A small firm, on purpose.

Elena Marlowe founded the firm in 2016 on a simple frustration: too many capable business owners were handed a return in April and a bill they did not understand, with no conversation in between. She built Marlowe & Voss to work the other way around, starting with the plan and letting the return follow from it.

A licensed Michigan CPA with roughly eighteen years in practice, Elena spent the first half of her career in a regional firm's tax group before deciding she wanted fewer clients and deeper relationships. She leads the firm's business tax strategy work: entity structure, owner compensation, quarterly estimates, and the year-round planning that keeps surprises off the table.

Clients describe her as the person who explains the why, not just the number. She is happiest at a whiteboard translating a tax question into plain English, and she believes the best planning is boring on purpose. Elena lives in Ann Arbor and can usually be found on the Huron River trails before the office opens.

Peter Voss leads the firm's client accounting and advisory practice, the work that turns a shoebox of transactions into financial statements an owner can actually use. He joined Elena as partner in the firm's first year, drawn by the idea of accounting that talks to people rather than at them.

A licensed Michigan CPA, Peter came up through operational finance, spending several years as the numbers person inside growing companies before moving to public practice. That background shows: he reads a profit and loss statement the way an owner does, looking for the story behind the categories and the decision hiding in the margin.

He runs the monthly close, the advisory engagements, and the fractional CFO work, and he is the one clients call before making a hire or signing a lease. Peter is patient with questions and allergic to jargon. Outside the office he coaches youth basketball, restores an aging sailboat he insists is nearly finished, and makes the office's strongest pot of coffee.

Grace Hensley is the senior accountant clients meet when the work gets detailed. She manages a portfolio of business and individual returns and carries much of the monthly close, the point where good bookkeeping becomes financial statements someone can rely on.

Grace has spent several years in tax and accounting practice and has a knack for the exacting parts other people dread: the reconciliation that will not tie, the basis schedule that has to be exactly right, the note in the file that saves a headache next year. She learned early that accuracy is a form of respect for the client's money, and she treats it that way.

What clients notice first is how clearly she explains things. Grace will walk through a return line by line without ever making you feel behind, and she is the person on the team most likely to catch the small thing that would have grown into a large one. She is a graduate of a Michigan accounting program and a devoted, if long-suffering, fan of Detroit sports.

Miguel Serrano leads the firm's bookkeeping team and owns the rhythm that everything else depends on: transactions categorized, accounts reconciled, and the books closed on time, month after month. When the monthly financials arrive without drama, that is Miguel's work.

He has spent years building and cleaning up small-business books, which means he has seen nearly every way they can go sideways and knows how to quietly set them right. Miguel is the person who builds the checklist, sets up the workflow, and then makes sure it actually runs, so that clients are not chasing their own numbers at year-end.

Owners appreciate that he treats their books as a live tool, not a year-end formality. He is quick to flag the odd charge, the duplicate subscription, or the sales tax that needs attention before it becomes a problem. Miguel is bilingual in English and Spanish, mentors newer bookkeepers on the team, and keeps an orderly desk in an occasionally disorderly season.

Jill Hartwick runs office operations, which at Marlowe & Voss means she runs the part of the experience clients feel most: the answered phone, the scheduled meeting, the document that arrives when it was promised. She is usually the first voice a new client hears and the reason nothing falls through the cracks.

Jill came to the firm from a background in client services and small-business administration, and she brought a conviction with her: people should never feel like they are bothering their accountant. She manages intake, scheduling, and the steady flow of communication that makes tax season feel handled rather than frantic, and she prepares clients so their time with Elena or Peter is spent on what matters.

During the February-to-April stretch she is the calm center of a busy office, keeping the calendar honest and the coffee fresh. Clients keep her extension because she remembers the details, follows up without being asked, and treats the firm's schedule as a promise. Outside work, Jill volunteers with a local literacy program and grows more tomatoes than any two people can eat.