CliftonLarsonAllen, a Top 10 Firm, is forming CLA Global Limited in collaboration with Evelyn Partners, a U.K.-based wealth management group.
CLA Global aims to provide services to more than 10,000 international clients in more than 100 countries and is expected to elevate CLA into one of the top 15 global accounting and advisory organizations in the world, based on fee income. Evelyn Partners was created from the 2020 merger of Tilney and Smith & Williamson, which rebranded to Evelyn Partners earlier this month. CLA originated from the merger of Clifton Gunderson and LarsonAllen in 2012.
CLA Global will start in the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, but there are plans for expansion to other parts of Europe as well as Asia.
“Those are the foundational geographies that we start on July 1, but we absolutely expect that we will and we are actively engaged in conversations with other firms and we expect future announcements as soon as later in this current year, 2022 and then continuing into 2023,” CLA CEO Jen Leary told Accounting Today. “The primary expansion is going to be between the U.S. and Europe and right after that it will be expanding into Asia.”
Like other firms that have expanded globally through alliances, member firms will remain independent, but some may decide to rebrand themselves, as has happened in the past with Baker Tilly, RSM, BDO, Crowe and Andersen Tax.
“The global network really is a network of firms, so they wouldn’t be CLA offices,” said Leary. “We wouldn’t have direct ownership of these firms outside the U.S., but there would absolutely be CLA global branding outside the U.S. There could be firms that are included as network members and there could be firms that are included as alliance members, and it would be a membership agreement based on different benefits and expectations of those firms moving forward. But the foundational firms of CLA LLP and Evelyn Partners are network firms, so we are connected at a much deeper level, but still separate legal entities.”
The new global organization will enable CLA’s accountants and other professionals to gain experience abroad. “I absolutely see the opportunity for our people to have experiences outside the U.S.,” said Leary. “We’re actively working on secondment opportunities for our people to spend time living and working in Europe for 18 to 24 months. And we are welcoming the Evelyn teams as well in the United States, in three of our markets starting in early 2023.”
CLA Global officially launches on July 1, 2022. Joe Kask from CLA and Sancho Simmonds from Evelyn Partners will make up the office of the CEO for CLA Global.
“There are many synergies between CLA and Evelyn Partners,” said Andrew Wilkes, incoming chief professional services director of Evelyn Partners, in a statement Thursday. “Both of our firms are energized by working with private clients and their business interests and invest a lot in creating opportunities to grow our clients and our people.”
While efforts are underway in U.K., Europe and other parts of the world to make the audit market more competitive and less consolidated with the Big Four, Leary doesn’t anticipate that CLA Global will be competing against the Big Four for public company audits.
“What’s different about the CLA Global network is the clients that we serve,” said Leary. “We have a passion around middle-market entities, organizations, privately held businesses, and we love Main Street. That is the network that we are building, making sure we can support those clients at the highest level of service possible. We don’t expect that we will need to be in hundreds of countries. Right off the bat we are very targeted on 10 to 15 geographies, which is where our clients and our people would like us to be. I think there is a unique market opportunity in terms of who we serve, but also what we do. We are the largest provider of outsourcing services with this global network at scale for that middle market and emerging entities. That is the uniqueness of our network as well.”
Evelyn Partners and other firms will retain their own brands, but may later decide to transition to the CLA brand. “They’ll maintain their own brands,” said Leary. “In our current discussions we are actively discussing with some firms that as they join the CLA Global network that they will take on that branding as well. Later in 2022 and early 2023, I expect that we will have CLA Global entities outside of the U.S.”
