Frédéric and Laurent Muller, owners and leaders of Fiduciaire Muller & Associés give us an insight into the ethos of the company, illustrating their dedication to merging specialized financial services with strong family values. They outline the firm’s adeptness in navigating diverse industry sectors, its response to the increasing complexity of client needs, as well as the importance of a collaborative, multidisciplinary team approach.
Can you present your company in a few words?
Fiduciaire Muller & Associés, takes pride in providing specialized financial solutions with a blend of family values. Our team of over 50 professionals is happy to assist clients in the fields of accounting, taxation, corporate finance, and payroll. We are focused on medium-sized and large commercial companies in the private sector, as well as Ministries, municipalities, public administrations, and state-owned entities in the public sector. Our focus is solely on operational domestic entities, excluding financial companies like holdings or funds. Emphasizing the importance of recognizing the distinctions among the various fields in which we operate is crucial. Each field functions differently, with unique characteristics. Accounting, for example, is backward-looking and necessitates organized processes. Finance instead demands a comprehensive understanding and is rather forward-looking. Taxation and payroll present yet other challenges, requiring diverse staff backgrounds and organizational structures. It is vital to understand the nuances of each domain to tailor the approach properly. We operate from two offices, one in Strassen and one in Mersch.
How are your clients’ needs evolving?
Client expectations are on the rise, presenting challenges on many fronts. Firstly, clients now seek wide-ranging responses, ranging from general accounting inquiries to specific direct and indirect tax questions, down to individual tax concerns of employees or shareholders. Moreover, there is a growing demand for timely responses. In addition to growing clients’ expectations, the regulatory landscape, especially in terms of taxation, is becoming more stringent. Furthermore, mere reactivity is often insufficient. Clients now require proactivity. The accounting firm must keep clients informed about legislative changes, subsidies, grants, or any other pertinent information. In essence, client demands have become more extensive and elevated, the regulatory environment has become more stringent, and all of this is compounded by the need for anticipation and speed.
“Clients now require proactivity. The accounting firm must keep clients informed about legislative changes, subsidies, grants, or any other pertinent information.”
How are you adapting to our fast-changing world?
A more nuanced approach is necessary to meet the evolving demands, recognizing that the increasing complexity of inquiries surpasses the capabilities of a single chartered accountant. Consequently, the expertise of a multidisciplinary team has become imperative. Our team includes besides accountants, in-house lawyers, tax specialists, corporate finance professionals, and payroll experts. Our internal organization is designed to assign a dedicated manager to each client, responsible for coordinating internal tasks with the necessary specialists. This ensures a single point of contact for the client, providing comprehensive expertise across various fields, facilitating streamlined communication, and offering a tailored approach to address specific client needs. We adhere to operational principles that involve implementing a stringent 4-eye review to ensure meticulous quality in every aspect of our work. Our commitment extends to strategically integrating digitalization and automation to enhance efficiency in our services. In a landscape where the margin for error is diminishing, precision through rigorous quality control remains paramount. Internally, our focus remains on delivering not only swift but accurate responses. The challenge lies in harmonizing the need for speed with the imperative of correctness in our answers.
