PrintPrintBrian Moody, former managing partner of Dixon Hughes’s Charleston office, left the regional firm in June to found Moody CPAs and Advisors. Dixon Hughes Academy, a management consulting group that had been an affiliate of Dixon Hughes, also separated from the firm and re-launched as Associated Management Services Inc.
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published July 2, 2009
Two groups formerly associated with the Dixon Hughes CPA firm have launched their own independent local firms.
Brian Moody, former managing partner of Dixon Hughes’s Charleston office, left the regional firm in June to found Moody CPAs and Advisors with two former Dixon Hughes CPAs.
Dixon Hughes Academy, a management consulting group that had been an affiliate of Dixon Hughes, also separated from the firm in June. The group, led by CEO Fred Rappaport, re-launched as Associated Management Services Inc., an independent accounting and management services firm.
Dixon Hughes, a Southeastern regional firm, formed its Charleston office in late 2006 with the merging of two local CPA firms, Gamble Givens and Moody and Pratt-Thomas and Gumb. Moody was managing partner of Gamble Givens and Moody at that time. Associated Management Services was affiliated with Gamble Givens and Moody before the merger.
Moody said the 2006 merger was an opportunity for the local firms to be more competitive for business with larger companies. But he started the new firm, Moody CPAs and Advisors, because he wanted to be closer to his accounting work than he was at Dixon Hughes.
“From a personal standpoint I really became an administrator,” Moody said. “I spent a lot of time on HR and budgets. What I enjoy doing is practicing accounting.”
Rappaport said his company’s split with Dixon Hughes came primarily because of the federal laws prohibiting a CPA firm from providing both auditing and management services for a company. Conflicts related to that law limited his company’s business as an affiliate of Dixon Hughes, he said.
“Actually being independent allows Dixon Hughes and myself to work at a higher level,” Rappaport said.
Associated Management Services will now offer accounting services in addition to its consulting.
Tricia Wilson, managing partner of Dixon Hughes’ Charleston office, said the firm will not offer the same types of consulting services that Associated Management Services did, but otherwise little has changed for the firm.
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