Large accounting firms often have financial advisory teams that provide a range of services to clients within.

Transaction and Risk Advisory

Specialization

Services advised on by financial advisory teams can consist of, but are not limited to the following:

• Valuation: Valuation teams value a variety of products and assets to assist clients with activities such as M&A, taxation and compliance, financial reporting, bankruptcy and reorganization, litigation and dispute resolution, and strategic planning. Despite relative higher work with the valuation and the modeling related to it than the average banker, this group lacks exposure to the whole deal. Tasks include purchase price allocation, intangible asset valuation, re-valuing sellers’ assets and liabilities in M&A deals, Goodwill impairment testing, and the valuation of financial assets and portfolios.
• Financial Due Diligence: The financial due diligence group digs into financial statements to highlight trends and identify “red flags” before buyers complete M&A deals.
• Risk: The risk group advises on all solutions that are related to governance control functions within an organization; this can include policy making, IT solutions, fraud, operational risk, etc.
• ESG: The ESG advisory group helps firms create assess their current ESG policies, and develop the low carbon products, services and revenue streams.
• Mergers & Acquisitions: The M&A group guide clients through deal structuring, negotiation, due diligence, and post-merger integration to ensure successful transactions.
• Restructuring: Restructuring teams provide guidance on financial reorganization, debt restructuring, cost reduction, and turnaround strategies to improve financial stability and profitability.

Corporate Finance Advisory

Corporate finance teams within the context of the Big 4 works as M&A, capital raising, and restructuring advisors with responsibilities akin to middle market investment banking divisions.

For medium-sized businesses, an added advantage in engaging a Big 4 as the advisor is the access to integrated service offerings.

Recruiting functions almost identically to IBD recruiting.

Big 4 Firms