Where accounting,law, and AIcollide.
Michael Jeffriess is a founder, entrepreneur, Group CEO, and chartered accountantbuilding the operating system for Australia's next generation of advisors - at the intersection of legal-tech, artificial intelligence, and the professional services industry.
01 / Credentials
Twenty-five years,
on the inside.
A working operator's CV. Six current roles, two exits, five senior executive positions across ASX-listed and private financial services groups, and the credentials behind it all. Read top to bottom - the story is in the architecture.
01 — CURRENTLY
02 — FOUNDED & EXITED
03 — EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE
04 — EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL
02 / Point of view
The next decade of professional services won't be won by the biggest firms - it'll be won by the ones who rebuild themselves as technology companies before someone else does it to them.
Speak
honestly.
Keynotes, fireside chats, and industry panels for conferences, private events, and executive gatherings - on the future of professional services, AI in legal and accounting, and what it actually takes to build, scale, and exit a firm.
Signature talks
The AI-Native Advisory Firm
Why the next wave of AI won't replace accountants and lawyers - it'll replace the firms that refuse to rebuild around it. A working operator's view of what survives and what doesn't.
Keynote · 45 minFrom Practice to Platform
The playbook for spinning a technology company out of a traditional firm - what I've learned building LightYear Group, Tax Guru AI, and scaling Naked Accounting to Firm of the Year.
Keynote · Fireside · 45 minThe Exit Playbook
Lessons from an ASX listing, multiple capital raises, and a professional services exit. What founders actually need to know about investor-readiness, valuation, and timing.
Keynote · 45–60 minOffshore, Onshore, AI-Shore
The three-layer operating model for modern professional firms. How to build productivity and margin improvements that don't get eaten by wage inflation or AI hype cycles.
Workshop · Keynote · 45–90 minEstate Planning in the Age of AI
Where advisors still win. A working view from inside SAPEPAA and LightYear Legal on what wealth-protection clients actually want, and why AI sharpens - not erases - the advisor's edge.
Keynote · Panel · 30–45 minRecent stages,
media & events.
A — Recent Media
B — Recent Stages
C — Industry Events · Founded & Led
Open to bookings at industry-association conferences, accounting and legal-tech summits, ASX-listed corporate offsites, and executive education programs.
Book Michael for your next event.
International travel considered. Keynotes, fireside chats, panel moderation, workshop delivery. Fee and availability on request - typical lead time 6–12 weeks.
Work
together.
Three ways to work with Michael - each designed for a different stage of the founder and firm journey. All engagements are selective; we only take on work where the outcome matters and the fit is right.
Board &
Advisory Seats
Ongoing board, advisory, or non-executive director roles for technology-enabled firms in accounting, legal, or adjacent professional services. Brought on when the next chapter is an exit, a raise, or a platform pivot.
Firm
Transformation
A 90-day senior-operator engagement for accounting, legal, and advisory firms ready to restructure around AI, offshore the right functions, lift margin, and position for either scale or exit. Diagnostic → strategy → implementation plan.
Founder
Working Sessions
Private, agenda-free working sessions for founders building at the intersection of AI, legal-tech, and professional services. Application-only. For operators, not spectators.
Operator
first.
Twenty-five years across ASX-listed and privately held groups in financial services. An ASX listing, multiple capital raises, a Firm of the Year build, a successful exit, and a current slate of AI and legal-tech companies. Michael writes and speaks from inside the work - not from the sidelines.
Michael Jeffriess is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand (FCA) who spent the first chapter of his career as a CFO, COO, and executive director inside ASX-listed and privately held financial services groups — including involvement in two ASX listings (MFS Limited and HFA Holdings) and a string of capital raises, M&A transactions, and investment-committee roles.
The second chapter was about learning how to build: strategy, budgeting, operations, treasury, AFSL and ACL compliance, IT, HR, offshoring — the unglamorous scaffolding that decides whether a firm survives its own growth or drowns in it.
In 2025 he exited three companies in a single year — Naked Accounting (2023 Australian Accounting Firm of the Year), We Love Group (home of I Love Accounting, 2021 Australian Start-up of the Year), and the consumer-facing brands within them — to focus on technology, AI, and his family office portfolio.
The current chapter is the build. As Group CEO of LightYear Group (LightYear Docs, LightYear Legal, LY Forensics, LightYear Training) and co-founder & CEO of Tax Guru AI, Michael is working on the systems, tools, and training that will define how the next generation of Australian accountants and advisors actually practice. He sits on the board of SAPEPAA — the industry association for succession, asset protection, and estate-planning advisors — and on the advisory board of Capitaliz, the US-headquartered exit-planning platform.
A hockey pro, a mad golfer, and a health fanatic. Lives on the Gold Coast. Always planning the next trip.
What I'm
working on.
A live, honest snapshot - updated regularly - of where my attention actually is. Not a CV. Not a press release. What I'm building, where I'm speaking, and what I'm thinking hard about right now.
Tax Guru AI - scaling the first true AI co-pilot for Australian tax and accounting professionals.
We're shipping the product that should have existed five years ago. Priority for 2026 is firm-scale deployments, deeper integration into LightYear Docs, and a thesis on where the margin actually goes as AI eats the middle of the professional services P&L.
Group CEO, LightYear Group
LightYear Docs, LightYear Legal, LY Forensics, LightYear Training Group. Building the legal-tech stack for SMSF, estate planning, asset protection, and advisor workflows.
Board Director, SAPEPAA
Succession, Asset Protection & Estate Planning Advisors Association. Shaping professional standards for the next decade of wealth-protection advice.
Advisory Board, Capitaliz
Advisory board member at Capitaliz — the US-headquartered exit planning and business valuation platform for professional advisors. Bringing an Australian operator's lens to mid-market value acceleration across US, AU, and UK markets.
Next essay: The Margin Problem.
Why AI is compressing professional-services pricing faster than most firms are cutting cost - and what the firms that survive will look like by 2028.
Q2–Q4 2026
Taking 10–14 speaking slots this year. Prioritising conferences in AU, APAC, and select US stages.
Gym. Hockey. Planning the next trip.
Probably a bad round of golf this weekend. Definitely ocean walks with the family.
Essays
& field notes.
Long-form thinking on AI in professional services, building technology companies out of traditional firms, exits, offshoring, and the industry's next decade. Not hot takes. Real lessons from inside the work.
The Margin Problem no one in the industry wants to name.
AI is compressing professional-services pricing faster than most firms are cutting cost. Here's the math - and the way through.
What an ASX listing teaches you that a business school never will.
Notes from the HFA Holdings listing and what founders in 2026 can actually take from the capital-markets playbook.
Offshore. Onshore. AI-shore.
The three-layer model that's replacing the pyramid inside every modern professional services firm - and how to build yours.
The Firm of the Year build - in public.
What we actually did to build Naked Accounting into the 2023 Australian Accounting Firm of the Year - and then decided to exit.
Why every advisory firm should spin out a product.
The logic behind LightYear Group, Tax Guru AI, and a wave of operator-founded tech companies emerging from inside the industry.
The Hard
Naked Truth.
Hosted by Michael JeffriessNo varnish.
Just the work.
Candid conversations with operators, founders, and advisors building real businesses in a noisy industry. No softball questions. No sponsor posture. Weekly episodes on what actually moves the needle in modern professional services.