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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
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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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The 7.6x Machine: How Grassroots Firms Are Taking Private Equity for a Ride
Fewer than 200 investors triggered almost 900 acquisitions.
By CPA Trendlines Research
A multiplier that has grown fourfold since 2021 reveals a transformation driven not by new private equity entrants, but by platform firms consuming the mid-market at speed.
It belies the notion that PE is taking over the accounting profession. In fact, new global research argues that local and mid-size firms worldwide are taking control of their own futures and using institutional capital to pick up the tab.
MORE Private Equity | Deal Tracker: PE Platforms Accelerate the Grab for CPA Firms | With Apax Sale, CohnReznick Starts Building a National Platform | Unicorns and Funerals: From the Demise of Botkeeper to the Rise of Basis.ai | Jeremy Dubow: Raising the Bar for Talent | Big 4 Transparency | Twelve Great Reasons to Merge In a Smaller Accounting Firm
The numbers that define private equity’s advance into accounting do not look the way most people expect. The headlines feature the big firms and the brand-name investors — TowerBrook Capital and EisnerAmper, New Mountain Capital and Grant Thornton, Ares Management and Baker Tilly. But the actual architecture of the transformation is being built one level below: in the relentless, largely unnoticed roll-up of smaller practices into PE-backed platforms.
Cultivate Holistic Wealth with the SHiFT Framework
The assets in your life fall into four categories.
By Jackie Meyer
The Balanced Millionaire: Advisor Edition
Success is often defined in dollar signs and business metrics, but as a seasoned advisor you know that true wealth extends far beyond the financial statement. After all, what’s the point of a seven-figure firm if your health is in shambles, your relationships are strained, or you have no time to enjoy life?
MORE by Jackie Meyer
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
In this article, we’re going to zoom out and look at the whole picture of what it means to be a “Balanced Millionaire.” This is about cultivating holistic wealth across all areas of life, using the SHiFT Framework – Social, Health, Financial, Time. These are the four pillars of holistic wealth and well-being that support a truly balanced and fulfilling life for a high-achieving professional.
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Doubling Up Leads to New Opportunities
Tales of a first trainee.
By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting
I was fortunate early on in my career that I had a boss who gave me responsibility to supervise. On some level I was not really instructed how to supervise, but was told I could use the new person to help me get my work done.
MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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This was precipitated by an email I received from the first person ever I supervised. I had not spoken to him since working with him in 1968. He emailed me because he read one of my columns and just wanted to say hello. I remembered him and then I recalled how I got started training him – he was the first person I trained.
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Use the Consultative Partnership Approach to Selling Services
Three simple principles.
By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention
No matter how good your marketing tools are, there is one tool that needs to be especially sharp, and that is your salesmanship. All the other marketing tools we have mentioned will be of little value if you don’t know how to “ask for the business.”
MORE by August J. Aquila
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You need to understand the selling and buying cycles. They are critical for your success.
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Stephanie Otero: How to Build a Small Firm That Works for You | Gear Up for Growth
Success Requires Intention, Focus, and Community.
This is a preview. The complete episode is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines
“Small firm practitioners need to remember that they are in the driver’s seat,” says Stephanie Otero, vice president, Small Firm Advocate at the AICPA, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth with Jean Caragher.
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines streaming videos and podcasts here
“They have the power to intentionally design a practice they enjoy, and that truly works for them,” Otero says in a wide-ranging conversation about the most pressing challenges facing small accounting firms and the strategies that can help them thrive in an increasingly complex environment.