Chelsea Sowers: From Bitcoin Barbie to Crypto Auditor | MOVE Like This
Roller derby skater on why belief, sponsorship, and community shape the future of the profession.
MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research
PODCAST
Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | The Disruptors
PE makes CPA firms rethink strategy – even if they don’t want to sell.
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Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil
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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
With private equity becoming “a real player and a disruptor in the marketplace,” Ira Rosenbloom, CEO of Optimum Strategies, says, the dramatic influx of capital is intensifying competition for quality firms, especially those with strong client bases and growth potential.
MORE DISRUPTORS: Candy Bellau: The $350 Pricing Mistake that Nearly Broke this Boutique Firm | The Disruptors | Poe: What P.E. Really Wants from Firms | The Disruptors | Blake Oliver: Build a Biz that Runs Without You | Daiber: Use Succession as a Growth Strategy | Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm | Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time |
Firms that PE wouldn’t touch are now being approached by brokers without accounting industry experience, hired by PE groups striving to “build an engine,” Rosenbloom says. But the unwanted attention has “helped some of the smaller firms quickly decide they don’t want to go down that path.” So they “take themselves out of the running for a PE situation quicker because of a better understanding of what private equity wants,” he explains.
Allan Koltin: What Elite CPA Firms Do Differently | Gear Up for Growth
The best firms build accountability cultures, develop climbers, and make tough calls.
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil | See Today’s Special Offer
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines
“Some firms dream of being great but only are willing to make the commitment to be good,” Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, says in the new episode of Gear Up for Growth with host Jean Caragher. “Leadership is the delta that separates all.”
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth here | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here
Koltin says the gap between elite firms and average firms keeps widening, and leadership is the defining factor. Widely recognized as one of the profession’s top consultants, he argues that firms chasing high performance must stop avoiding hard decisions, embrace accountability, and rethink what leadership means.
“You can have the same clients, same talent pool, same market opportunities, and one firm ends up in the upper quartile while another struggles,” Koltin says. “The difference is leadership.” READ MORE →
What Happens to Your Firm If You Don’t Come Back Monday? | ARC
After a near-fatal skiing accident, three accounting leaders confront the uncomfortable questions every firm owner should answer before a crisis strikes.
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
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Originally published March 26, 2026
Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation
Business continuity planning often lives in the realm of “someday.”
Until it doesn’t.
In the latest episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, tackle a topic many professionals avoid: what happens when the unexpected actually happens.
The conversation opens not with theory, but with a moment that makes the stakes unmistakably real.
MORE Accounting ARC: Bad Bosses or Bad Habits? The Truth About Workplace Failure | Why Relationships Still Drive Career Success | The Real Problem with AI in Accounting | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | 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 |
Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, recounts a recent skiing accident in which she fell roughly 200 yards and collided with a tree at high speed. She survived with a broken leg—but the incident forced a sobering question: What would have happened to her firm if she hadn’t?
Art Werner: Just Don’t Call it a Trump Account | Quick Tax Tip
Trump accounts can be “one of the best” long-term planning options, despite their name, says Werner.
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Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today
Trump accounts are “one of the best provisions that we have seen,” tax expert Art Werner says in this Quick Tax Tip.
Acknowledging that the name itself may create resistance among some taxpayers, he says that for people who are not fond of President Trump, “when they hear the name Trump account, it turns them off.” But if they dismiss the account because of its name, he adds, “they are walking away from a tremendous opportunity.”
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Werner explains that funds in a Trump Account are effectively locked away until the child reaches age 18. Once the beneficiary reaches adulthood, the money can be used for specific purposes that he describes as major life milestones, including higher education, purchasing a first home, starting a business, and ultimately retirement planning.