123 Example Street
Ventura, CA 123


Services

Six service lines. One partner is accountable for each engagement, named in the letter before any work begins.

Assurance & Audit

Statutory audit, review and compilation engagements, agreed-upon procedures, internal control reporting.

Taxation

Federal, state and local compliance; planning for owners, estates and trusts; controversy and appeals.

Advisory

Valuation, succession and ownership transfer, transaction support, financial modelling and forecasting.

Risk & Insurance

Coverage review and placement, claims advocacy, captive structures, surety and bonding.

Litigation Support

Forensic accounting, damages analysis, expert testimony, discovery review and rebuttal reporting.

Corporate Secretarial

Entity formation and maintenance, minute books and registers, registered agent, statutory filings.

How We Work

Enquiry

We meet before we quote. A partner spends an hour understanding the work, at our cost, whether or not you engage us.

Scope & Fee

You receive a written scope, a fixed fee and the name of the partner who will do the work. Nothing starts before you sign it.

The Work

That partner does the work, not a team you have not met. Findings reach you as we make them, not in a summary at the end.

Review

Every file is read by a second partner before it leaves the office. Both names go on the report, and both stand behind it.

Terms of Engagement

The work is the same standard in each. What changes is how much of our attention you have standing reserved.

Compliance

Per engagement

Named partner

First response in two business days

Annual planning meeting

Board attendance on request

Retained

Fixed annual fee

Named partner

Same-day first response

Semi-annual planning, quarterly review

Two board meetings a year

Out-of-hours access

Standing Counsel

Fixed annual fee

Named partner

First response within the hour

Quarterly planning, monthly review

Unlimited board attendance

Out-of-hours access

Filing Calendar

The dates we work to. Where a deadline falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the filing is due on the next business day.

ReturnApplies toDueOn extension
Form 1120C corporations15 April15 October
Form 1120-SS corporations15 March15 September
Form 1065Partnerships and limited liability companies15 March15 September
Form 1040Individuals and sole proprietors15 April15 October
Form 1041Estates and trusts15 April30 September
Form 990Exempt organisations15 May15 November
Form 5500Employee benefit plans31 July15 October

An extension defers the return, never the payment. We ask for records six weeks before the date in the third column, and we will tell you at the four-week mark if we think the extended date is the realistic one.

Questions We Are Asked

Yes. We are registered in Nevada and Idaho, and act for clients in eleven further states through correspondent firms we have used for decades.

In writing, before the work begins, and they do not move afterwards. Litigation support is billed hourly against a cap agreed at the outset.

Yes. The partner named in your engagement letter does the work and answers the telephone. If that partner leaves the firm, you are told before the file moves.

Routinely. A good many of our engagements sit beside counsel or a bank we did not introduce, and we have no interest in displacing them.

No, but there is a minimum standard of preparation. If the records are not in a state we can work from, we will say so before quoting.

A written scope and a fixed fee, before you commit to anything

It has been that way since 1961, through nine offices and three states, and it is the reason clients stay for three generations.