Smith + Howard Buys Two Firms and Adds Its First Mississippi Offices

Smith + Howard did not buy two random firms. It bought a tighter Alabama network and a brand-new state.

The Atlanta-based firm acquired Hagler & Brocato in Hoover, Alabama, and Byrne|Zizzi in Tupelo, Mississippi. Both deals closed November 2. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Together, the firms bring five offices, eight partners and roughly 50 to 60 employees. Smith + Howard already had a Birmingham-area office after buying Horton, Lee & Burnett in 2025. Byrne|Zizzi gives it its first physical presence in Mississippi, with offices in Tupelo, Aberdeen, Houston and Oxford.

Smith + Howard's announcement says the additions are its fourth and fifth strategic deals of 2026. They bring its acquisition total to 11 since it first took private equity funding in 2022.

That is the simple version. The more interesting part is what the firm bought beyond revenue.

Hagler & Brocato has operated since 2005. It provides accounting, tax, bookkeeping, payroll and business consulting services around greater Birmingham.

Its client mix includes construction, real estate, professional services and nonprofits. But one niche jumps off the page: the firm serves nearly 100 dental practices.

That kind of concentration can be valuable to a larger platform. A firm does not need to build dental expertise office by office if it can acquire a team that already understands the industry's payroll, entity, tax and practice-management issues.

It also lowers the cultural risk. Smith + Howard said the leaders of Hagler & Brocato already had a close relationship with the leaders of Horton, Lee & Burnett, its first Birmingham-area acquisition. In roll-up math, trust is not a line item. It still matters.

Byrne|Zizzi gives Smith + Howard a different kind of asset: a ready-made Mississippi network.

The women-led firm provides tax planning and compliance, client accounting and advisory services, business consulting and business valuations. Its four offices let Smith + Howard enter the state with local leaders, clients and staff already in place.

That is faster than opening a cold office and hoping business appears. It also gives Byrne|Zizzi's clients access to a broader menu of services without asking them to leave the people they already know.

The tradeoff comes after the announcement. The buyer must connect systems, compensation, review standards and service lines without flattening the local relationships that made the acquired firm attractive.

Smith + Howard received backing from Broad Sky Partners in 2022. TPG Growth later invested to support the firm's next expansion phase.

The platform now has nearly 900 professionals across 16 offices in the United States and India, according to the firm's announcement. Its menu spans assurance, tax, advisory, cyber risk, wealth management, executive search and specialized consulting.

That scale creates a clear pitch for acquisition targets. A local firm can keep a familiar market presence while gaining specialists, technology and a larger recruiting platform.

For Smith + Howard, the appeal runs the other way. Each deal adds client relationships, local leaders and another specialty the wider network can sell.

Buying firms is the visible part. Making five new offices feel like one business is the harder part.

Smith + Howard has said it wants to keep expanding across the Southeast and into other major markets. The two latest deals fit that map. Alabama gets denser. Mississippi goes from blank to four offices overnight.

The next scorecard will not be the number of logos collected. It will be whether the acquired teams stay, clients buy more services and niche knowledge such as Hagler & Brocato's dental work spreads across the platform.

That is how a regional roll-up becomes a national firm instead of a very expensive collection of addresses.

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