"There is life after the large firm,'' Stone says.

Consistent Service
R. Michael Gray, an accountant and former partner at KPMG, one of the so-called "Big Four" accounting firms, left after 20 years to do something "completely different.''

He is now director of the financial planning group at Captrust Financial Advisors, an independent investment advisory firm in Raleigh, N.C.
Captrust has about 100 employees, compared with 25,000 at KPMG. Gray joined the firm in 2005 with 90% of his KPMG clients.
Despite the disparity in size, Gray says Captrust can compete with his former employer.

"The level of service and consistency of service responsiveness is more predictable with us," he says. By comparison, "you get a lot of changeover in the big investment houses."

Working at Captrust has allowed Gray, who is a personal financial specialist, to address his clients' broad planning needs, including estate planning, income tax, life insurance and health care issues.

He adds that Captrust, unlike KPMG, is independent and not limited to proprietary investment products. "We have no ties or allegiance to any mutual fund family or investment advisors or advisory firms at all,'' Gray says.

One of the reasons often cited for staying at a large firm is that it provides more stability than a small firm. The recent collapse or sale of Wall Street giants such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, however, shows this isn't always the case, Gray notes. Indeed, he says, the risks of leaving a large firm can be outweighed by the risks of staying too long.

"One of the risks of sticking around with the big firm has been pretty evident," he says. "Your company has melded into something else. All of a sudden you worked at Merrill Lynch and now you're with Bank of America."

Small boutiques can be more rewarding than a large firm, on both a financial and philosophical level, he says.

"In my case, a reward is being a shareholder in a growing enterprise with rewards that are potentially greater than might be present in a large company," he says. "I'm a big believer in the independent platform, so for me, moving was an opportunity to be independent and be part of a company with 100 or so employees, so it's big enough to have reasonable benefits-such as health care.''