Lundy Allard Adds Partner

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rMark Lundy worked in a sheet-metal shop for six years after high school. Bart Allard spent three years in Germany alternating between ski patrol and whitewater guide after turning his tassel.r

That was before either pursued their college degrees, sat for CPA exams or returned to Rogers to set up what has become Benton and Washington counties’ largest local public accounting firm, Lundy Allard & Co. PLLC.r

Effective Jan. 1, the pair will take on a new partner, Tim Fulmer, CPA, and expand into personal financial management with the addition of Lundy Allard Wealth Management LLC.r

When they teamed up on Sept. 1, 1999, Lundy and Allard had a combined estimated billing of about $200,000 and a total of four CPAs in their partnership. This year, the firm, which has eight CPAs and 18 total employees, expects to have more than $1 million in annual billings.r

Not bad for a couple of late bloomers.r

Lundy’s experience with the sheet metal business early in his career has given the two inroads with the construction industry. That’s been lucrative for the firm since Benton County issued 1,541 residential building permits in 2002, up 40 percent from 1,097 in 1997.r

The firm is currently working with 55 different contractors in various capacities.r

Lundy Allard’s client list includes the city of Rogers, the city of Springdale, Northwest Arkansas Head Start, Harris Baking and Roark Group Inc. About 80 percent of its total practice, including Fulmer’s clientele, is made up of individuals, the remainder being in private companies and public entities.r

Tyler Garman, vice president of operations for Roark Group, said the firm has audited and reviewed his company’s monthly financials for the past four or five years.r

“We bounce all kinds of ideas off them, from equipment purchasing to coming up with financing options for our new facility,” Garman said. “We’ve got a tight relationship, and they’ve really adjusted to fit our needs.”r

Jerry Hudlow, chief financial officer and treasurer of the city of Rogers, said he feels the same about Lundy Allard.r

“They are very professional in their approach, very helpful, yet maintain their independence,” he said. He said that the firm has done the annual auditing work for Rogers for the last two years and has one more year left on their contract before the city has to accept bids for the subsequent three years.r

Lundy’s side of the practice is about 60 percent auditing, 30 percent income tax and the remainder “odds and ends” in business valuation and consulting. Allard’s is about 70 percent taxes, 20 percent auditing and 10 percent in personal financial planning.r

About 90 percent of Fulmer’s practice is tax, with 10 percent being accounting services, the professional name for bookkeeping. He hopes to grow that segment with the support of his new partnership.r

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Growth in Specializingr

Besides bringing Fulmer on board to help grow the entire firm, both Lundy and Allard have specific areas of interest they wish to pursue. The pair said they’re working to diversify their offerings to keep up with trends in the accounting industry.r

“Accounting services, tax, audit — it’s just bread and butter. You’ve got to have it because that’s what you’re going to build on,” Lundy said. However, those areas are becoming less attractive industrywide, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants helped identify other industry growth areas back in 2000. Lundy said of those identified by AICPA, he and Allard picked personal financial planning and certified valuations as the firm’s two areas of interest. They both are working toward accreditation with AICPA in their respective specialty designations.r

“Everybody can’t be a specialist at everything. So we’re trying to pick out our niches as we go,” Allard said. “That’s why we’re going to have Tim Fulmer come in … we’d like to see six or seven partners, everybody specializing in a different area.”r

Fulmer, a Conway native, will head the firm’s tax and accounting services side. He said he wants to grow the accounting services side of his practice and offer a “CFO by the hour,” a controllership-type of service, to help clients who have one or two bookkeepers but don’t require full-time controllers.r

Allard said the new business, Lundy Allard Wealth Management, will be a division of Lundy Allard & Co. that’s housed in the same building. The business will be effectively in place and ready to operate full-force at the first of the year.r

“[The new business] has really been a huge, huge push from our clients,” Allard said.r

Lundy says it’s been a tough decision because the firm may lose a few tax referrals from local brokers. But, “[We’ve] almost come to the conclusion that [we] don’t have a choice,” Lundy said. “The truth of the matter is that as these clients come, they’re coming with the expectation of ‘I thought you guys were full service’ … It’s almost a Wal-Mart philosophy,” in the sense the firm will have a one-stop shop.r

The two point out that they’re not going to compete for business on the broker level, just offer wealth management as an added-value service to their current clients and prospective clients who may be looking for that type of comprehensive financial planning.r

“Holistic wealth management” is the industry catch phrase, bandied these days by such players as Merrill Lynch. But Lundy Allard may not necessarily be able to offer that level of planning for every customer.r

Lundy’s focus on growth will be in certified valuations for businesses, and he’s hoping to start looking at more work in fraud audits.r

Lundy said for his size of practice, if he gets a client’s audit he usually also gets the business’ tax returns and the owner’s individual returns.r

“But I really enjoy auditing,” Lundy said. “From that, we’ve been able to take those valuation analyses and take that a step further, since we’ve got an audit department built. Just by virtue of doing auditing, you develop analytical skills. Those analytical skills translate very easily into the valuation services,” Lundy said. “I’m trying to go that way so I can grow my specialty.” r

Lundy said that is exactly what the firm needs to help keep the practice well-rounded. “All we’re doing right now is catching up,” Lundy said. “In order to keep growing, we’ve got to have those [specialty focuses].”r

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Creative College Careersr

Lundy, a Rogers native, served time as an Associated Builders and Contractors apprentice until he wound up going to Nashville, Tenn., and working on his accounting degree from Lipscomb University. From there he worked at Deloitte and Touche for five years before moving back to Northwest Arkansas and becoming the controller of the same sheet metal shop, which he intended to purchase. He and the owner were never able to strike a deal, so he went to Barclay Yarbrough Evens and Co. from 1994-1998 (it became Beall Barclay in 1997). That Fort Smith firm is where he and Allard became acquainted.r

Then Lundy worked with Ervin and Co. in Fayetteville until April of 1999. In May 1999, he opened his own office and had $75,000 in private billings.r

When Allard turned 25, he left Europe to come back to Northwest Arkansas. He took some classes at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville before he finished up his degree from the University of Arkansas. He then spent a year at Hudson Foods Inc. and three at Moore Stephens Frost’s Little Rock firm. Allard then returned to Northwest Arkansas and worked with Beall Barclay for a year before acquiring Diane Fisher’s firm for a multiple of its $120,000 in annual billings.r

The two started talking about merging after their first busy season on their own.r

They said after comparing administrative costs for software, office space and personnel, it just made sense to partner.r

“[That was] one the best business decisions I’ve ever made,” Allard said.r