LIVING LEGACY page 37
INDIAN SUMMER
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1995 3251 Convertible
studied each site and decided on
the Berlin Home, which is locat-
ed in the Telegraph and Maple
roads area.
"It took about a year for us to
decide which home and what to
do," Mr. Shecter said. "A friend
of mine is a Berlin, and his
grandfather had donated the
home (to JARC). I picked that
home because I knew the fami-
ly. But it was in need of renova-
tion. Had it been in beautiful
shape, I wouldn't have done it
just because of the Berlin name."
On-site work began in August,
when the brothers and a land-
scaping crew tore out all of the
existing shrubs and several trees
from the property. They com-
pleted the work in September,
planting a Japanese weeping
maple, flowering serviceberries,
several evergreen ewes and tam
junipers, and adding natural
field stone boulders.
Mr. Shecter said the job would
have cost at least $5,000. "But
that didn't really matter, because
we wanted to give it the full
treatment. In 10 years, I can dri-
ve by and say, 'I did that.' It is
a sense of accomplishment for
me and my brother. And it looks
good for the neighborhood," he
said.
The Shecter Landscaping Co.
is planning a move next fall from
its location on Haggerty Road
near Pontiac Trail to a bigger
place in order to consolidate of-
fice and storage areas. ❑
Accounting Firm
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S
etting up an accounting
practice used to mean buy-
ing a box of No. 2 pencils,
blank ledgers, an adding
machine and a desk.
Neil Zalenko, CPA, started out
that way in 1973. Five years lat-
er, he took on his first partner. To-
day, his firm is merging with
Geller & Co., P.C., also of South-
field, to create the sixth largest ac-
counting firm based in Michigan.
The ranking is based on a Crain's
Detroit Business list of the top ac-
counting firms in the area.
Zalenko &
Associates will
remain in the
same Central
Park Boule-
vard building,
but with ex-
panded office
space to accom-
modate a total
of 45 employ-
Neil Zalenko
ees, 85 percent
of whom are
CPAs or aspiring CPAs.
The new partners are Mr. Za-
lenko, Barry P. Lefkowitz, Charles
L. Schiff, Michael F. Fenberg,
Paul Carter and Merrill Shapero.
The marriage between the
firms was only a matter of time.
"It's a changed business," Mr.
Zalenko said of public accounting.
"Professional firms like law firms,
accounting firms and medical
practices are more of a business
than they were 30 years ago. This
is a business running an ac-
counting firm."
New technologies, climbing la-
bor costs and other marketplace
demands have exerted their pow-
er on the solo practitioner, a di-
nosaur in most professions
nowadays. Mergers have become'
commonplace as professionals'rei
alize they can save money dad'
,
build a bigger client base by join-
ing forces with colleagues.
"It's a very competitive mar-
ketplace and many clients are de-
sirous of one-stop shopping. From
a client's perspective, there's a
greater consistency in that one
person is facilitating all their
needs in one discipline," said at-
torney Barry Lipson of Lipson,
Neilson, Jacobs & Cole, P.C., who
specializes in mergers and acqui-
sitions.
From the perspective of the
company, diversification can
mean survival in a marketplace
that has become more competi-
tive because of a blurring of the
disciplines, he said.
"Today you can go to a bank
and get a 1040 (tax form) done. In
the financial industry and the ac-
counting industry, there are many
overlaps. Banks as of last year are
now able to sell life insurance, so
the classical lines of demarcation
have broken down. As a conse-
quence, within the financial, ac-
counting and legal industries,
there are gray areas," Mr. Lipson
said.
Mr. Zalenko, 50, of Bloomfield
Township, noted that new com-
plexities in tax law, for example,
have put added pressure on ac-
countants to diversify.
"There's too much to know.
Now it's so much more complex,
you have to develop internal spe-
cialties. Bigger firms tend to be
able to do that," he said.
The merging of the two firms
will enable the single firm to share
expertise and continue to handle
the concerns of the smaller busi-
nessperson.
`There's a lot of synergy. (Geller
& Co., P.C.) is an old-line firm.
They have a good reputation.. We
could see a lot of synergies merg-
ing. We had specialties; they had