EY tops NJ accounting firms list with 705 CPAs. Ernst & Young LLP holds the No. 1 position on the NJBIZ list of accounting firms, which ranks firms by the number of certified professional accountants located in New Jersey. The firm reported 705 N.J. CPAs and operates from Iselin under Ed Villa. It also lists offices in Secaucus, Iselin and Hoboken. Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries rank No. 2 with 477 CPAs, based in Morristown under Glenn Carroll's leadership. KPMG LLP and Withum tie at No. 3 with 318 CPAs each. KPMG is based in Short Hills. Withum, established in 1974, is based in Princeton and lists offices in Whippany, East Brunswick, Saddle Brook and Red Bank. EisnerAmper ranks No. 5 with 249 CPAs. Goldstein Lieberman & Co. LLC ranks No. 6 with 181, and PKF O'Connor Davies ranks No. 7 with 170. PKF O'Connor Davies acquired Bowman & Co. LLP effective Jan. 1, which brought offices in Voorhees, Haddonfield and Woodbury into the firm. CBIZ ranks No. 8 with 166 CPAs and lists nine locations beyond its Morristown address. Regional concentration. Four firms list Iselin addresses: Ernst & Young, EisnerAmper, Forvis Mazars and Baker Tilly. Meanwhile, three list Parsippany addresses: CohnReznick, SAX Advisory Group and Smolin, Lupin & Co. LLC. SAX Advisory Group announced in August it closed its acquisition of Lighthouse Financial June 30. Prager Metis, ranked at No. 17 with 69 CPAs, announced Lori Roth as CEO Jan. 5. Glenn Friedman now serves as chairman of the board. Provident Bank is the Premium Publication Sponsor of NJBIZ's 2026 Book of Lists. Forvis Mazars is the Accounting Firms list sponsor. Go to the NJBIZ Leads & Data Center to download the complete Accounting Firms list or any other NJBIZ list. Subscribe to NJBIZ's Leads & Data to gain year-round access to the data from NJBIZ lists. Claude.ai assisted with the creation of this article based on NJBIZ data. About the reporter Write to the Editorial Department at [email protected].

SAX Wealth Advisors acquires Florida firm. SAX Wealth Advisors has added another office in Florida and one more team member. The Parsippany-based SAX Advisory Group firm announced Aug. 20 that it recently closed the acquisition of Lighthouse Financial. The addition marks SAX's second office in the Sunshine State. The official closing date was June 30, SAX said. The deal brings approximately $350 million in assets under management to SAX Wealth Advisors. Martin Parlato, founder, principal and wealth advisor, also joined the SAX team. Parlato is based in Ponte Vedra, Fla. "Martin brings decades of experience and deeply rooted client relationships to our platform to strengthen our overall team," SAX Wealth Advisors Managing Partner Kyle Stawicki said in a statement. Lighthouse Financial is SAX Wealth Advisors' seventh acquisition of the year. In total, the deals added approximately $860 million in assets under management, 10 team members and one office. The financial firm now operates in eight states, according to its website, and employs more than 65 team members. It reports more than $6.56 billion in assets under management, including $1.17 billion in retirement plan assets, according to SAX. Previous acquisitions of 2026 and additional assets under management were: * SFS Financial (Stawnychy Financial Services Inc.), Kinnelon $140.5 million AUM * Aznar Financial Advisors LLC, Morris Plains $185 million AUM * LifeCraft Financial Planning, Eugene, Ore. $40 million AUM * Parsons Financial Group LLC, Vero Beach, Fla. $40 million AUM * Prince Financial Advisory, New York, N.Y. $60 million AUM * Arbor Financial, Ann Arbor, Mich. Not disclosed