Berkowitz Dick Pollack & Brant LLP was formed in 1980 by Stephen Kaplan and Richard Berkowitz.  Though it was originally known as Berkowitz and Kaplan, the firm changed its name in 1996 to reflect Kaplan's retirement, and the addition of Barry J. Dick, Richard A. Pollack and Barry M. Brant.  Today, the company has offices in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Miami, and employs 175 people.  BDPB finished the 2008 with revenue of $37.41 million, a 5.8 perfect increase versus its 2007 revenue.  Despite the growth in revenue, the firm actually pared down its staff by nearly 4 percent throughout the year.

In addition to being one of the biggest accounting firms in South Florida, BDPB has also been ranked one of the top accounting firms in U.S. by both Accounting Today and INSIDE Public Accounting.  INSIDE Public Accounting has also named BDPB one of the "25 best managed firms in public accounting" for 13 years in a row.   BDPB's accounting and consulting business extends to a wide diversity of sectors including manufacturing, retail, professional services, real estate, construction, international tax and trade, health care, insurance advisory, non-profit, government, hospitality and financial services firms.  About 37 percent of the firm's fee revenue comes from tax services, 16 percent comes from audit and attest services, 5 percent management administration services and the remaining 42 percent from the firm's other businesses.

Your personal CFO

Earning the trust of high-net-worth clients is a highly competitive business these days.  BDPB has joined the ranks of the firms using increasingly specific services to reel in these attractive clients.  The firm recently launched a service called BDPB CFO Solutions, which provides the client with personal services such as bill payment, cash flow management, mail sorting, check writing and resolving billing disputes.  The customer also will have access to an online "web portal" where they can check on the recent activities of their account.