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Art Werner: ‘Free Money’ for New Trump Accounts | Quick Tax Tip
Trump Accounts are for the benefit of children.
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Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today
Trump accounts offer a rare chance for a government-funded head start on a tax-advantaged education account.
“The federal government will actually infuse these accounts with $1,000,” says Art Werner. “It’s free money. Just face it, it’s free money.”
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Any child under age 18 with a Social Security number is eligible for a Trump account. Children born between 2025 and 2028 also qualify for a government contribution.
What If the Best Accounting Job Isn’t in Tax or Audit? | Accounting Conversations
The profession’s fastest-growing opportunities help business owners make decisions—not just balance the books.
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Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation
For many accounting students, the profession appears to offer two primary destinations: tax or audit.
But what if that’s only part of the story?
In the latest episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), welcomes Kaden Cook, CPA, CMA, a virtual CFO with Anders, for a conversation that challenges many of the assumptions students have about accounting careers.
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Cook’s own career follows a path that many students may not realize exists. He begins with bookkeeping, gains experience in accounts receivable and accounts payable, discovers outsourced accounting and eventually finds his way into advisory services, where he helps business owners make financial decisions rather than simply report financial results.
That distinction becomes one of the central themes of the conversation.
With $1.8 Billion Deal, Eide Bailly Set for Explosive Growth
Reverence Capital turns a regional powerhouse into a national growth engine.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Eide Bailly didn’t need private equity to roll up more than a dozen local CPA firms in the last two years.
But the Reverence Capital Partners takeover, which values Eide Bailly at about $1.8 billion, means the Fargo, N.D., CPA firm can shift into hyperdrive and take a shot at competing on a national stage. With about $840 million in billings, up from $780 million a year before, the deal prices Eide Bailly at about 2.1 times revenue.
MORE Private Equity | What $1 Billion Buys in Today’s CPA Market
How Big Buyouts Are Turning the Profession into a Platform | Private Equity Turns CPA Loyalty into Legal Risk | PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | What Elite CPA Firms Do Differently | Private Equity’s Big Bet Faces an AI Shake-Up | Steve Stagner: From Mattress Firm to CPA Firms | Private Equity’s Accounting Playbook Shifts from Dealmaking to Operating Systems
Less than two weeks before Eide Bailly’s deal, Chicago-based Crowe agreed to sell to KKR, famous for leveraged buyouts, for nearly $3 billion, at 2.2 times revenue.
The two deals mean that just over half of the top 30 firms are muscling up for expansion with outside capital. Only five of the firms between No. 6 Baker Tilly and No. 26 Sikich are left as independents. In the top 50, about half the firms are taking outside capital. At 100, it’s 29 firms. Overall, the CPA PE Deal Trackertm from CPA Trendlines Research counts more than 500 deals, most of them in the last three years.
In the top tiers of the accounting profession, the market has split into three clear, distinct philosophies: the PE-backed consolidators (like EisnerAmper or Baker Tilly), the ESOP pioneers (led by BDO), and the traditional independence holdouts (Forvis Mazars, CLA, Plante Moran, and Withum), who view partner-ownership as a major asset for long-term talent retention.
CPA PE Deal Tracker™: Crowe, Eide Bailly, Stephano Slack and Meaden & Moore [June-July 2026]
Deal Log, Analysis & Leaderboards – June-July 2026 Update
By CPA Trendlines Research
The newest activity in the CPA PE Deal Tracker™ from CPA Trendlines shows a sharper split between plain add-on acquisitions and platform-control events.
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The Tracker™ now follows 546 headline events, including 402 private equity acquisition rows, 493 institutional acquisition rows and 46 platform or control events since 2016.
Today’s update adds 17 verified entries since May 31: 14 in June and three so far in July. June shows 11 acquisitions and three platform-funding or control events. July adds two acquisitions and one new platform-funding event.
The Most Expensive Promotion Your Firm Can Make | MOVE Like This
It may create costly leadership gaps that affect engagement, retention, and firm performance.
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Originally published May 13, 2026
MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research
Promotions are meant to strengthen an organization. But when firms elevate top performers without preparing them to lead, those promotions can become some of the most expensive decisions they make. The result is often disengaged employees, overwhelmed managers, and avoidable turnover.
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In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Megan Robinson, founder and CEO of E Leader Experience, about why leadership isn’t a natural next step for every high performer—and what firms can do to build leaders intentionally instead of hoping they’ll figure it out.
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