LegalZoom and 1-800Accountant Join Forces to Deliver Full-Service Tax and Bookkeeping Solutions for Small Business Owners

Rhea-AI Summary

LegalZoom (LZ) has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with 1-800Accountant to provide full-service bookkeeping and tax solutions for small business owners. The service will launch by January 2025, integrating 1-800Accountant's tax expertise into LegalZoom's ecosystem.

The partnership addresses key findings from a recent LegalZoom customer survey, which identified tax management, liability protection, and legitimacy as primary motivations for business formation. The collaboration aims to streamline tax preparation processes through expert CPAs and technology, helping business owners maximize tax savings and maintain compliance.

The agreement includes minimum lead requirements and corresponding minimum annual revenue commitments over the multi-year term.

Positive

• Strategic expansion into tax services addressing direct customer needs
• New revenue stream through minimum annual revenue commitments
• Service enhancement through expert CPA integration
• Market expansion in the small business financial services sector

Negative

• Service launch delayed until January 2025
• Success dependent on meeting minimum lead requirements

Insights

Financial Analyst

This strategic partnership represents a significant expansion of LegalZoom's service ecosystem, targeting a important pain point for small business owners. The deal includes minimum lead requirements and guaranteed annual revenue commitments, providing a new revenue stream for LegalZoom. The January 2025 launch timing aligns with tax season, maximizing potential adoption. By integrating tax and bookkeeping services with their existing legal platform, LegalZoom is positioning itself as a more comprehensive business solutions provider. This vertical integration strategy could increase customer retention and lifetime value, while creating cross-selling opportunities. The partnership addresses a clear market need identified through customer surveys, suggesting strong potential demand. This move also helps LegalZoom compete more effectively against other business service platforms by offering end-to-end solutions.

Market Research Analyst

The partnership strategically targets the small business segment, where tax compliance remains a significant challenge. With 1.4 billion market cap, this deal could meaningfully impact LegalZoom's growth trajectory. The timing is particularly advantageous as small businesses increasingly seek integrated digital solutions for legal and financial services. Customer survey data indicating tax management as a key concern validates the market opportunity. The partnership with an established player like 1-800Accountant reduces execution risk and time-to-market compared to building these capabilities internally. This move could help capture a larger share of the small business services market while increasing average revenue per user through expanded service offerings.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LegalZoom (Nasdaq:LZ), a leading online platform for legal services, is pleased to announce a multi-year strategic partnership with 1-800Accountant, a national financial services firm. With this partnership, LegalZoom will offer customers access to year-round, full-service bookkeeping and tax solutions delivered by 1-800Accountant, ensuring small business owners can access tax preparation support that best meets their needs. This collaboration enhances LegalZoom’s ecosystem of products, partnerships and services that support small business owners’ legal, compliance, and business management requirements.

A recent LegalZoom customer survey revealed tax management, liability protection, and legitimacy as key motivations for forming their businesses. As a result, LegalZoom customers frequently cited tax return preparation and advisory as critically important services to support their success, as they struggle to navigate the time consuming, manual, and oftentimes confusing tax preparation process.

“Our partnership with 1-800Accountant provides a timely, meaningful solution for our small business owners as they tackle one of their biggest challenges: tax preparation,” said Jeff Stibel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LegalZoom. “We are dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. By integrating 1-800Accountant’s best-in-class tax services into our ecosystem, we’re offering even more value to our customers and empowering them to focus on what they do best—growing their business.”

1-800Accountant specializes in providing financial expertise to small businesses across all industries. Its full-service bookkeeping and tax solutions are powered by a mix of expert CPAs and technology, providing a streamlined experience which enables business owners to minimize tax management, maximize annual tax savings, and give them peace of mind and time to focus on growing their business.

Brendon Pack, Chief Executive Officer of 1-800Accountant, added, “With this partnership, LegalZoom customers will have access to our year-round expert-led bookkeeping and tax services that can help them identify tax-saving opportunities, file accurate returns, and stay compliant with ever-changing tax regulations. We’re proud to collaborate with LegalZoom to make financial services accessible to every small business owner.”

This product offering is expected to launch to LegalZoom customers by January 2025. The agreement outlines minimum lead requirements and corresponding minimum annual revenue over the multi-year term.

About LegalZoom
LegalZoom is a leading online platform for business formation in the United States. Driven by a mission to unleash entrepreneurship, LegalZoom delivers comprehensive legal and compliance products and expertise for small business owners through easy-to-use technology. From free business formations to business management solutions and professional advisory services, LegalZoom supports millions of small business owners and their families throughout the entrepreneurial journey. Founded on the belief that everyone should have affordable access to legal and financial expertise, LegalZoom empowers entrepreneurs to make their dream a reality. For more information, please visit www.legalzoom.com.

About 1-800Accountant
1-800Accountant’s mission is to provide financial expertise to small businesses in every state and industry. Its services are powered by a mix of expert CPAs and technology, enabling businesses to minimize tasks while maximizing tax savings. This empowers owners and entrepreneurs to focus on growing their business while 1-800Accountant handles the rest. For more information, please visit www.1800accountant.com.

Contact: press@legalzoom.com

FAQ

When will LegalZoom's (LZ) tax services partnership with 1-800Accountant launch?

The tax services partnership is expected to launch to LegalZoom customers by January 2025.

What services will LegalZoom (LZ) offer through the 1-800Accountant partnership?

LegalZoom will offer year-round, full-service bookkeeping and tax solutions, including tax preparation support and advisory services.

How will the 1-800Accountant partnership benefit LegalZoom (LZ) customers?

Customers will receive expert-led bookkeeping and tax services, help identifying tax-saving opportunities, accurate return filing, and compliance support with tax regulations.

What motivated LegalZoom's (LZ) partnership with 1-800Accountant?

A customer survey revealed tax management, liability protection, and legitimacy as key motivations for business formation, leading LegalZoom to address these needs through the partnership.

What are the financial terms of LegalZoom's (LZ) partnership with 1-800Accountant?

The multi-year agreement includes minimum lead requirements and corresponding minimum annual revenue commitments, though specific figures were not disclosed.