Vincents Chartered Accountants might not be a name you are familiar with, but a dedicated team of Canberra professionals is changing that.
Going more commonly by their shortened name of simply ‘Vincents’ (the name of its founding and still current director Paul Vincent), the firm is a multi-BRW award winner and has captured the lion’s share of the forensic and insolvency market in its home state of Queensland.
Since the firm’s entry into Canberra over five years ago with a strong focus on insurance and commercial litigation support and family law, the recent addition of new service offerings – audit and assurance, headed by Peter Sheville, and insolvency and reconstruction, led by Tony Lane – is set to strengthen the firm’s reach and recognition in the market.
“We started, like most, from fairly humble beginnings but we quickly recognised the opportunity for expansion,” said Mark Thompson director of the expanded Vincents Canberra office, referring to the firm’s genesis in 1989 in Brisbane.
“Our world is becoming ever more complex and the need for advice from reliable, professional and qualified experts is increasingly relevant,” said Mark, a highly regarded forensic accountant in his own right. Today the firm boasts over 180 staff in five locations across the country, with the Canberra office being representative of the firm’s most recent multi-disciplinary organic expansion.
Julia Bossert established the Vincents office in Canberra in 2009 and since that time has built on the firm’s strong reputation of being Australia’s leading boutique forensic accounting practice. That has led to the development of a robust local reputation in its traditional field of strength. That reputation now places the firm as the provider of choice amongst many established Canberra region legal practitioners and is something that Mark, Julia and their team is justifiably proud of.
In 2012, ex-Walter Turnbull and PwC Canberra director Peter Sheville joined Vincents to lead the firm’s foray into the audit and assurance market. “It is an exciting time and the reception we have received since adding the service has been encouraging” said Peter when asked about the progress of the service offering. “We are making good gains on the back of our reputation and the personal connections that our team has.”
The newest addition to the Canberra Vincents family is local insolvency practitioner Tony Lane. Hailing from a pedigree of national and local firms, Tony brings with him over 11 years of Canberra-based specialist insolvency skills and a career that spans over 20 years in the financial services industry. Like his audit and forensic colleagues, Tony is also quick to recognise the value that relationships play in the Canberra market.
“Canberra is very relationship based. Getting to know people and who they are, rather than just what they do, is fundamental to developing and maintaining mature professional relationships.You need that when the conversations become a bit ‘lumpy’. If you have that level of respect then there’s a lot less risk of misunderstanding.”
Clearly the success of the firm to date is testament to the quality of those relationships. As Vincents Canberra moves into its next growth phase, the team is drawing satisfaction from the reception of the market to the expanded service offerings.
“We are really pleased with the response we have had to the expanded services. It gives us an opportunity to build on the excellent forensic client base we have and to capitalise on the natural synergies between the three services.” said Tony.
“It also helps shape us as a practice in the marketplace. The strong sense of acceptance and engagement from our old and new clients gives us excellent market intelligence as to how we are viewed against our competition,” said Mark, commenting on the performance of the expanded practice.
“The world we live in is changing rapidly and there are many who view our industry as old-school, full of secrecy and mystery. We would like to go some way towards shedding more light on the processes and practices – particularly in forensic accounting and insolvency. It is not all CSI and slash and burn. At the end of the day we are a transparent firm. Managing communications and exceeding expectations is at the heart of our ethos,” said Tony.
The dedication of the Canberra team is evident, not just in their words but also their deeds, as they recently announced a corporate partnership with local homelessness advocacy service FirstPoint. The firm’s recent donation and ongoing support will try to give back to others what it has already received – a welcome and comfortable home.
Vincents’ recent function celebrating its five years in Canberra would appear witness to those words with more than 150 prominent local professionals supporting the firm on the night.
Contact Vincents Canberra Level 7, AMP Tower, 1 Hobart Place, Canberra City. T: (02) 6274 3400 www.vincents.com.au