Whitfield & Marsh
$6.8M revenue · 41 staff · Two partners
Whitfield & Marsh is a two-partner CPA firm with a strong tax practice and a stagnant advisory practice. The senior partner is 64. Realization rates vary wildly by client, and roughly a third of the book is unprofitable compliance work nobody has been willing to reprice.
The question on the table
How do we reprice the book and transition ownership without losing the staff or the clients?
Company file
- Revenue
- $6.8M
- Staff
- 41
- Partners
- 2
- Realization
- 78%
- Senior partner age
- 64
What the system found
+$740k
Margin from repricing or releasing the bottom quartile of clients
78% → 88%
Realization after the scope and staffing changes
2 → 5
Owners in the succession plan, funded internally
Client profitability, the relationships that matter, partner succession, and an automation pass.
Comprehensive Financial Analysis
Client profitability, quartiled
| Quartile | Clients | Revenue | Realization | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 38 | $2.90M | 94% | 41% |
| Second | 71 | $2.10M | 84% | 28% |
| Third | 96 | $1.30M | 71% | 11% |
| Bottom | 141 | $0.50M | 48% | −14% |
- High141 clients produce 7% of revenue at negative margin
They consume roughly 4,100 staff hours a year — enough capacity to serve eleven more top-quartile clients. Reprice, systematize, or release.
- MediumAdvisory work is billed at compliance rates
The highest-value service in the firm is priced like the lowest. A fixed-fee advisory package is drafted and ready to test on nine clients.
VIP Roster
The 25 relationships that are the firm
| Client | Annual fees | Owner | Last touch | Transferable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halloran Industries | $214k | Whitfield | 9 days | No — personal |
| Cedar Point Holdings | $186k | Whitfield | 51 days | No — personal |
| Boone Family Office | $171k | Marsh | 14 days | Partial |
| Ridgeline Manufacturing | $142k | Marsh | 7 days | Yes |
| Tessera Group | $118k | Whitfield | 72 days | No — at risk |
- High$1.6M of fees are tied to one retiring partner personally
Nothing about those relationships exists outside his head and his calendar. The transition plan below is the only thing standing between that and a 30% revenue loss in year one.
Successor Simulator
From two partners to five owners
Identify three internal partner candidates
Two managers and one senior manager scored on book, technical depth, and staff retention
Model the buy-in financing
Seller note at 6% over 7 years vs. bank financing vs. deferred comp — the note nets 11% more after tax
Begin joint client meetings on the top 25
24 months of overlap is the observed threshold for retention above 90%
Document the senior partner's technical review standards
The firm's quality reputation is an undocumented process
Set and announce the retirement date
Ambiguity here is the single largest cause of candidate attrition
Revenue OS
Advisory pipeline, worked daily
9 clients whose returns show entity-structure savings above $20k
Drafted outreach ready · estimated $164k of fees
This week
4 clients approaching a sale or transition event
Exit planning engagement, $35k–$60k each
12 clients with no succession documentation
Natural entry point for the new advisory package
6 quotes outstanding past 14 days
$97k combined
What would this look like for your business?
Whitfield & Marsh is illustrative. The tools are not. Point them at your own numbers and you will have the first version of this file inside an afternoon.