Cohen to acquire Tassi

Cohen & Co, a Top 50 Firm based in Cleveland, is acquiring Tassi and Company, based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Tassi and Company provides accounting and consulting services tailored to the real estate industry. The deal is expected to close at the end of March and will enhance Cohen's national real estate service offering and expand its presence in the Chicago market.

Tassi was founded by Joe Tassi in 1990 and has approximately 35 employees. The firm serves real estate owners, developers, managers and investors. It offers outsourced fund and partnership accounting, property management and development accounting, construction draw accounting and tax services.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cohen has 88 partners and will be adding three people from Tassi — Joe Tassi, Terri Nietzel and Gretchen Sampson — as new partners.

Cohen & Co. ranked No. 43 on Accounting Today's 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $187.51 million in annual revenue and 781 employees.

"We are excited to welcome Tassi and Company to our firm," Cohen & Co CEO Chris Bellamy said in a statement Thursday. "The real estate and construction industry is an important growth area and one that we've made a priority for investment. This transaction will provide additional expertise and scale for the benefit of our clients, as well as new career path opportunities for employees of both firms."

"Cohen & Co shares our core cultural and entrepreneurial philosophies rooted in client service and taking care of our people," Tassi said in a statement. "This is the natural next step for our firm as we plan for our future. We are impressed with Cohen & Co and are confident our clients and teammates will benefit from their leadership and strategic vision."

The Tassi team will remain in their current Deer Park, Illinois, office space. Combined with Cohen & Co's existing downtown Loop location, Chicago will becomes one of Cohen & Co's largest geographic markets.

Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP served as legal counsel to Cohen & Co. Creative Planning, LLC served as legal counsel to Tassi and Company.

Cohen & Co announced a strategic growth investment from Lovell Minnick Partners, a private equity firm, last October. The firm's most recent acquisition was Cleveland-based Tax and Wealth Management, Inc., which closed in January of this year.

In 2023, Cohen added Szymkowiak & Associates CPAs and its affiliate, Pear Consultants LLC, in Buffalo, New York, as well as BBD's Investment Management Group, a Philadelphia-based provider of audit and tax services for registered and unregistered investment companies. In 2017, it added Arthur Bell, a firm that specialized in auditing mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, hedge funds and investment advisors.