Split Personalities

For those old enough to remember when gas hovered at 55 cents a gallon and many phones still had rotary dials, you  might recall a mid-1970s made-for -TV movie titled “Sybil” where Sally Field portrayed a troubled woman with 13 different personalities – some pleasant, some pretty far from that.

Having been affiliated with the public accounting profession for the past 13 years, I’ve always suspected there was a touch of Sybil in every CPA. For nine months of the year, most are pleasant, open, willing to chat on the phone for as long as you need and often send forth invitations for lunch, dinner or drinks next time you’re in the neighborhood.

Then like clockwork from late January through April, they become withdrawn, reclusive, short tempered and virtually unreachable by most modern communication methods.

Yes, it’s tax season, the 12-14-week stretch that inevitably brings out the Sybil in most preparers. I have often wondered what the reaction would be if a preparer waist deep in 1040s were suddenly to receive a call from the Oval Office. My guess is they would angrily ask them to call back after April 15.

Since we specialize in succession and transition strategies, you can imagine those issues, while critical, are pretty far removed from a CPA’s to-do list during the filing frenzy. My calls and emails to firms we have been working with prior to the season, have been met with everything from “I’m waaaaaaaaay into tax season, call me in May,” to “I’m working 75 hours a week, eat lunch at my desk and don’t have time to meet anyone.”

And those are just the ones I can share in mixed company. Some replies have contained language that would make a longshoreman blush.

But the truth is that this is the time of the year when firms who have been thinking of an upstream affiliation should be going full bore.

Why? Because at no time of the year will they need the backup and support resources than they will in tax season. And aside from hiring seasonal and perhaps untested staff, nowhere will merging up pay dividends like it would during the three-month tax triathlon.

So, next time you still find yourself at the office as your local 10 or 11 o’clock news is signing off, and swear “never again,” (or perhaps a wee bit more colorfully than that) don’t be so hasty to put a freeze – albeit temporary - on your succession plans.

Trust me, you won’t turn into a pumpkin, or serve as a storyline for movie.