NEW YORK CITY-Marcum LLP, a national accounting and advisory firm on Monday announced a merger with Cornerstone Accounting Group, an accounting and assurance firm, focused on the real estate industry, with headquarters in NYC and offices in New Jersey. The merger is effective immediately. The entire Cornerstone team, consisting of five partners and 75 staff will join Marcum. Cornerstone's managing partner Daniel Vitulli is now national leader of Marcum's real estate industry group and will join the company's executive committee.
“As a national accounting firm with a footprint in over 20 regional markets, Marcum provides Cornerstone Accounting Group the opportunity to significantly expand our reach and grow services for both our local and national clients,” says Vitulli in the release.
He tells GlobeSt.com that the expanded Marcum is now positioned to be the dominant force for the industry's accounting needs. “We had the [real estate] specialty and now this will make us a market leader,” Vitulli says. “We'll be able to grow Marcum, with the goal of being known as the real estate accounting firm.”
Aiding in that will be the fact that Cornerstone can now bring its expertise to new markets not just around the country but worldwide, while it can also work on new products that Marcum brings to the table, Vitulli says.
“Marcum is known internationally, not just across the US, and it has an SEC practice, which allows us to audit SEC clients, which we couldn't do before,” he asserts.
Meanwhile, Marcum's presence makes Cornerstone more efficient, Vitulli notes. “Our clients span the country but we didn't have nationwide offices so we would have to take people from our New York and New Jersey offices in other markets,” he says.
“That situation may have made prospective clients think twice about working with Cornerstone in the past, and also it likely meant too much time out of the office—and led to high travel expenses—for NY-area executives, notes Vitulli. “They have offices in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Philadelphia and other markets that give us more of a presence,” he says.
Adds Jeffrey Weiner, Marcum managing partner, in the release, “This transaction firmly establishes Marcum as a premier national real estate accounting group.”
Cornerstone's clients included private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, pension advisors and private real estate companies.
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
