Steven Rawlins, Managing Partner, Masters, Smith & Wisby P.A.

In an interview with Invest:, Steven Rawlins, managing partner at Masters, Smith & Wisby, discussed the factors that are attracting businesses and people to Northeast Florida. He also highlighted that wealth management offers major advantages for the firm to grow.

How would you describe your company’s footprint in Florida’s accounting landscape?

Our growth has been positive. We had our best year in history in 2023, and we are poised to make gains in 2024. We are not one of the big national firms in Jacksonville, but we are listed every year in the Jacksonville Business Journal’s list of top accounting firms. 

What are the key factors that make Northeast Florida an ideal market for accounting firms like Masters, Smith & Wisby? 

There are many answers to that question, depending on who you ask. For instance, people in the transportation or the logistics business would cite our local infrastructure, including the intersection of two major interstates as well as the railroads and the port. While we are not directly impacted by that, the success of our business clients is affected by it. Our economy is also great thanks to having a big anchor in the finance and medical industries and a strong military presence.

Moreover, Jacksonville is a great place for business. We have a lot of clients around the Southeast, including Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, and many of those companies want to be present in Jacksonville. That is not necessarily due to the cost of living as real estate in Jacksonville is going up, as it is everywhere else. Nevertheless, the city is not as crowded as others like Atlanta, which makes Jacksonville attractive to companies that want to move and continue to grow. 

What areas of the firm’s service portfolio have seen the highest demand in recent times?

We have seen an increase in international business in Jacksonville thanks to Florida being such a welcoming place to do business with other countries. Our audit, tax, financial planning, and wealth management work continues to grow. While our firm was built on accounting, audit and tax work, I perform an increasing amount of consulting with business owners regarding mergers, acquisitions, gift and estate planning.

What are the most important opportunities for growth that Masters Smith & Wisby has identified?

The best growth potential for us lies in wealth management. As our client base of family-owned businesses becomes more successful and some of the owners get older, there are more opportunities to do estate planning, trust work, and passing ownership to family members through gifting and trust planning or to sell those companies. There are great opportunities for accounting firms in Jacksonville thanks to the underlying business environment. Northeast Florida and Jacksonville are great places for business. 

How is the firm benefiting from the continuous arrival of people and businesses to the region?

Thanks to its tax structure where there is no personal income tax, Florida is a popular destination for a move. Moreover, although real estate prices are going up, there are still some bargains. Our real estate is still more affordable than in other parts of the country. We are now receiving more calls from people looking for a new accounting firm and inquiring about our services with some of those calls coming from people who are new to the area. Of all the people we talk to, around two-thirds to three-fourths become our clients. That is because we are good at helping people and have a lot of experience doing it.

What is the strategy of Masters, Smith & Wisby to help its clients navigate the challenges posed by high interest rates?

Most of our clients are well-versed in conversations related to interest rates. There was a lot of talk earlier this year about interest rates coming down, although I do not know if that will happen. Some of our clients are putting the brakes on some expansion plans until the movement of interest rates becomes clearer.

There is also a lot of uncertainty regarding income tax regulations that affect businesses because it is an election year. There is a feeling that depending on who is elected and controls Congress, the tax provisions that are expected to expire at the end of 2025 may be reinstated. Those particular tax provisions can have a serious impact on the business planning, acquisitions, sales, and inventory and hiring decisions of our clients since they are small, closely held businesses. In that sense, the income tax landscape is just as important if not more important than the interest rate questions that we have. 

What are the most important challenges that the accounting sector faces in Northeast Florida?

The challenges are huge and similar to those that a lot of other professions and industries face. Staffing is a real problem, where it is hard to find and hire people. We have been fortunate to have added two or three people here in the last year or so. Nevertheless, coming out of COVID-19 there is a challenge in hiring people who prefer to stay at home and work remotely. We offer some of that at our firm, but it is hard to have the mentoring and communications that you would usually have in the office environment when working from home.

Our colleagues around the country are having even greater staffing problems in places like the Northeast or the Midwest. In that sense, we are fortunate that a good portion of our people still come into the office while many have days that they work from home. 

What kind of workforce development or talent retention programs or initiatives has Masters, Smith & Wisby implemented?

We do not have something of that sort because we are a small firm. There are other firms with more developed HR departments and footprints in their business areas that can address those things better. On the other hand, we attract smart people who for some reason prefer not to work in a large firm. We are closer and more personable in that sense. While we do not have those programs, we handle our talent attraction and retention through the culture of our office. We are a friendly, giving, and flexible place where we do a lot of the mentoring ourselves. 

What is your outlook for the next two to three years in terms of Masters, Smith & Wisby P.A.’s activities in Jacksonville?

I am a glass-half-full, optimistic person, so I think things will continue to be good for us. Nevertheless, I have been in business long enough to know that everything is not a continual upward spiral. Things level off and there will be some dips, but our outlook for the next two to three years is good.