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PE Deal Tracker: 147 Deals Build $200 Billion in New Value
100 deals a year: the new normal?
By CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Report
Private equity-backed and PE-adjacent deals start the new year on a roll, with dozens of new combinations racing to year-end closes, driven by some of the biggest rollup platforms.
CPA Trendlines Research is adding 29 newly captured deals to the tracker, lifting the total to 147 deals since 2020 with more than $10 billion in new funding. The continuation of transactions into early 2026 suggests that 2025 was not a peak but a new normal, with deal flow stabilizing at a higher level than in the pre-2020 period.
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CPA Trendlines estimates that today’s private-equity-driven revenue multiples imply an aggregate enterprise value of more than $400 billion for the Top 500 CPA firm sector as a whole — a valuation reset of more than $200 billion. READ MORE →
The CPA PE Playbook: Private Equity 2026 Outlook & Strategy Guide
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The Definitive Guide to Private Equity’s Transformation of the CPA Profession
Exclusively for PRO Members Only, here
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By CPA Trendlines Research
The accounting profession is changing faster than at any time in its modern history—and private equity is driving the shift. More than $30 billion in new capital has entered CPA firms since 2020, igniting a powerful wave of consolidation, modernization, and strategic reinvention. Firms that once relied on incremental growth and traditional partnership structures are now operating as high-performance platforms built for scale, technology adoption, and national reach.
The CPA PE Playbook is the most comprehensive analysis available today on this historic transformation.
If you want to know where the profession is heading, how PE-backed firms are competing, and what it will take to thrive in the next decade, this is the report you need.
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Fourteen Components to Your Firm’s Strategic Plan
Execute it; don’t let it sit on a shelf.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
Many CPA firms do not have a living, breathing strategic plan that enables them to successfully navigate through their next two or three years.
MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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That in and of itself is not very surprising because most CPA firms are basically small and midsized businesses with the same generational challenges faced by most small and midsized family and privately owned operating companies. READ MORE →
Three Ways to Smile More This Tax Season
What atmosphere are you creating?
By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide
If you have staff, have happy cheerful helpful people.
MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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Don’t surround yourself with downers and naysayers. Also have team players.
The People Side of CAS
How to build a thriving team and culture.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
Client Advisory Services is fundamentally driven by people. While technology and automation streamline workflows and improve insights, people are the defining edge of any CAS practice. Behind every strategic financial recommendation, dashboard insight and advisory conversation is a skilled professional ready to serve, solve and lead.
MORE by Hitendra Patil
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Technology and tools can only take you so far. It’s your people who bring advisory to life. In this post, we look at the human capital behind every successful CAS practice. You will discover how to cultivate advisory skills, train existing staff to think strategically, recruitment and retention strategies, and structure your team to support sustainable growth. Most importantly, you will learn how to foster a firm culture that values insight, curiosity and proactive client impact.
READ MORE →
Alan Whitman: Breaking the Mold with PE Backing | Holistic Guide
Ex-Baker Tilly CEO takes helm at a new “category” of CPA firm.
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
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By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines
When CPA firms talk about growth, the conversation often centers on acquisitions, headcount, or revenue targets.
But Alan Whitman, the ex-Baker Tilly CEO and newly named CEO of a private-equity-backed hybrid, says sustainable growth requires something deeper: clarity of strategy, shared language, and systems that enable people to perform at scale.
MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management | BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
5 Advis-ROR® Takeaways
- Growth requires a mindset before metrics. Sustainable scale comes from changing how a firm thinks and operates, not just from chasing revenue, headcount, or deal volume.
- Strategy is about direction, not activity. Conferences, outreach, and initiatives only matter when they clearly support how the firm wants to be seen and who it is built to serve.
- Systems enable people to scale. Communication, sales, and talent engines allow firms to grow without relying on individual effort or burnout.
- Language creates alignment. Clarity about who the firm is and what it does helps teams make consistent decisions and reduces confusion as the organization expands.
- Leadership demands clarity over hope. Early success may come from hustle and hope, but long-term growth requires intentional structure, accountability, and shared understanding.
This episode of AFO Wealth Management Forward was recorded shortly before the public announcement of a new professional services platform that combines accounting and advisory firm Nichols Cauley with insurance brokerage Partners Risk Services and transaction advisory firm JGH Consulting. The new platform is supported by a strategic investment from private equity investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Whitman was named CEO of the combined platform. Widely known for his role in helping scale Baker Tilly into a national firm, Whitman says his leadership mindset is focused less on outcomes and more on the conditions that enabled growth.
How Much Risk Do Clients Need?
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Aaron Klein co-founded Nitrogen and led the company to 42 straight quarters of growth as its first CEO. He was named by Investment News as one of the industry’s 40 under 40 executives, and the Wealth Management Industry Awards honored him as CEO of the Year in 2023. |
Help them embrace it to reach their goals.
By Aaron Klein and Dan Bolton
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
We face risks every day in our lives, from getting into our cars, to eating meals prepared at a restaurant, to flying in planes, to attending parades, sporting events and concerts. Rather than burying our heads in the sand, most of us get on with our daily lives by making calculated assumptions about what risks are safe and manageable and which ones are reckless.
When it comes to our money, however, risk plays all kinds of games on our emotions and often triggers our fight-or-flight response. The Securities & Exchange Commission defines financial risk as “the degree of uncertainty and/or potential financial loss inherent in an investment decision.” In general, as investment risks rise, investors seek higher returns to compensate themselves for taking such risks.
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Dan Bolton is vice president of corporate marketing at Nitrogen. He is the creator of the Fearless Investing Summit, one of the most dynamic and well-attended conferences in the wealth management profession, and launched the pre-eminent benchmark Advisor Growth Survey. |
MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
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So, if you’re thinking of adding an investment advisory component to your accounting practice, just know that being crystal clear about each client’s unique tolerance for risk is the first step toward getting them invested properly.
What is risk tolerance?
Risk tolerance is an investor’s ability (and willingness) to endure market fluctuations and potential losses without abandoning their investment plan. READ MORE →