Partner

Scott Kaplan has been in the accounting business since he graduated from Indiana University in 1981.  As a partner at Brown, Kaplan & Liss has also obviously left him a guy who is pretty happy in his job.  “I love all this,” he admits with a nod to the encyclopedia-sized tomes on the shelves behind him and the reams of computer printouts flooding his desk. Certainly, after hearing how Scott recently qualified for the Illinois CPA Society’s Educational Achievement Program’s certificate on Tax Planning and Advising for Closely-Held Businesses by completing, among other challenges, a total of seven brain-busting courses on taxation alone, you have to believe he does.

Word from Scott’s clients is that his grasp of the minutiae of small business tax law pays off in solid solutions for what sometimes appear to them to be very big problems.  That kind of consistently thoughtful expertise is one of the principal reasons why they come back to work with Kaplan and his partner Paul Brown, along with the unusual level of attention to client details that is their hallmark. “We aren’t a one-size-fits-all kind of shop,” volunteers Kaplan. “It’s always our mission to learn as much as possible about each business that comes through our door.  And if a project presents questions we can’t answer, we go to our network of advisers in the community who can, including bankers, investment advisors and attorneys.”

“Of course we’re here to help figure out your taxes, but it’s what we do after tax season that defines our role best for us,” explains Kaplan.  “Personal financing, valuations on a closely held business, estate and succession planning—whatever it is, we’re there to help you figure out how best to align your financial profile with respect to your particular goals”. 

The company’s reputation for specialized service and tax and accounting expertise has brought a diverse group of help-seekers to Mr. Kaplan’s door.  One-person shops and multi-national conglomerates alike get the hard work and exhaustive planning.  But it is his ongoing work with small businesses and non-profit organizations throughout Evanston and the North Shore that Kaplan points to with special pride.  “Not only do we feel we’re contributing to a greater good, explains Kaplan, “but we enjoy the particular challenges that arise in that line of work.”

“With the major changes in business that are taking place at the end of this decade,” continues Kaplan, “we’ve encountered increasing need for our kind of personalized attention.  People who are downsized one day and building their own home office the next most often don’t have a handle on the tax and accounting ramifications of the drastic changes that they’re in the midst of.  That’s where we come in, with the accounting and planning know-how they need to get them over the hump.”

Although life at Brown, Kaplan & Liss keeps Scott busy, he still manages to find time to serve on the boards of several different organizations, including the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club and the Mental Health Association of Evanston.  One of his pet projects is the Kevin Kaplan Foundation, a not-for-profit group committed to raising funds for college scholarships to community-oriented high school students.