Accounting Firm Creates Economic Recovery Team

Accounting firm J.H. Cohn has formed a Client Economic Recovery Team to advise financial institutions and public companies affected by the financial crisis. The firm plans to assist senior executives and board members in addressing the risk management and regulatory compliance requirements of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The team will include specialists from J.H. Cohn's business investigation, corporate governance and financial services practices. The firm is targeting banks, insurance companies and credit card providers with the services, as well as government agencies and other entities.

Services include crisis management, enterprise risk assessment, governance and regulatory compliance, strategy development and deployment, forensic accounting and litigation support, financial reporting and CFO advisory services, bankruptcy restructuring and financial recovery, internal audit, business valuation, and mergers and acquisitions transaction support.

Cohn Consulting Group managing partner Anthony Zecca will head the team, with Bernard Katz, head of J.H. Cohn's Business Investigation Services practice, leading the efforts in forensic accounting, restructuring and financial recovery, business valuation and due diligence services, litigation support and financial restructuring.

Accounting firms appear to be benefiting from consulting services in the midst of the economic downturn. Sageworks found that accounting firms have seen a sales growth rate increase from 2007 to 2008 of over 5 percentage points, from 10 percent to over 15 percent. In addition, accounting firms have seen an increase in net profit margins, cash as a percent of assets and EBITDA margin from 2007 to 2008.