Alex Sonkin joined the show to talk about how CPAs can work smarter, not harder. Traditional CPA practices require long days of billable hours. The more clients and billable hours an accountant has the better. The strenuous demands of the profession leave accountants worn out, burnt out, and the long days limit their quality of life. A successful CPA garners hundreds of clients and scrambles to meet all of their needs. Often tax deadlines and financial statements become more important than proactive planning. Sadly, the accountants’ time becomes a commodity.

Host Richard Muscio and Alex Sonkin agree that the CPA firms can change the self-perpetuating work cycle of accountants by serving more of their clients’ needs. But how?

According to Richard and Alex, the surprising key for accountants to working less and making more money is to have fewer clients, but a wealthy type of client known as a family office. “Family Office” is a term that refers to an extremely wealthy family. Often these families have multiple businesses and dozens of stakeholders who don’t always agree. Family offices have complex problems and require complex financial strategies.

Attracting these clients requires a broader, more sophisticated level of service than most small CPAs firms can provide. That is where the VFO Hub comes in. The VFO Hub is an organization that gives accountants access to best of breed professionals in a score of niche specialties. (e.g cost segregation, estate planning, asset protection, risk management and wealth transfer management). These resources enable an ordinary CPA to optimize every aspect of a wealthy family’s financial situation. The CPA becomes the point of contact and problem solver. Now the CPA is managing a team of professionals instead of pushing paper, and the wealthy families have more time and less stress. It’s a win-win situation.

Mr. Sonkin began his career as a derivatives trader and market maker as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. Since 2010, he’s been a principal at the Lombardi Group whose mission is to help CPA firms to become irreplaceable in the eyes of their most important clients. Their processes have been featured in Accounting Today, Accounting Web, as well as Think Advisor.

Alex lives in San Diego with his wife Jola and their four children. He’s a graduate of University of Michigan Business School, in Ann Arbor, where he received a Degree in Finance and the prestigious Branstrom Award.

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