Speech Given by NYSSCPA President Opposing Global Credential

Let me take a moment to tell you a little about our members. Even though New York state is the proud home of New York City, the vast majority of our members are more like me. I’m from Rochester, which is not very much like New York City, to say the least. The vast majority of our members are from small firms owned by a handful of CPAs who are fiercely proud of being CPAs.

The Society sent out a survey to all its 30,000-plus members. We got back more than 6,400 responses, and 76 percent of the respondents did not like the concept. Now, I’m not talking about the name “Cognitor”—93 percent of the respondents did not like that. And 76 percent disliked the concept of the credential. They just don’t want an interdisciplinary credential other than the CPA.

Therefore, the NYSSCPA resolution is designed to stop us from going down the wrong path but, at the same time, does not preclude us from investigating other possibilities.

In the interest of full disclosure, most of those responding to the survey said they did not know a lot about the credential project. Yet, the more our members felt they knew about the concept, the more they disliked it.

The New York survey went to our entire membership. The survey’s demographics very closely reflected the demographics of the Society as a whole. There is a block of nearly 5,000 New York state CPAs, from every corner of the state, who solidly oppose the concept. How many are there in your state?

Our second concern is giving birth to an interdisciplinary credential. Our members fear the credential will give our competitors a leg up in competing with us. Some small practitioners think the AICPA is doing the bidding of the Big Five accounting firms in pushing the credential. You know and I know this just is not true. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers has publicly and strenuously opposed the credential.

But, I think, there is an additional concern about an important, unintended consequence. Think of it. The very first firm to line up for the interdisciplinary credential will be Booz Allen & Hamilton [one of the largest non-CPA consulting companies in the United States]. In the future, it won’t be Booz Allen consultants vs. KPMG CPAs competing for consulting projects. It will be Booz Allen XYZs vs. KPMG XYZs. My firm in Rochester does not compete directly with Booz Allen, but I have received numerous e-mails, phone calls, and letters from members of smaller firms who are concerned with this issue.

The third concern I have on behalf of our AICPA members is the use of the assets of a CPA organization to create a new profession. I can tell you I have some grave concerns that I am not fulfilling my fiduciary responsibility as a member of Council if I vote to spend our assets to start a new profession that will compete with the CPA profession we represent, especially since this was one of the most repeated concerns communicated to me by our members.

In closing, you have heard it said that the credential is an attempt to turn the CPA profession from a Toyota into a Lexus. I have a concern that instead of creating a Lexus, we might be creating an Edsel.

Think about it when you vote tomorrow. Are you buying a Lexus—or are you buying an Edsel?