Seven Signs Your Firm Is About to Change | Accounting Voices
Partners know more than they’re saying.
Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown
private equity
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
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here
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:
Webinar, May 13: Due Diligence for Private Equity
Independence vs. Transacting: The Facts Behind Each Pathway,
with Bob and Doug Lewis, Visionary Group
May 13, 4-5 pm ET
Register here | Learn more
Geof Brown: The Three Things You Can’t Ignore | Gear Up for Growth
Illinois CPA Society CEO lays out the three big challenges.
Sponsored by The Balanced Millionaire: The Advisor Edition by Dr. Jackie Meyer | See Today’s Special Offer
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines
“What got you to this point is not going to be what gets your firm to its next major milestone,” says Geoffrey Brown, president and CEO of the Illinois CPA Society.
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here
“Be flexible. Be nimble,” he tells Jean Caragher in this episode of Gear Up for Growth. “Surround yourself with the right people and take advantage of opportunities that help you lead into the future.” READ MORE →
PE Wars: The CPA Platform Economy Is Concentrating Fast
After hundreds of deals, the data show a gravitational pull toward a handful of buyers now driving the profession’s future.
CPA Trendlines PE Deal Tracker: Mega-aggregators dominate the money flow as the race tightens between Ascend, Aprio, Crete, Eisner and Ryan.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The frantic pace of deal-making this past March marks a turning point. What had been described as a consolidation phase has matured into something more defined and more consequential: a platform-driven market in which a relatively small number of repeat acquirers are shaping the profession’s future.
MORE in Private Equity | Alan Whitman Plants a Flag in the Private Equity Landscape | The PE Takeover: Audit Problem? What Audit Problem? | The 7.6x Machine: How Grassroots Firms Are Taking Private Equity for a Ride | Why the Next Big CPA Firms Won’t Look Like CPA Firms
As the first quarter of 2026 closes, the story is no longer simply about transactions. It is about structure. The question has shifted from who is buying whom to which investment models, operating systems, and capital strategies will define the next decade of accounting.
For years, the prevailing narrative held that private equity would democratize the profession. Capital, it was said, would spread broadly across hundreds of firms, opening access to institutional funding that had never before been available. But the data tells a different story.