Baker Tilly, a Top 10 Firm based in Chicago, plans to acquire Hancock Askew & Co. LLP, a Regional Leader based in Savannah, Georgia, expanding Baker Tilly’s presence in Georgia and Florida.

Hancock Askew has offices in Savannah, Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia, along with Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hancock Askew ranked No. 12 on Accounting Today‘s Regional Leaders list for the Top Firms in the Southeast, and reported $55.8 million in revenue for 2024, with 35 partners, 258 staff and seven offices. Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP and Baker Tilly US, LLP are independent members of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 141 territories, with 43,000 professionals and a combined worldwide revenue of $5.2 billion. The U.S. firm of Baker ranked No. 10 on Accounting Today 2024 list of the Top 100 Firms. Its revenue as of May 31, 2024 was $1.81 billion, across consulting, tax and assurance. Last February, Baker Tilly US received private equity funding from two private equity firms, Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners, prompting it to split its attest and non-attest sides.

“The Southeast is a vital region for businesses of all sizes,” said Fred Massanova, Baker Tilly’s chief growth officer and managing principal for the Eastern U.S., in a statement Monday. “Hancock Askew’s longstanding commitment to client service and deep regional expertise make them an outstanding fit for Baker Tilly as we continue expanding our capabilities in this market.”

Hancock Askew managing partner Michael McCarthy will be joining Baker Tilly as managing principal for Georgia and Florida. “This combination reflects our shared vision of delivering exceptional value and measurable results,” McCarthy said in a statement. “Joining Baker Tilly provides new opportunities for our clients and team members while preserving the commitment to quality and service that has defined Hancock Askew for decades.”

Koltin Consulting CEO Allan Koltin advised the firms on the transaction. “Hancock Askew has built a stellar reputation in the Southeast,” Koltin said in a statement. “This combination strengthens Baker Tilly’s capabilities in the region and ensures continued innovation for clients.”

Last May, Baker Tilly merged in Seiler LLP, a Top 75 Firm based in Redwood City, California. Also last May, Hancock Askew added the Willeford Group in Roswell, Georgia.

International growth

Last week, Baker Tilly International announced that it reached global  revenues of $5.62 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, up 9% over the previous year or 9.5% at constant exchange rates. The global accounting and advisory network has grown nearly  40% since 2020. 

Baker Tilly saw expansion in all regions across the network in 2024. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region was the fastest growing at 13%, followed by North America at 11% and Asia-Pacific at 2% in local currency terms). Revenues in Latin America declined slightly in U.S. dollar terms, but in local currency the region grew by 18%. 

Belgium, Canada, the Channel Islands, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong  Kong, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the U.K., Ukraine and the U.S. were among the larger markets to record more than 10% growth in 2024. 

All the network’s service lines saw significant growth. Of its major service lines, advisory  grew 16%, followed by tax (11%) and  assurance and accounting (5%). Legal services grew 17% in 2024. 

Headcount rose modestly by 1.2% to 43,515 with 3,480 partners worldwide. The  proportion of female partners in the network reached an all-time high of 26% by the end of 2024. 

“Growth in revenues easily  outstripping the increase in headcount is a good sign that our network is growing  sustainably and in response to client demand in a tough economic market,” said Baker Tilly International CEO Francesca Lagerberg in a statement. “As always, I am very grateful for the leaders in all of our 143 markets and the hard work of our people who make this possible. Breaking through the $5.5bn barrier  demonstrates that this is a network with real ambition and drive. Our industry is currently both exhilarating and challenging, anticipating and responding  to a fast-paced world. Our profession has a strong track record of helping clients in  turbulent times and so there is likely to be plenty of activity in 2025 as we see the full  impact of those record numbers of elections last year with new governments  introducing new legislation and regulation. We are busy when our clients are busy and  there is no doubt whether dealing with the impact of any trade tariffs or new tax  legislation, to name just two areas, we will be very active. The next 12 months promises to be exciting.”

Canada and Mexico vowed to hit back at the U.S. after President Donald Trump followed through on threats to impose 25% tariffs on imports of their goods, instigating a trade war that’s set to reshape global supply chains.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country will impose 25% tariffs against C$155 billion ($106 billion) of U.S. goods, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also pledged retaliation. China vowed “corresponding countermeasures” to Trump’s 10% levy on Chinese products, without immediately announcing any new tariffs.

A tit-for-tat tariff fight among the world’s major economies — Trump has warned Europe that it’s in his crosshairs, too — adds fresh headwinds to the outlook for global growth, for profits of companies suddenly facing higher import taxes and for financial markets adjusting to new trade flows. 

“It marks a new phase of the trade war, which targets multiple countries, including allies and China, to meet US economic and geopolitical policy goals,” said Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis SA.

Bloomberg Economics estimated that Trump’s move will raise the average U.S. tariff rate to 10.7% from near 3% currently and “deal a significant supply shock” to the domestic economy. U.S. gross domestic product would suffer a 1.2% hit and a widely watched gauge of core inflation would increase by 0.7%.

Emergency declared

In an executive order posted on the White House website, Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1970s-era law that grants the president broad tariff authority in national emergencies. He had threatened Mexico with this measure in 2019 but talks ultimately ended that dispute without Trump using it. 

The responses from three of America’s biggest trading partners came shortly after he signed orders for the U.S. tariffs on Saturday. The measures take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, leaving only a small window for last-minute negotiations.

The risk of a trade war has helped fuel a rally in the dollar since Trump’s re-election on the assumption tariffs would fuel inflation and thus support U.S. interest rates, as well as the greenback’s safe-haven status. 

Trump’s threats last week drove the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index up nearly 1%, its steepest climb since mid-November. The Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar each slumped.

WTO case

China’s Commerce Ministry pledged to file legal proceedings to the World Trade Organization in a Sunday statement, but stopped short of explicitly threatening counter-tariffs. President Xi Jinping’s government has in recent months been treading carefully with Washington, avoiding any retaliation to trade curbs that could escalate tensions.

Trump’s tariffs deliver on a warning to the three countries for what he says is a failure to prevent the flow of undocumented migrants and illegal drugs, though he had also teased the possibility of a reprieve if Mexico and Canada took steps to address his concerns. 

The Republican’s orders also included retaliation clauses that would increase US tariffs if the countries respond in kind. The new measures will be on top of existing trade levies on those countries. 

Energy imports from Canada, including oil and electricity, will be spared from the full 25% levy and will face a 10% tariff. White House officials said that was intended to minimize upward pressure on gasoline and home-heating oil prices.

Trump’s move is explosive in scale and goes well beyond his first-term tariffs. Steep tariffs will raise the cost of key goods like food, housing and gasoline for Americans, while the overall fallout threatens to spill widely across the countries, which are the largest three sources of U.S. imports, accounting for almost half of total volume.

“We’d expect big tariffs to have big impacts — and what Trump has just announced is huge,” wrote Nicole Gorton-Caratelli, Maeva Cousin and Tom Orlik of Bloomberg Economics.

Trump campaigned on a platform of extensive tariffs and he followed through, though dialing back planned measures on China while increasing them on his neighbors. Most mainstream economists and many business groups warn that trade levies will disrupt supply chains, raise prices for consumers already wary of inflation and reduce global trade flows.

Sweeping measures

The move represents yet another instance where Trump is testing the bounds of his emergency authorities under federal law — already a hallmark of his second term in the White House. 

The tariff orders invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and expand an earlier declaration to address what he calls a “threat to the safety and security of Americans.” 

Markets have been gripped by uncertainty as they awaited Trump’s decision on the tariffs, and there are now looming questions about how the levies will impact stocks, as well as companies and consumers.

Automakers such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV, which have global supply chains and massive exposure to Mexico and Canada, could see significant swings. Industry groups warned that because of the tight integration of U.S. and Canadian manufacturing, the imminent tariffs could have a steep impact on the industry. 

“The imposition of tariffs will be detrimental to American jobs, investment and consumers,” Jennifer Safavian, the president of Autos Drive America, said in an emailed statement. “U.S. automakers would be better served by policies that reduce barriers for manufacturers, ease regulations that hinder production and create greater export opportunities.”

Trump’s actions also closed a loophole that exempted packages worth less than $800 from tariffs. Extinguishing the so-called de minimis exemption for small parcels sent to the U.S. from the three countries could significantly impact online retail — though the scope of the measure wasn’t immediately clear. While such changes would most directly affect Chinese retailers, American consumers who benefit from those platforms’ cheap goods would likely suffer, too.

The U.S. loses a tremendous amount of tariff revenue by using the exemption, a U.S. official told reporters on a briefing call.

Parts of the U.S., including the Pacific Northwest and Northeast U.S., are deeply reliant on electricity or gas flows from Canada. Under an energy emergency Trump declared on his first day in office, refined gasoline and diesel, uranium, coal, biofuels and critical minerals were all given the lower 10% tariff. 

Oil industry advocates, however, have warned against even a 10% increase in the cost of crude inputs into Midwestern refineries that have few near-term options to substitute with U.S. supplies. 

Democrats wasted no time in pouncing on messaging around how the trade moves could impact families’ budgets. “These tariffs will be devastating for American consumers,” Congressman Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, and some 40 colleagues wrote in a Saturday letter.

“Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada will make your life more expensive,” Stanton said more bluntly in a separate post on X. 

Retaliatory steps

Mexico was strident in rejecting the Trump administration’s allegation that it had alliances with drug traffickers, and suggested the U.S. government curb demand and use of narcotics internally. 

“Drug use and distribution is in your country and that is a public health problem that you have not addressed,” Mexican President Sheinbaum said in a post on X. “It is not by imposing tariffs that problems are resolved, but by talking.”

Mexico will also implement non-tariff measures, while calling for cooperation with the U.S. on topics including security and addressing the fentanyl public health crisis, she said.

The Mexican economy could enter a “severe recession” if Trump’s tariffs remain in place for more than a quarter, according to Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Grupo Financiero Base. “If the tariffs last several months, the Mexican peso depreciation could reach record highs.”

Canada’s Trudeau said American beer, wine, food and appliances will be among the many items subject to Canadian tariffs, and his country is also considering measures related to critical minerals. He encouraged Canadians to buy locally made products and skip U.S. vacations.

The orders enacting the tariffs do create a process to remove them. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem can inform Trump if the countries have taken adequate steps to alleviate concerns over migration and drugs, and the tariffs are removed if he agrees.

It’s not clear how realistic a prospect that is. Canada, for instance, already took steps to tighten its border to appease Trump, and it didn’t deter him.

In a speech Saturday night, Trudeau invoked Canada’s long history of partnership with the U.S. “We have fought and died alongside you,” he said, citing World War II, the Korean War and the recent war in Afghanistan.

Beginning of talks

“Together, we’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen,” Trudeau said, urging Trump to partner with Canada on their shared challenges.

Although the European Union wasn’t among the targets of Trump’s executive actions on trade over the weekend, he’s often complained about what he sees as unfair treatment of American exports such as cars sold in Europe.

On Sunday, German Finance Minister Joerg Kukies cautioned against over-reacting.

“One should not react in panic to the first decision, but rather see it as the beginning of negotiations, not the end,” Kukies told German business representatives in Riyadh at the start of a trip aimed at improving trade ties in the Middle East.

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

My updated Word file of checklists is now available. There are 190 tax season, practice management and personal tips checklists on 328 pages in a usable searchable Word format. I added 12 checklists and updated many of them for the upcoming 2025 tax season.

I am working on updating the Getting Your Affairs in Order checklists and should have those available after tax season. I am also working on SmartProof templates and hope to have those available by the end of February. These would be something new. When they are ready, I’ll send them to everyone that requests the updated checklists, so do not email me for them. You’ll get them when I get them completed.

I am certainly nutsy with checklists. When I have a new situation, I usually scope it out on a Word or Excel file in a checklist format. Once I decide to proceed, I now have a new checklist that can be added to my file. Some of the new projects I work on can be pretty hefty so I keep those to myself. I find that people do not like getting checklists that are too long. I post some really long checklists elsewhere and will include a page with links in the new file. 

I use checklists for almost everything I do. Those that will be repeated are included in this free file. Checklists have all the steps needed for a given project and lay out what I need to do, and occasionally the order to do it in. They don’t need any thinking or decisions on my part (except possibly what color shirts I should pack for a trip). I spend considerable time planning new projects. I want to get them right and I also want to get the fixed fees (or the range of fees) right. This upfront planning is my investment in my future time savings. It is also the investment in reduced time instructing staff and their reduced time when working on my projects. After all, our staff “push our pencils,” and I think it is important that they are pushing the pencils properly, effectively and efficiently. I already figured that out, so why shouldn’t that be shared and reduce their time?

I restrict my checklists to tax season, practice management, administrative process and procedures, some marketing and financial planning. I also include some personal checklists such as when I pack for a trip, shop for my card game or a barbeque, or when I golf. My checklists do not cover technical issues. There are many great checklists available for this.

This paragraph is repeated from prior columns: I write a lot about what I did, and still do, and some people contact me wondering why I did what looked like so much extra work and how it was cost effective. My response is that everything I did was when I was trying to build a practice, get clients, train staff, make a living and spend time with my family. I figured out early on that by deliberate planning, carefully scoping a job and setting up systems and checklists made me richer in the long run than shortcutting to get to the end result. What I did worked and works for me, and I am sharing it with this checklist file for my colleagues.

Some of the new checklists cover these topics and many more:

• A first time-ever flow chart to help a client make a first time investment in the stock market;
• A tax preparation process flow chart;
• A template for organizing your tax season;
• An organic growth checklist;
• How a first-time supervisor should start supervising;
• How a new partner should partner;
• What a staff member who wants to be promoted to partner should do;
• The accountant’s role in assisting a client with their succession planning;
• A jump start for clients to get started with their financial planning; and,
• A checklist for a non-managing partner who manages a book of business.

There is something for everyone in public or private accounting in these checklists. 

I also have auditing and bankruptcy checklists, and some for colleagues in private industry. What I do, and suggest, is to print out the six-page checklist listing and keep it handy. When I have a new situation, I look over the listing to see if there is a checklist that could help me and then I go to the Word file.

The file is free. Just send me an email to [email protected] and put Checklists as the subject. No messages necessary as I do this myself and the messages take me time to read. I’ll also keep your email and will send you the SmartProof templates as soon as I have them and then the Getting Your Affairs in Order checklists in May. 

Every one of the 190 checklists have been used by me, so they are field tested, and I know they work and are useful. 

Enjoy!

Do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.