OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Ten Predictions: PE, Alternate Practice Structures and More

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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?

Valuations have changed … and risen.

By Phil Whitman
 The Rosenberg Survey

While many trends will continue, here are my Top 10 predictions:

  1. Traditional M&A activity, CPA firm to CPA firm, will continue to be very robust.

Not all CPA firms will qualify for investment by private equity and other strategic investors. As such, firms will combine for a variety of reasons including: succession and transitions, increasing profitability and gross revenues, expansion of service offerings, expansion of geographic coverage as well as adding additional depth and breadth in existing service lines.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

  1. Valuations of CPA firms will increase as private equity creates bidding wars between each other. We have already seen demand of CPA firms of certain sizes exceeding supply. As such, we believe that even the larger private equity-backed firms will see acquisitions of smaller firms as not only lucrative additions but significantly more supply. Approximately 10,000 +\- firms with two or more partners that are members of the AICPA. Many of these smaller firms are very profitable and have been seeing multiples of two to three times gross revenues.

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PE, M&A Will Change Local Accounting Firms

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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?

Staff and partners are ready to move around.

By Art Kuesel
 The Rosenberg Survey

The landscape in public accounting will continue to rapidly evolve as more firms merge upstream or take private equity investments. The next several years will see considerable change in our profession as local firms merge with regional and national firms or take private equity money.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

And, as outsourcing and artificial intelligence continue to establish and take hold, the training, development and recruitment of talent will evolve.
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Tech, Talent, Advisory Will Fuel Growth

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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?

Accounting firms are finding themselves in one of two camps.

By Scott Moore
 The Rosenberg Survey

Growth-oriented firms will continue to explore their options to sustain their longevity and competitiveness. Whether they remain independently owned or become investor-backed, key areas of focus will be to seek ways to harness technology, optimize their talent strategies and elevate client value with advisory models.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

A renewed focus on growth has gained momentum, fueled by investor interest, technological advancements and the adoption of advisory models.
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Why Small Firms, PE-Backed Giants, and Midsize Firms Are Headed in Different Directions in 2026

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A profession splitting in three.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The U.S. accounting profession is no longer moving along a single growth continuum. It is splitting into three distinct economic paths—each governed by a different logic, facing different challenges, and offering different prospects. In 2026, these paths are likely to diverge further.

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At one end, solo and micro-firm accountants are increasingly choosing independence and control over scale. At the other end, large firms backed by private equity are consolidating aggressively in areas where profits are already concentrated. Between them sits the traditional mid-size firm, caught between two models that are pulling the profession apart.

For many mid-size firms, 2026 will force a choice: Grow larger and enter the consolidation race? Or deliberately shrink, specialize, and adopt a more solo-like economic model?

For smaller practices, it means they will find a supportive environment, provided they specialize and price their services intelligently. Large firms will accelerate consolidation and extract scale-driven returns. And mid-size firms will face increasing pressure to choose a direction. READ MORE →

The 8 Mega Trends Every CPA Needs to Understand before 2026

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What happens to accountants when AI agents run the economy.

By CPA Trendlines Research

For most of the past decade, “digital transformation” meant faster systems, better dashboards, and incremental automation layered on top of human decision-making. By 2026, that framing will no longer hold.

The defining shift now underway is not simply more technology, but who—or what—executes economic activity. Across finance, operations, compliance, and professional services, autonomous systems are moving from support roles into execution roles. Software is no longer just informing decisions. it is initiating them.

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That transition is reshaping how work is done, how risk is distributed, and how trust is established. It is also quietly repositioning the tax and accounting profession—from recordkeeper and reviewer to certifier of machine-driven outcomes.

CPA Trendlines believes eight mega trends will define 2026—not as isolated developments, but as a converging system change. READ MORE →