CPA firm merges with big practic in Midwest

McDirmid, Mikkelsen & Secrest, will take on the name of the larger firm. Andrew McDirmid, a partner here, says both firms have similar cultures.

"Eide Bally is used to dealing with what we're good at," McDirmid says. "We deal with privately held companies for the most part."

McDirmid will serve as partner-in-charge at Eide Bailly'sSpokane office.

McDirmid, Mikkelsen & Secrest occupies 18,000 square feet of office space on the third and fourth floors of the Chronicle Building, at 926 W. Sprague.

The firm here currently has a staff of 50, including seven partners who will become partners in Eide Bailly. With the merger, three McDirmid, Mikkelsen, & Secrest senior managers who haven't been principals in that firm, Scott LaPlant, Leonard Sweet, and Shayna Wood, will join Eide Bailly as new partners.

"The people here will be the same," McDirmid says. "The partners are taking their assets to Eide Bailly."

The merger will bring Eide Bailly's total staff to 1,350, including 202 partners. The full-service regional accounting and business advisory firm is a top 25 CPA firm in the U.S. in terms of annual revenue and operates 22 offices in 10 states.

Eide Bailly's most recent annual report says it had fees of $171 million in fiscal year 2013, up from $158 million in 2012.

The Spokane office will be Eide Bailly's westernmost outpost and the firm's first office in Washington state. The firm's next closest branches are in Boise, Idaho, and Billings, Mont.

Dave Stende, Eide Bailly'sFargo, N.D.-based CEO, says the Spokane office is part of the firm's strategy to expand west of the Mississippi River and serve midmarket clients in the Intermountain West.

McDirmid, Mikkelsen & Secrest was founded in 1976, serving mostly professional-services clients, and has grown to serve a broad range of business entities, most of which are family-run operations. It's named for James McDirmid, Chris Mikkelsen, and Kenneth Secrest, who will remain active members with Eide Bailly.

The Spokane firm's areas of expertise include tax planning, corporate transitions and exit strategies, and estate planning.

McDirmid says the merger will give the Spokane office additional resources in international tax issues, auditing, and specialized health care.

Bill Simer, another McDirmid, Mikkelsen & Secrest partner, says besides the name change, which will be effective June 16, most clients won't notice significant changes in services.

Clients will work with the same people and the same rate structure after the merger, Simer says.

The merger will enable the office here to draw from expanded resources for its clients and provide more training and career opportunities for its staff and partners, he says.

A few years ago, the firm here joined Practicewise, a membership group of CPA firms that shares knowledge and access to accounting specialists nationwide, and partners here have been impressed by sponsoring member Eide Bailly since then, Simer says.

"We liked what we saw, and we thought they looked a lot like us," Simer says. "We have a lot of Midwest influences here. Spokane really isn't a West Coast city."