Joseph Havas is responsible for designing custom-made solutions to meet the accounting, tax, and financial needs of busy, entrepreneurial families. Joe has over thirty years of experience providing value-added services to a diverse list of clients. He has been a partner for more than twenty-five years and has been the managing partner for more than a decade. His responsibilities include setting strategic direction for the future of the firm and ensuring that the proper resources are allocated in order to accomplish the firm’s short and long-term goals.
Recently, Joe completed the twelve-month program to become a Family Enterprise Advisor at the UBC Sauder School of Business. He now carries the Family Advisor (FEA) designation. Joe became one of only a handful of professionals in Québec to become a certified Family Enterprise Advisor TM.
As a partner in the Entrepreneurial and Family Office Services division of the firm, he is responsible for designing custom-made solutions to meet the accounting, tax, and financial needs of busy, entrepreneurial families. Family office services are designed for entrepreneurial clients, whose businesses may have been sold, who are interested in minimizing the amount of time they spend on administrative matters, and/or maximizing their financial returns in order to support and ultimately transfer wealth to their families and/or community organizations.
In order to design the best solutions for clients, Joe draws on his deep experience in the following areas:
- Accounting and financial consulting for a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, and services
- Estate planning in complex situations involving families whose members may have divergent interests
- Corporate and personal tax planning in order to maximize the business’s net returns to their owners
- Business advisory services, including strategic planning, for clients who are interested in maximizing the value of their businesses
- Structuring international or cross-border operations for Canadian businesses
- Financing of local, regional, and international transactions.
The typical clients that Joe works with are family-owned businesses in various stages in the business life cycle. Some of the industries in which he has strong experience are the following:
- Manufacturing and distribution of consumer products, food products, and electronic components
- Business services including professional services, (lawyers, physician practices, and dentists)
- Importers and distributors of building materials
- Construction and related trades
He has extensive experience in assisting clients to accomplish their objectives through successful business transitions and has facilitated mergers and/or acquisitions on behalf of numerous clients. Some of the recent transactions that have been successfully concluded with his assistance were the following:
- Sale of the business assets of a leading private-label food manufacturer to a publicly traded company. Transaction value in excess of $100 million
- Management buyout of a packaging company. Transaction value $2.5 million.
- Shareholder buyout of a specialized travel business. The transaction value of $4.5 million.
- Sale of the shares of a family-owned importer and distributor of heavy machine parts to a European supplier. The family retained to continue to run the business. The transaction value of $600,000.
Joe is a member of the following organizations:
- Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec (CPA);
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario;
- Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA Canada);
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants;
- Graduate of Sauder School of Business – Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) program