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PE Deal Tracker Update: Alan Whitman Plants a Flag in the Private Equity Landscape
Tracker surges into 2026 with more than 200 transactions.
In January alone, dozens of private-equity-backed deals surfaced — more than a quarter of all 12 months last year. And it hasn’t slowed down yet.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Reports
Former Baker Tilly CEO Alan Whitman is returning to the center of accounting’s private equity vortex with a new mandate and a new sponsor, taking the helm of a newly capitalized triple-threat CPA firm, insurance agency, and transaction consultancy.
MORE Alan Whitman: Breaking the Mold with PE Backing | Holistic Guide | Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change |Moss Adams-Baker Tilly Merger: Bigger Isn’t Better. Better Is Better. | Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management | Cornerstone Reports | Private Equity
In the new edition of the CPA Trendlines PE Deal Tracker™, Madison Dearborn Partners, the Chicago-based private equity firm, founded in 1992 and managing more than $28 billion in assets, is backing the combination of Nichols Cauley, a Georgia-based CPA firm, with Partners Risk Services and JGH Consulting in a three-entity formation designed not as a tuck-in acquisition but as an integrated advisory foundation from inception.
At Nichols, an eight-office regional leader, Whitman may be inventing more than the next generation of CPA firms. It could be a new breed. “It’s going to be a lot of fun scaling a new product,” Whitman tells CPA Trendlines’ Rory Henry in the latest episode of The Holitic Guide to Wealth Management. “It’s kind of a new category in the space.”
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
Not yet a PRO Member? Go PRO here
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.
Exclusively for PRO Members Only
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Get Your Fees Faster This Tax Season
Be sure to provide details.
By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide
Accounting is a business and businesses need to be paid.
It’s harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. Products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.
MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Many accountants price tax returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. Sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done.
It shows that you run a business and also provides a courtesy to the client in that they can immediately evaluate the cost and value of what was done.
But just as importantly: READ MORE →
Small Firms Can Be Trusted Business Advisors
Move past the lip service.
By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great
Several of the Top 50 CPA firms, particularly the larger ones that derive a majority of their revenues by providing recurring attest services that add integrity to financial statements and reduce the cost of capital, emphasize that they are trusted business advisors providing forward-thinking solutions to their clients.
MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
As examples, here are excerpts found on the websites of four CPA firms:
- “We are more than accountants, we are trusted business advisors”
- “Our role is to be trusted advisors. …”
- “Our mission … serving as a trusted business advisor to our clients”
- “We believe a true business advisor always protects a client’s vital interests”
The Anatomy of Client Advisory Engagements
How to teach your clients to ask better questions.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
Believe it or not, advisory work begins before the engagement letter is signed. The roots of successful client advisory services (CAS) are planted in the pre-engagement phase, often long before the client realizes they need advisory help.
Firms that excel at advisory don’t “pitch.” Instead, they reveal. They uncover opportunities the client never envisioned, risks hidden in plain sight, and truths about their numbers that no one has ever pointed out. This discovery-before-delivery approach builds engagement even before a contract is signed.
MORE by Hitendra Patil
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A surprising insight from our CAS Survey confirms this: the top two ways firms plan to grow their CAS practices are by
- educating clients on what’s possible and
- creating value through everyday interactions, not just marketing campaigns or flashy tools.
Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | ARC
Rural communities offer meaningful work — and a chance to build a practice on purpose.
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation
In an era when private equity rollups and “bigger is better” narratives dominate accounting headlines, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, returns to a quieter question: What does it look like to build a firm — and a career — around serving the places that rarely get the spotlight?
MORE Accounting ARC: Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone | Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC
In this episode of Accounting ARC, Shimamoto sits down with two practitioners who live that reality every day: Shayna Chapman, who runs a practice rooted in a small Ohio community, and Mohan Chirumamilla, who serves clients across Omaha, Nebraska, and Columbia, Missouri. Their conversation is part practical playbook, part gut-check — and it lands on a message that feels increasingly urgent for the profession: small towns still need sophisticated accounting, and accountants still need work that feels meaningful.
Six Ways to Grow Your Profits
Steps you can take even during busy season.
By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms
Many accountants these days are anxious to hit the golden $100,000 mark this year. Others are interested in growing their revenues steadily and incrementally. Still others are focused on lowering costs, raising profits from that side of the equation.
MORE by Sandi Leyva
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All of these approaches are well and good to help you keep more of what you make, but there are far more options to grow your take-home dollars besides raising revenue and lowering costs.
READ MORE →