Merger & Acquisition Services For Today's Practitioner...

Today's public accounting firm has a wide range of specialist needs:

At MFA Group Inc, we can help in each of these areas, not from theory, but from our own practical experience during the last 25 years.

Look out for Steve's book: "The Practitioner's Succession Planning Toolkit" published by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, available exclusively from their bookstore and on-line at knotia.ca.

When we say we wrote the book on succession planning - we mean it! You may have seen the CICA's advertising campaign (reproduced, left from CA Magazine) for Steve McIntyre-Smith's book - The Practitioners' Succession Planning Toolkit, on sale now through the CICA. This is only sold through the CICA, to reserve your copy now, before the first print run sells out, visit the Knotia web site by clicking here. Price $99.95 for the book and an accompanying CD containing all the checklists in the book for you to use in your own practice.

Our founder has been in or around the public accounting domain his entire career, from raw junior to partner in a public accounting firm, where he handled the purchase of several practices and blocks of fees, recruited many talented CAs and was involved in the sale of two public accounting firms.

His recruiting experience was at a boutique recruiting firm at Queen & Bay in downtown Toronto, and then as Vice President of one of Canada's largest executive search firms, working with Canada's CAs, CGAs and CMAs. This gave him the 'HR' piece of the jigsaw puzzle and the insights needed to help you make the right 'people' decisions as part of an exit strategy.

Canadian visitors can see our advert in every issue of CA Magazine, in the professional directory section. We also advertise in CA Magazine's classifeids too. This means that our message is continuously in front of key decision-makers in public accounting, including buyers and sellers of accounting practices.
And don't forget to read Steve McIntyre-Smith's regular public accounting column in every issue of The Bottom Line, covering: recruiting tips essential human resources issues creative practice development ideas practical succession planning comments and many other issues, as they affect today's practitioner.

We got ‘married’ and Steve McIntyre-Smith was our ‘match-maker’. When we first approached Steve McIntyre-Smith, at MFA Group, to help us find a smaller firm to acquire or merge with, he gave us the straight goods; ‘It’s not quick, and it ’s not easy’ he told us. ‘You’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs along the way to finding your handsome prince’ he added. And he was right. Although it’s debatable if we found a ‘handsome’ one, our ‘prince’ was certainly a gem, in the form of Jordan Gould! Jordan immediately brought the average partner age down a few points, and our average I.Q. way up! All joking aside, we’re delighted that Jordan and all his staff and clients made the move, and we’re looking for more! We couldn’t be happier since the merger. - Cary Selby, CA - Managing Partner, SBLR Chartered Accountants

When I first met Steve, I was, to put it mildly, somewhat anxious about merging with another firm, but I realized that the days of the sizeable sole practitioner are numbered. With two partners retiring, if I wanted to take my practice to the next level, where I had an administrator, a human resources department, IT services and quality assurance systems in place, then I had to find a like-minded firm that had already invented the wheel, so to speak. Steve McIntyre-Smith introduced me to a number of firms, but I think we both knew that SBLR would end up being the ‘one’. Our work habits, approach to client service, philosophy and many other attributes were so compatible that I don’t think either party could believe their luck. Since the merger I have realized numerous benefits, too many to list here, but suffice to say that my practice continues to grow at a very healthy rate and it’s great to have such a fine bunch of peers to bounce ideas off from time to time. If you’re thinking of selling or merging, I’d recommend that you speak to Steve at MFA Group. - Jordan Gould, CA- Partner, SBLR Chartered Accountants (Formerly Managing partner of Freedman Gould LLP)

In recent years Steve has helped numerous Canadian accounting firms to grow and prosper through his consulting work.

He is an established columnist for Canada's financial newspaper, The Bottom Line, a regular guest writer for the ever popular AccountingWEB.com and is a popular speaker at CA District Association meetings and conducts seminars for the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants.

In addition to this, he is the author of five best-selling practice development eBooks and author of a comprehensive client service program, 'Towards Awesome Client Service' - now in use by accounting firms around the world.

Whether buying or selling a small block of fees, or looking for a $10million acquisition, Steve has earned a reputation for integrity, timeliness, relaibility and honesty. He has recently been appointed to the faculty of the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants, and his speaking work takes him around the world, addressing large audiences of public accounting firm members.

We have broken this site down into seven simple pages, each one focusing on one specific topic, in order to help you get the most out of your visit with us.

Our business is built upon the following seven key principles:

We ONLY work with public accounting firms, and we know the market inside-out. Who better, then, to turn to when you're ready to consider the sale, merger or purchase of a practice?

Please explore our site by using menu at the top of each page and take advantage of the resources available or simply call us at 905-842-2284.

© 2004-2008, MFA Group Inc.