Every year, the 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country: How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?
Move to more corporate culture helps ease staffing shortages.
By Terry Putney
The Rosenberg Survey
I expect to see at least 100 to 150 acquisitions made by private equity or PE-backed CPA firms in the next 12 months. I expect to see as many as 15 to 20 of the Top 100 firms either be acquired by a PE-backed Top 100 firm or take investment from PE and remain independent.
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I think we will see between two and five of previous investments made in CPA firms by PE change hands in the next 12 months. Up to now, only one major flip has occurred, the New Mountain Capital sale of their interest in Citrin Cooperman to Blackstone. Incidentally, New Mountain Capital reinvested those proceeds to a great extent with an investment in Wipfli and still holds an investment in Grant Thornton.
I predict the trend toward further consolidation of the profession both through PE investment and M&A with traditional firms will continue to accelerate. CPA firm owners have become much more aware of the untapped value of their firms. Plus, they are increasingly at a disadvantage competing against larger firms, both PE-backed and not. Larger firms have fewer preconceived notions of what kinds of clients and services are profitable and can provide growth, which is blurring the lines of what firms are potential competitors for smaller firms.
I think staffing shortages will continue to wane. Progressive firms are expanding the relevant population of professionals beyond traditional accounting to include other disciplines and offshore talent. I also think more young professionals will be attracted to the profession and remain because of the profession’s move to a more corporate operating culture.
From my perspective, the huge trend in the profession relates to investment by PE and PE-type firms. As of August 2025, 22 of the Accounting Today Top 100 firms have taken PE investment and that number doesn’t include Top 100 firms that were acquired by other Top 100 PE-backed firms: for example, Baker Tilly’s acquisition of Moss Adams. We estimate between 250 and 300 acquisitions/investments with PE and PE-type firms have taken place in the last four years. This trend is clearly here to stay and likely will not let up.
PE-backed firms are blurring the lines of what ownership looks like for professionals in accounting firms. In some cases, the objective is like an ESOP. Some PE firms aim to include 100 percent of a firm’s employees in some form of ownership within a year of making the investment. Compensation of key personnel will come in the form of cash compensation and ongoing increases in ownership. Compensation is now designed to also motivate creating value in the firm rather than only maximizing partner cash compensation. Many other facets of operating culture are changing. We are seeing firms that have not yet taken investment from PE and other strategic investors move toward a more corporate operating culture as well. Some in the profession, including me, see the traditional partnership culture as a barrier to achieving long-term success for CPA firms.
We are starting to see the staffing shortage crisis wane. Many firms still struggle to attract and retain talent. However, we hear from many firms that this problem is not as severe as it was a couple of years ago. The AICPA has reported a marked increase in the number of students nationwide entering accounting programs.
Technology is clearly creating a lot of changes in the profession. The move toward more automation in firms other than the largest can be traced in part to PE investment. Virtually every PE or strategic investor group we work with is committed to investing in technology that will drive down production costs. In some cases, tax compliance technology already introduced to investee firms is expected to reduce production hours by 30 percent.