First and foremost, Stephen E. Cohen is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed by The Florida Board of Accountancy in 1970, with an unblemished record. He is also Accredited in Business Valuation by The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Stephen is also a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) since 1998 with The National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA) (www.nacva.com), and a Certified Forensic Accountant (Cr.FA/F-ACFE) and is recognized as a Fellow, both designations issued by The American College of Forensic of Forensic Examiners (www.acfe.org). In order to become a CVA, one first has to be a licensed CPA; complete 40 hours of classroom training in Business Valuation Theory and Practice, and pass a comprehensive two part written examination exclusively on Business Valuations. In order to become a Cr.FA/F-ACFE, one also must be a licensed CPA, and pass a comprehensive written examination on Fraud, Rules of the Courts and Forensic Accounting.

Cohen’s career has spanned the gamut from that of a sole practitioner, to that of a partner in two different international accounting firms; Grant Thornton and Touche Ross (Deloitte & Touche). Between his partnerships with Grant and Touche, he spent 15 months working for President Carter as a member of the Executive Office of The President staff. He has also been in private industry, serving for a short-time as the CFO/EVP, of the then largest HMO in Florida, acquired by Humana in 1987.

Maintaining these professional designations is no easy task. The State of Florida requires practicing CPA’s to take 80 hours of accounting/auditing and related course studies every two years. NACVA requires their CVA’s  to maintain 36 hours in specified business valuations topics/updates every three years, and ACFE requires their Cr.FA designees to maintain 15 hours every two years in Fraud/Forensic Accounting topics and updates. 

Stephen is a graduate of the University of Miami (FL) in 1963 with a BBA. In addition to the continuing education requirements mentioned above, in 1997, he received the Certificate in Educational Achievement (CEA) for completing a sixty-four hour Business Valuation classroom program of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). As a part of the program, he was required to successfully pass eight hours of written examination in Business Valuations. Cohen is one of 50 in Florida and 1,100 US-wide, to earn both the ABV designation from the AICPA and the CVA designation from NACVA.

Cohen is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The Florida Bar - Family Law Division (Associate Member), and The Institute of Business Appraisers, in addition to his memberships in NACVA and ACFE.