CPA Firms Merging, Eye NW Arkansas

Baird, Kurtz & Dobson of Springfield, Mo., and Olive LLP of Indianapolis, Ind., plan to merge June 1 to create BKD LLP, the largest CPA firm in the Midwest and the 8th largest in the nation.

Their combined revenues are expected to exceed $200 million. BKD LLP will have 27 offices in 11 states including Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. The firm will employ 1,500 people including 200 partners.

Baird, Kurtz & Dobson already services more than 200 clients in Benton and Washington counties. It has 18 offices in Arkansas including a regional one in the Superior Bank building on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith.

But Steven Warren, the firm’s Arkansas partner in charge, said BKD is interested in increasing its Northwest Arkansas presence.

“We’re very interested in that market,” Warren said. “We do everything in Arkansas, serving customers from small 1040s to handling publicly traded firms like Simmons first Bank Corp. in Pine Bluff. We also do work for Washington Regional Hospital in Fayetteville.”

BKD LLP will offer tax and auditing services; operational, compliance and technology consulting; estate and insurance planning and a variety of other financial products. Warren said Baird, Kurtz & Dobson’s health care expertise and Olive’s manufacturing expertise create a uniquely strong core competence.

“We wanted to become the dominant professional services firm in this part of the country,” Warren said. “Getting big just to get big is not what we’re about. But this does allow us to bring more people and financial resources together for our clients.”