BKD LLP history

Initially, the firm looked to expand to St Louis and Chicago, but the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent Great Depression curtailed growth, forcing the firm to build its clientele and reputation in Kansas City and Joplin.

A third office opened in Springfield, Missouri, in July 1948, and a uranium boom led the firm to purchase a tax practice in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Partner Jim Glauser, who joined BKD in 1957 as the firm’s first college intern, volunteers to head up the new office.

In 1964, the firm drafted its formal partnership agreement, which still exists today.

The passage of the Medicare Act in 1965 led the firm to focus on growing its health care practice, which today constitutes the firm's largest industry focus.

Building a Brand BKD begins developing marketing infrastructure in response to the 1976 agreement signed by the Federal Trade Commission and the American Institute of CPAs, which allowed broader rights to advertising.

Judy becomes the firm’s first female partner in 1984.

That year also marked a name change for BKD Investment Advisors, founded in 1998, to BKD Wealth Advisors, LLC.

The firm undertook its largest merger in 2001, combining with Olive LLP to create BKD, LLP, which was the eighth-largest United States accounting firm at the time.

On October 1, 2013 BKD officially acquired Malin Bergquist & Co, LLP, a firm that was previously based in Erie, Pennsylvania.

As of November 1, 2014, Wolf & Company officially became a part of BKD through the result of a merger.