Following the money

As the population rises in St. Tammany Parish and more residents turn to professionals to handle their financial needs, accounting and brokerage firms are growing on the north shore.

Many are offshoots of offices that originated south of Lake Pontchartrain. Firm managers report that branching

It's a matter of convenience for their clientele, they say, to offer business services close to home.

Accounting firm LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig & Hand Inc. had to jump on St. Tammany's population shift - LaPorte opened in St. Tammany in 1978. In the late 1970s, says partner and director Ted Brandon, two north shore attorneys encouraged the firm to open its satellite office. Though the office has occupied several different locations over the years, it appears to have been a good move: "It's primarily to serve clients over here," Brandon says. Thanks to St. Tammany's fast-growing population, Brandon estimates they "probably, over the last two or three years, have seen 15% to 20% growth annually."

About 20% of LaPorte's staff members live on the north shore as well, though many still commute to the original Metairie office. Brandon, himself a Mandeville resident, moved from the south shore to St. Tammany in 1978. LaPorte's Metairie office has about 50 employees; the north shore office itself has eight.

Both offices are full service. Brandon says the only difference is "about 30 miles. Especially with communications, we have the same access that the Metairie office has. Communication [is] rarely a problem."

Mary Pearson Hammatt, a north shore resident who runs Metairie-based Pearson Hammatt & Associates PC, has been in business since 1986 and opened a north shore office in February, in time for the current tax season.

"I have a good-size north shore practice," she says, though the majority of her business is still conducted in the Metairie office.

"I was always kind of torn between trying to divide myself. It got to the point where I had so many north shore clients, and some of them had been with me for years. They were getting tired of hauling themselves across the bridge." The Mandeville office is open during regular business hours with a staff person and receptionist, but Hammatt spends alternating afternoons and alternating Saturdays there. Hammatt says her north shore clients, some of whom are corporate clients, are pleased with the new office and have already begun sending her referrals.

The new office space also will allow her to expand her business - Hammatt says she is considering evening seminars in estate planning and investment opportunities, which might be popular topics among her retired clients. She also plans to offer computer literacy courses like the ones that have taken place in her Metairie office - hands-on training on Quicken and the Internet - for newly computer-savvy clients.

Those plans are temporarily on hold, though. "All of that's got to wait until after tax season," she says. "I just gotta survive through April." Hammatt says her corporate clients and year-round litigation support work will keep the new office busy after the tax season.

Henry Carrigee, also a north shore resident, is a partner with Metairie accounting firm Carrigee & Moore LLP. Carrigee has been in business 25 years and with partner D. Richard Moore since 1998. His firm opened its Mandeville satellite in August 1999.

"To better serve the clients that I had on the north shore, we opened up an office over there," Carrigee says. "We chose an office that was in a business area, right around a few banks and a new shopping center."

Like Hammett, Carrigee says he has picked up new clients since opening north of the lake, but the new office mainly affords an improved relationship with existing north shore clients.

"We would have a more difficult time scheduling appointments," Carrigee says, "whereas now we don't have to worry about scheduling conflicts." Carrigee & Moore's north shore office is open three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday, and Monday and Friday by appointment. He spends at least two days a week in the Mandeville office, and another of the firm's partners spends one day a week there. Other employees travel there for appointments as necessary.

Investment adviser Salomon Smith Barney Inc. plans to open an office in Mandeville in mid-May, says Christopher Maier, senior vice president and resident manager for the New Orleans district. North shore demographics indicated that the office, which had been in the works for several years and planned for the last 18 months, would appeal to St. Tammany residents. But the decision was not a local one: Miller says Citigroup, which owns Smith Barney, had targeted the north shore as a growth area.

Miller adds the firm already has a "strong client base" on the north shore. Eleven financial consultants and three sales assistants will staff the office.