
    Software
    Personal
    Help

KEEPING MORE THAN 50% CPA OWNERSHIP:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A PARTNER DIES?

I would like to add my comments to those presented in the November Journal. I am against non-CPAs being partners in CPA firms. Rather than repeat arguments already presented, I would like to address a problem that I have not seen discussed.

A CPA firm has three partners: two CPAs and one non-CPA. One of the CPAs dies, and immediately this firm, now 50/50, is not a CPA firm. What if the firm is in the middle of an attest engagement?

The larger firms won't have this dilemma; they currently have owners who don't know all of their partners. A small firm will need time to become acquainted with and decide upon a new partner, or decide to terminate the firm in its present 50/50 form.

In the interim, does the firm notify clients that it is temporarily not a CPA firm?

I see this as a completely negative situation except for the laugh I'd get when the employment firm renames itself, The Robert more-than-Half Agency. *

Edward K. Sperling, CPA





The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.

©2009 The New York State Society of CPAs. Legal Notices

Visit the new cpajournal.com.