In 2006, the San Francisco-based Certified Public Accountancy firm Bregante + Company LLP opened an office in Hacienda with five employees. Today, the Hacienda office has grown to 13 employees as Bregante has expanded to meet the needs of its clients.

Bregante specializes in providing tax, accounting, and business consulting services to closely held businesses, high net worth individuals, and nonprofit organizations throughout the greater Bay Area. Every business client that is served by Bregante has a partner, a manager, and a staff person dedicated to their account year in and year out.

A closely held business is one that is owned by a single person or a small group of people. Bregante works with closely held business owners to help them develop a better understanding of the business and tax complexities that exist in financial interactions between the owners and their business as well as between the business and its customers. High net worth individuals have needs similar to those of closely held business owners.

Bregante is typically involved with many aspects of a client's financial decision-making process beyond accounting and tax matters. Bregante believes business success depends on a variety financial considerations in addition to tax concerns. That is why the company's services also include stock option planning, real estate transaction analysis, entity selection, mergers and acquisitions analysis, and estate planning.

"We are proactive business partners with our clients," says Ronda Lawson, Firm Administrator. "We prefer clients that want to look forward and include us in their decision processes."

Since its founding in 1976, Bregante has developed relationships with a network of professionals that are experts in their fields. These relationships offer a rich resource for Bregante clients.

"We believe in building collaborative teams of professionals around our clients, so we partner with specialists such as bankers, financial advisors, attorneys, retirement plan advisors, and insurance brokers," notes Lawson.

People often think of accountants for compliance issues only, according to Lawson. Bregante's own expertise and its network of experts create a partnership relationship with clients that allows them to make more fully informed business decisions.

"We help our clients evaluate the numerous business and tax choices available to them," says Lawson. "We consider the long and short term consequences of the many choices available to clients. Many people are surprised when they see that there are many choices as opposed to only one option available."

Bregante's headquarters are located in San Francisco, with additional offices in Hacienda and in Novato. The company employs about 50 people in total. Bregante's charitable efforts support a variety of good causes. One important beneficiary is Agape Villages. This licensed foster family agency places children in foster homes in communities throughout Northern California, including in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

"We support Agape Villages and their efforts to help foster kids," says Lawson. "We have an annual golf tournament and donate the proceeds of the tournament to this organization. We picked Agape because of their efforts to help others that are in a difficult position that is beyond the control of those in need of assistance."

The annual Bregante + Company LLP Golf Tournament Supporting Agape Villages Foster Family Agency occurs each October.

"In this tournament, we play all 27 holes at Poppy Ridge in Livermore, and everyone plays their own ball," notes Lawson. "Playing golf by the rules is a bit different approach that the participants appreciate as opposed to the many different 'scramble' approaches that many other similar tournaments use."

For more information about Bregante + Company LLP, please visit bcocpa.com.