Partner Agreements
Outdated partnership agreements are easily the most neglected aspect of CPA firm practice management. The problem is not necessarily the age of the document per se; instead, these agreements either have provisions that are no longer applicable to the way firms are managed today or they lack new, essential provisions that well managed firms are adopting, or both.
Most attorneys do not know how to write a proper, state of the art, CPA firm partnership agreement. This may surprise a lot of firms. We are not attorneys, but we know what concepts need to be incorporated into an effective agreement and we work with firms to either identify needed changes or to draft an entirely new agreement.
Our approach is to work with the firm to draft a report that summarizes the conceptual changes needed so that you can give this to your attorney, who converts it to a proper, enforceable, legal document. This process should result in a substantial reduction in your attorney’s fees.
We work with firms in a wide variety of ways:
- Remotely or on-site visit.
- We have a great questionnaire that the partners can complete. But some firms prefer to go through each area in person and discuss as a partner group as we go along.

CPA Firm Partner Agreement Essentials
Every firm needs to ask: Is our partner agreement current? Does it protect the firm? Do we even have one? This book covers every major section of a properly written agreement: partner buyout, new partner buy-in, ownership percentage, voting, non-solicitation covenants, partner duties, mandatory retirement and non-equity partners.
Learn MoreTestimonials
“Our work together over the last two years has resulted in a truly competitive advantage for our firm when it comes to recruiting and retention of talented employees. At this point, we have a talent pipeline that will carry us through the next two and a half years. We have the capacity for significant growth over the next three years. Our target is to increase billable hours by 56% by the end of 2025. The current team is excited about this because they recognize this means they will have continued opportunities for advancement.”
Gregory M. Railsback, CPA, PFS, CFP, MBA
Managing Partner
The Railsback Group, P.C.