Jeanne Dougherty, founder and owner of the island financial business Dogwood Associates, is retiring from the business and handing over the ownership reins.

“I’ve been trying to transition out for two or three years,” Dougherty, who has owned the business for 15 years, said. “I’m retiring and don’t own it anymore, but I’m not going anywhere. The weight of ownership lifting is nice.”

Dougherty will continue to work as an associate at the business under new owner Prabha Srinivasan, a certified public accountant who earned her MBA in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University in California. Srinivasan has taken over the small, island business and has been running her own company, Ventura Pranas, since 2007. Her firm has offices in California, India and now Vashon. She currently lives in India with her family.

“I’m looking to expand (Ventura Pranas’) presence into Washington,” Srinivasan said. “(The company’s) motto is ‘accounting without borders,’ and we’ve kind of prided ourselves on that.”

Dougherty had the business listed for years before finding Srinivasan in early 2015. The two created a temporary partnership last year with Dougherty still owning the business while Srinivasan did the accounting and bookkeeping.

“I kept saying, ‘This isn’t going to work,'” Dougherty said. “So, last year we did about 30 clients, and I had Prabha doing most of them, and it went well. We finished in June and transferred ownership in mid-2015.”

While the ownership has been technically transferred for months, Dougherty said she and Srinivasan are still having a lot of conversations and figuring out how the business will work. But, Doughtery said that her clients should not expect any huge changes. Under the new ownership, accounting, bookkeeping, reviews and client meetings will still all be done at the Vashon office, while the Ventura Pranas staff of accountants will handle the tax entry and software process remotely.

“We’re figuring out how to take advantage of a larger, more robust company that can offer us a lot of resources, while still staying local,” Dougherty said. “For now, the name is not changing. We’re still Dogwood Associates, we’re just owned by Ventura Pranas.”