My CPA Dropped Me — What to Do Now
Content provided for general information. Talk to your advisor to learn about recent updates or other rules that may apply to your situation.
Many clients are getting so-called disengagement letters from CPA firms telling them the firm will no longer be serving them from next year. Here's why your CPA firm may be dropping you and what to do next.
If you're not rude, irritable, or just plain mean, there are usually two reasons a CPA firm will drop you. They may be focusing on specific areas or they may just have too many clients.
Here's a non-tax example that makes things super simple. Veterinarians might work with all animals or only some animals. Over the years, they might decide to change what animals they take for business reasons.
Maybe you have a horse and your vet wants to focus on cats and dogs since they're much more common pets. Maybe you have a dog and your vet sees other vets dropping horses and wants to become the horse specialist.
Tax preparers work the same way. Some do it all. Some focus on volume. Some do very specific work. Sometimes they change.
Now sometimes CPA firms just have too many clients. Maybe they're not making a complete change but still want to cut back while keeping their best (most profitable) clients.
A lot of businesses would just send out a big price increase knowing that some clients will drop on their own, but the firm may be more interested in choosing clients than increasing prices. In many cases, the firm even knows you can get a better deal at another firm that's better for you and would feel bad keeping you and overcharging you.
So while it may seem like a shock that a business would drop clients, it does happen. If it happened to you, let's talk.