The new-look Grant Thornton plans to develop a particular competence in personal financial planing for high-wealth individuals, says Jimmy Murphy, managing partner. The firm is currently working on two main financial planning projects. A nursing home investment is well advanced, while a European property-based pensions scheme relating to Spanish and Portuguese holiday homes is likely be launched before the end of the current tax year.
Grant Thornton merged with John Woods in February to create a firm with twenty-four partners and offices in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast. According to Murphy, the merger will seek to exploit synergies between the existing businesses. ‘John Woods’s business is primarily business advisory, financial planning and auditing’, he says, ‘whereas our base in Grant Thornton is as leading adviser to growth-oriented, owner-managed firms. The main reason behind the merger is to expand our service base for our existing and prospective clients, specifically in personal finance’.
According to the 1999 Finance Accountancy Survey, Grant Thornton was the seventh largest accountancy firm in the country with an estimated fee income of IR?10,000,000. The new firm has twenty-four partners, with a team of ten people concentrating on corporate finance. |
