The principals of seven highly successful professional services firms have merged their ownership stakes to form Centerprise Advisors, Inc., the 13th largest professional services firm in the country and one of the largest full-service firms focusing on the middle market.The founding companies include five professional services firms: Follmer, Rudzewicz & Co. of Southfield Mich.; Grace & Co. of St.

The Ernie Online Tax Advisor has been around for a year and has fielded more than 15,000 tax questions from Ernst & Young clients. The new service, dubbed the Ernst & Young Online Tax Advisor, will incorporate the ability to field questions from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.The service provides answers within four business days.

KMWorld is the self-described leading information provider serving the Knowledge Management systems market, and they have just published their list of 100 top companies in the Knowledge Management arena. All five members of the Big 5 grace the list.The 100 Companies that Matter, according to KMWorld, are those that best exhibit the qualities of market makers, solutions technology makers, solutions service makers, and infrastructure technology makers. What does all this mean?

Ernst & Young South Africa has announced that it has officially separated its accounting and consulting units.The consulting unit, which will be called 'Argil Ernst & Young Consulting,' was purchased by Worldwide African Investment Holdings, a major black empowerment group that already has an established relationship with EY, having formed a 60/40 joint venture last year.The new unit's main business focuses will be on the oil industry, telecommunications and financia

The recent lift of all bans on commissions and contingency fees has been profitable for Dallas, TX-based 1st Global, a financial services company with more than 1,000 affiliate firms, including 180 large accounting firms.1st Global has enjoyed success in the last several years in recruiting firms to join as affiliates to provide clients financial services of various kinds.Until the ban was lifted in Louisiana, firms operating in the state were prohibited from entering into financial services transactions in which fees and commissions were part of th

The new partner mix at KPMG LLP includes personnel in the areas of assurance and advisory services, tax services, and client service support (whatever happened to the designation of "audit partners")? With the addition of 127 new partners, the firm now has more than 7,000 partners worldwide in 159 countries.KPMG Consulting LLC, which was incorporated as a separate company earlier this year, is a leading provider of Internet integration services.

PwC appointed 248 new partners to its U.S. ranks this week. Twenty percent of the total includes women, bringing the total women partners to 374 or 12 percent overall. The partners are in the areas of Assurance & Business Advisory Services (ABAS), Management Consulting Services (MCS), Tax and Legal Services (TLS), Financial Advisory Services (FAS) and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Unifi Network, formerly known as Global Human Resource Solutions, and Internal Firm Services.

A writer for CFO Europe examines the state of the world's Big 5 firms.Topics covered include auditor independence and quality, and how firms should go about separating audit from consulting practices.Click on the link below for the full commentary.

Group 'B' firm Moss Adams has announced it will merge the Beverly Hills office of Braverman Codron into its practice.According to the Electronic Accountant, the merger provides Moss Adams a total of 27 offices, more than 140 partners and combined, annual revenues exceeding $140 million.Braverman Codron is a multi-faceted practice with nine partners and 45 employees. Annual revenues exceed $6 million.