Our Story
Three generations. One name.
A name that has served Rome for more than half a century.
Shorter B. Pullen Company has looked after the finances of Rome and Northwest Georgia across three generations. What began as one man's practice has passed from hand to hand — and through every handoff, the name over the door has stayed the same, because the standard behind it has too.
The founding
Where it began
In the 1960s, Shorter Berry Pullen, Jr. opened the first H&R Block franchise in Rome. Tax preparation ran under the Block name, but franchise owners were free to offer more — bookkeeping, payroll, and the year-round counsel that business owners genuinely needed. To provide it, he founded Shorter B. Pullen Company.
He helped shape the larger organization, too — serving for years on a committee that worked directly with Henry Block, traveling each year to the company's Kansas City headquarters to help refine how it grew and served its clients.
The second generation
Carrying it forward
When Shorter Jr. passed away in 1977, the family didn't step back — it stepped up. His wife took the reins, and in time his son, Shorter Berry Pullen III, took the helm, growing the practice well beyond its early years.
But growth brought a decision. Wanting to answer to his clients rather than a corporate office, in the mid-1990s he stepped away to rebuild something the family would fully own — sharpening his craft at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Atlanta before returning to Rome to revive the firm as a wholly independent practice.
From the archives
The next era
A note from Brent Pullen
I grew up around this firm the way my father grew up around his. So when he fell ill in 2022, I already knew what I wanted to do — and knew I had preparation to do first.
I joined Deloitte to learn what I'd need to carry the firm into its next era: the tax depth, the systems, the way a modern practice runs. My father passed away in 2023. In 2024 I came home to Rome, and in 2025 I brought Shorter B. Pullen Company back to life — the same name my grandfather signed, now backed by the tools and standards of the firm where I trained.
Three generations of my family have put this name on their work. I don't take that lightly — and once we've worked together, you'll see that I mean it.
— Brent Pullen, CPA
What the name means
When you see "Shorter B. Pullen" over the door, it isn't a brand invented in a marketing meeting. It's a person — and the promise he made to everyone who trusted him. That's what a legacy of trust, accountability, and insights means to us: three generations of the same handshake, kept.