Michael Amerio is the chief executive of Lucas Horsfall, a Pasadena-based accounting firm that initially formed in 1957 as Lucas & Company and which was merged with Horsfall, Murphy & Pindroh in 1997. The company entered Orange County with a satellite office in Irvine in 2018 and then merged with Charles, Blank & Karp in Encino to enter the San Fernando Valley market in 2019.
Amerio has worked with Lucas Horsfall for more than 34 years. He spoke with the Business Journal about the state of the industry and employee retention, particularly as regions like Southern California experience a shortage in accounting talent.
How is the accounting industry faring in Los Angeles and Southern California right now?
Southern California’s accounting industry is facing a talent shortage. The number of accounting graduates has been declining, and the number of those taking the CPA exam has steadily decreased over the years.
Younger people are not drawn to the long hours, lower wages and rigid deadlines of the accounting profession. The repetitive and often tedious tasks involved in preparing a tax return are not enticing for new talent, and we need to make efforts to develop, train and retain the next generation of accountants.
With the second Trump Administration now underway, do you anticipate any changes to the business climate that will keep accountants busy working with their business clients?
The expected changes in tax laws will increase billable hours due to the anticipated reduction in the corporate tax rate. Accountants will need to revise corporate tax strategies and advise business clients on how to best take advantage of their earnings.
Changes to tariffs and trades this year and the sunsetting of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the TCJA, at the end of 2025 will require us to stay on top of the changes in legislature so we can best advise clients on tax planning.
What steps is your operation taking – if any – to implement new technologies such as generative AI software?
We are embracing generative artificial intelligence software to automate repetitive tasks and extract keywords and phrases from hundreds of pages of text to deliver targeted answers to the specific questions that continuously arise.
This enables our employees to focus on the most important issues that clients have by prioritizing their most pressing concerns.
What do you do to increase accountant retention at your office?
We are constantly looking to find ways to continue to offer the best benefits in our profession and offer upward mobility.
We offer a hybrid work schedule, excellent work-life balance, more in-house professional development courses and incentives such as tuition reimbursement, and recognition and career advancement through our Rising Stars Program.
What is your outlook on remote working in 2025?
Remote working will remain in place, and employees will continue to have the ability to choose at which office they need to be physically present to best get their work done.
We will be seeing people returning to the office with greater frequency, from three times a week to four times a week, and there will be increased prioritization in work-life balance as the requirement to come in to the office goes up.
