Today's Features
ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Michelle River: The Hidden Data Behind CPA Firm Burnout and Profit Pressure | Gear Up for Growth

How savvy CPAs are unlocking powerful insights buried in their practice management systems. Plus: Download the slide deck.

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

“What surprised me most isn’t what the data says,” says Michelle Golden River, CEO of Fore LLC, in a new episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines. “It’s that almost every CPA already has it, and it rarely makes it into leadership conversations.” 

Download Michelle River’s slide deck here

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River tells host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, that firms are overlooking powerful insights buried in their own practice management data. 

River challenges CPA firm leaders to rethink long-held assumptions about growth and sustainability. “There is no reason we should be taking a high volume of low spenders when it’s killing us. It’s ruining our sustainability chances,” she says

River leaves three top takeaways for CPA firms:

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ACCOUNTING ARC

What If the Best Accounting Job Isn’t in Tax or Audit? | Accounting Conversations

The profession’s fastest-growing opportunities help business owners make decisions—not just balance the books.

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The step-by-step operating guide for firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation

For many accounting students, the profession appears to offer two primary destinations: tax or audit.

But what if that’s only part of the story?

In the latest episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), welcomes Kaden Cook, CPA, CMA, a virtual CFO with Anders, for a conversation that challenges many of the assumptions students have about accounting careers.

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Cook’s own career follows a path that many students may not realize exists. He begins with bookkeeping, gains experience in accounts receivable and accounts payable, discovers outsourced accounting and eventually finds his way into advisory services, where he helps business owners make financial decisions rather than simply report financial results.

That distinction becomes one of the central themes of the conversation.

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PODCAST

Art Werner: ‘Free Money’ for New Trump Accounts | Quick Tax Tip

Trump Accounts are for the benefit of children.

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More Werner on Trump accounts.

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

Trump accounts offer a rare chance for a government-funded head start on a tax-advantaged education account.

“The federal government will actually infuse these accounts with $1,000,” says Art Werner. “It’s free money. Just face it, it’s free money.”

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Any child under age 18 with a Social Security number is eligible for a Trump account. Children born between 2025 and 2028 also qualify for a government contribution.

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Private Equity Brings in the Big Guns

New executives take the reins at CPA firms.

New deals, new faces. Top row: Burger, Brady, Whitman. Bottom row: Cordero, O’Boyle, Garrambone, Comerford.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Jim Brady spent 45 years helping lead Deloitte and Grant Thornton. Dee Burger developed consulting and technology businesses at Capgemini and Insight Enterprises. Alan Whitman built Baker Tilly into one of the nation’s largest accounting firms.

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Now all three are taking top positions at accounting firms backed by private equity, as institutional investors increasingly pair growth capital with experienced executives to steer platforms into larger, more diversified organizations.

The CPA PE Deal Tracker™ from CPA Trendlines documents 527 institutional investments and acquisitions involving accounting firms and related businesses from 2020 through June 2026, including 474 transactions backed by institutional capital and 386 private-equity-backed transactions in particular. Much of the consolidation surge focuses on ownership, acquisitions and valuation. But now some executive appointments point to another trend: building deeper executive leadership.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Accountants Race to Tame AI before AI Outruns the Practice

Only 1 in 5 firms has an AI strategy, leaving most firms with varying degrees of chaos.

Barely three years since ChatGPT launched, 98% of accountants are using AI regularly. 88% use it in client service.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With artificial intelligence now firmly embedded in the daily life of tax and accounting firms, the profession’s next test is whether practitioners can learn to run AI before AI outruns the practice.

A new crop of research studies and benchmarking surveys suggests firms have yet to fully govern the tools, price the work, train the staff and protect client trust under AI regimes. Reports from the AICPA, Karbon, CPA.com, Blue J, Intuit Firm of the Future, KPMG, Personiv, the ACCA, Rightworks, Business.com and Citrin Cooperman show AI adoption is no longer in doubt. Coping with it is.

MORE Artificial intelligence | Supkis Cheek: Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | |Private Equity’s Big Bet Faces an AI Shake-Up | Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | At ENGAGE 2026, a Profession Richer and Less Certain Than Ever. | Jen Cryder: From Membership Model to Market Maker | Big 4 Transparency | Three Tech Priorities with Rapid ROI | The Google Playbook for Young Accountants | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds |

Karbon says 98% of accounting professionals use AI, up 15 percentage points from last year, with 55% using it several times a day and 74% using it daily or more often.

Intuit says 88% of accounting professionals used AI for at least one client service in the last 12 months, and 86% used AI for at least one firm operation. Some 46% of firms are investing in AI training, 21% have an AI policy, and 21% have an AI strategy. Intuit says 30% describe AI as embedded by default in daily work, while 54% use it only when it seems useful.

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