What AI CEO’s Warning Means (and Doesn’t) for Accountants
Five reasons your work is safe … if you’re doing the right work.
By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide
ADI
Nicholson, Fox: Exit Planning and the Psychology of Letting Go | Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
“No one wants to leave the IRS more than they have to.”
Sponsored by CPA Trendlines Pro Membership. Get More! Go Pro! – See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines
An estimated 10 to 12 million Boomer-owned businesses are expected to transition over the next decade. That’s a massive wave of planning, liquidity events, and legacy questions. Yet experts say most owners don’t engage advisors until they’re well into the deal process.
“By the time they come to us, they’ve often already signed a letter of intent,” laments Randy A. Fox, CFP, AEP, founder of Two Hawks Family Office Services, on a recent panel discussion for contributors to my new book, Holistic Guide to Wealth Management. “That shuts the door on a lot of the strategies that could have helped them keep more of what they built,” Fox added.
Fellow contributor and panel discussion guest Christine Nicholson, author, business consultant, and exit planning specialist, has worked with hundreds of owners. She sees the same distorted view of reality cloud their thinking — owners mistakenly assume their kids will take over and believe their business is worth far more than it really is. READ MORE →
Build Stronger Financial Futures with Health Care Planning
|
|
Christine Simone is the CEO & co-founder of Caribou, a software solution for the finance industry to include health care costs and plan optimization in financial plans. |
It’s a top expense and source of stress.
By Christine Simone
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
Financial advisors are well suited to help clients with all the important decisions in their lives. But that doesn’t mean advisors always recognize the areas in which clients need the most help.
MORE: Marketing Strategies for Wealth Management Services | Trust Is the Primary Ingredient | How to Prepare Your Clients’ Kids for Their Inheritance | Annuities and Insurance Growing More Attractive | Quantifying the Value of an Advisor | Raise Your Rates to Change Your Clientele | How WealthTech Is Reshaping the Future of Holistic Advice | Profile of a Modern Firm: Putting the Vision into Practice | Tsunami of M&A, PE Is Disrupting the Accounting Profession | Introducing You to a Fulfilling Return on Relationships
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
Take health insurance, a big concern for people across all income groups. According to a 2021 report from Spectrem Group (now part of CEG Insights), two-thirds of affluent investors (65%) say they want their advisors to help them with health insurance, but only 4 percent said their financial advisors are providing it to them (see bar chart). Further, among people who don’t have financial advisors, the top areas for which they would want guidance are retirement income planning, Social Security planning and Medicare advice.
READ MORE →
The Most Expensive Promotion Your Firm Can Make | MOVE Like This
It may create costly leadership gaps that affect engagement, retention, and firm performance.
This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide to Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil | See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines Research podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Originally published May 13, 2026
MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research
Promotions are meant to strengthen an organization. But when firms elevate top performers without preparing them to lead, those promotions can become some of the most expensive decisions they make. The result is often disengaged employees, overwhelmed managers, and avoidable turnover.
MORE MOVE Like This | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
In this episode of MOVE Like This, Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Megan Robinson, founder and CEO of E Leader Experience, about why leadership isn’t a natural next step for every high performer—and what firms can do to build leaders intentionally instead of hoping they’ll figure it out.
READ MORE →
Outlook: Tax and Accounting Workloads Are Only Getting Heavier
Accounting Firms Face a Productivity Test as Demand Outruns Capacity.
Accountants Demand Index: Steady Growth in New Work
By CPA Trendlines Research
The tax and accounting profession’s biggest problem is no longer finding work. It is finding the time, people, and technology to do it.
The new CPA Trendlines Accountants Demand Index, which slipped in May, remains firmly above year-ago levels. The proprietary index of economic indicators fell to 121.2 in May, down 0.3 percent from April but still up 1.8 percent from a year earlier and comfortably above its 2019 baseline level of 100.
The next six months are forecast to follow a pattern firm owners will recognize. June softens. July surges with the sharpest single-month gain in the forecast window. Then August stalls, nearly flat, which is where the index makes its call.
History says late summer is the reset. This year, the data says the reset holds: the index climbs steadily through September, October and into November, reaching its fall peak before December pulls it back below zero.