Ask CPA Trendlines
Now, with smarter search, deeper analysis, more detailed responses (v.2.7).
Today's Features
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
[PRO Members-Only Bonus]
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
(PRO Member Log in required)
Not yet a PRO Member? Upgrade with one of today’s great offers here.
Five Motivation Tips for Tax Season
Look to history for some wisdom.
By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms
Here are a few of the best lessons I’ve received from the masters.
MORE by Sandi Leyva
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Although tried and true, their stories and hardships keep me energized, upbeat and thinking bigger. READ MORE →
Bissett Bullet: Put It In Writing
Today’s Bissett Bullet: “Confirming the details of your meeting with a prospective client after a meeting is set up is not a formality. It is a cancellation prevention exercise.”
By Martin Bissett
This is a small gesture but is still the standout way to ensure that you are in their schedule, in their calendar, in their diary for this meeting. It shows maturity, it shows seriousness, it shows that you are “on the ball.” Always confirm in writing after setting up a meeting because that is the most proven cancellation prevention exercise yet. Make it official.
Today’s To-Do:
Develop a very simple confirmation letter template that you can send out easily or that someone can send out on your behalf when each new prospective meeting is confirmed in your diary.
See more Bissett Bullets here
Why the Next Generation May Be Accounting’s Greatest Competitive Advantage | SLC
Young professionals bring adaptability and media literacy that firms need in an AI-driven era.
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Student-Led Conversations
With Arpan Grewal
Center for Accounting Transformation
Student-Led Conversations opens its second season with a conversation that reflects a larger shift underway in the accounting profession: rapid technology change, accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence tools, and an increasing push to bring younger voices into the discussion.
Arpan Grewal, a Center for Accounting Transformation intern and business student in Indiana, welcomes Liz Mason, CPA, CEO of High Rock Accounting, as the first guest of Season 2. Grewal describes the discussion as “full circle,” noting Mason is among the first professionals she interviewed when Student-Led Conversations launched last year.
MORE Accounting ARC: 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 | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure
Mason, a co-host of Accounting ARC, argues the profession is no longer talking about incremental change. It is, she says, in the early stages of something much larger.
The word that continues to surface for her is “revolution.”
Four Essentials for Email Campaigns
Plus six factors to consider.
By August Aquila
MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability and Client Retention
Build Exit Strategy into Your Business Strategy
Ten action steps to take NOW, not someday.
By Jackie Meyer
The Balanced Millionaire: Advisor Edition
Having gone through the process of selling clients and eventually an entire firm, I gathered some invaluable lessons. If you ever consider selling part or all of your practice, keep these in mind:
MORE by Jackie Meyer
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
- Always Have a Retention Clause: If you sell clients or your firm, include a clause in the sale agreement that protects you if clients don’t stick around.