Key Takeaways
- 248 accounting and tax firm transactions were announced in the U.S. in 2025, a record high and a 41.7% increase over 2024, according to MarshBerry.
- 41.5% of 2025 transactions involved private-capital-backed buyers. That share increased to 47% during the first half of 2026, the latest comparable MarshBerry reporting available as of November 2026.
- Investors see more than tax preparation revenue. They’re buying recurring relationships, opportunities to expand advisory services, and businesses whose economics could improve through technology and operational scale.
What Do They See in Your Accounting Firm?
Imagine getting a letter from a private equity-backed accounting firm offering to buy your practice. Maybe you’ve already received one. You look at the offer and wonder why an investment firm would be so interested in the business you’ve spent decades building.
After all, you know what running an accounting firm looks like. The deadlines, staffing problems, client questions, and annual scramble to get everything done. You know how hard you’ve worked to build a profitable practice.
But the investors pursuing accounting firms are looking at those same businesses and reaching a different conclusion: there’s considerably more value here than many owners are currently capturing.
According to MarshBerry’s 2025 accounting and tax M&A report, 248 accounting and tax mergers and acquisitions were announced in the United States during 2025, compared with 175 in 2024. That was the highest annual total on record. Private-capital-backed buyers accounted for 103 transactions, representing 41.5% of the market.
The trend continued into 2026. According to MarshBerry’s midyear accounting M&A update, private-capital-backed buyers accounted for 47% of the 108 transactions announced during the first six months.
These investors aren’t buying firms because they want to prepare tax returns. They’re buying the economics surrounding those returns.
And understanding those economics may change how you look at your own practice.
The Citrin Cooperman Deal Tells the Story
In January 2025, a Blackstone-led investor group announced an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Citrin Cooperman from New Mountain Capital. The transaction valued the accounting and advisory firm at approximately $2 billion.
The remarkable part isn’t simply the valuation.
New Mountain had invested in Citrin Cooperman in 2021, when the firm was reportedly valued at approximately $500 million. Four years later, another private equity investor was willing to pay a valuation roughly four times as large.
MarshBerry identified it as the first known private equity-to-private equity transfer of an audit firm.
New Mountain had expanded the business substantially through acquisitions and growth. Blackstone saw enough remaining opportunity to become the next investor.
Consider what that means. One sophisticated investment firm bought into an accounting business, helped build a much larger organization, and then sold its stake to another sophisticated investment firm at a dramatically higher valuation.
The second buyer wasn’t questioning whether accounting was an attractive industry. It was betting that the opportunity was far from exhausted.
The pattern continued in 2026. On August 7, Crowe announced the completion of KKR’s investment in Crowe Advisory LLC, in a transaction previously reported by The Wall Street Journal as approaching $3 billion.
These transactions involve large, sophisticated organizations, so their valuations shouldn’t be confused with what a typical independent accounting practice would command. But they reveal how institutional investors view the industry’s long-term potential.
1. Predictable Revenue Is Extremely Valuable
Most accounting firm owners think about recurring revenue in practical terms. They know which clients are coming back next tax season, which businesses need monthly bookkeeping, and which engagements will renew.
Investors look at that same revenue through the lens of predictability.
A business that must constantly replace its customers is fundamentally different from one whose customers return year after year. Recurring demand makes future cash flows easier to estimate, reduces certain customer acquisition costs, and creates a foundation for expansion.
Accounting has another attractive characteristic: much of the work is driven by legal, regulatory, and ongoing business requirements.
Companies still need financial reporting. Individuals still need to file returns. Payroll and compliance responsibilities don’t disappear when economic conditions become difficult.
That doesn’t make accounting recession-proof. Businesses can fail, clients can leave, and price pressure remains real. But compared with many discretionary services, the profession offers unusually durable demand.
For private equity, that’s an attractive starting point.
2. Client Relationships Represent Untapped Economic Value
An established accounting practice may have hundreds or thousands of clients who have trusted the same firm for years, sometimes decades.
That trust is difficult to recreate. It’s also expensive to acquire.
Investors understand that a client who already relies on a firm for tax compliance may also need tax planning, outsourced accounting, CFO advisory, business consulting, or specialized financial guidance.
The firm has already established credibility. The next opportunity may be sitting inside an existing relationship.
This is particularly important because accounting firms often organize their businesses around the services they currently provide rather than the broader needs of the clients they serve.
A tax client remains a tax client. A bookkeeping client remains a bookkeeping client. Additional needs may be recognized only when the client asks about them.
From an investor’s perspective, that represents unrealized potential.
I’ve written extensively about this opportunity in Your Best Advisory Revenue Is Already on Your Client List.
The important point for this discussion is that private equity investors recognize the economic value of established client relationships. They see opportunities for deeper engagement and additional services without having to acquire an entirely new customer base.
3. Technology and AI Could Change the Economics of Service Delivery
There’s another reason accounting is becoming more attractive to investors: technology has the potential to change how profitably firms deliver their services.
Historically, professional services businesses have been difficult to scale without adding employees. More clients generally meant more accountants, administrative staff, and hours devoted to coordinating work.
That relationship between revenue and headcount has constrained the economics of accounting firms for decades.
Cloud software, automation, and outsourced services have been changing the equation. AI may accelerate it considerably.
Consider the administrative work surrounding an accounting engagement. Documents have to be collected, missing information requested, questions answered, appointments coordinated, research performed, and deadlines monitored.
Some of those activities require professional expertise. Many involve repetitive processes that technology can increasingly assist with or automate.
AI is also improving the ability to identify information, prepare initial research, coordinate client communications, and recognize patterns that might otherwise be overlooked.
Human review, confidentiality, accuracy, and professional judgment remain essential. AI adoption also creates costs and risks of its own.
But investors can see the potential for a firm to grow revenue without increasing operating expenses at the same rate.
That difference matters enormously to a business valued on earnings.
It also explains why technology investment has become such an important part of the private equity accounting story. Investors see an opportunity to modernize how these businesses operate, improving capacity and potentially margins.
4. The Accounting Industry Is Built for Consolidation
Accounting remains a highly fragmented profession, with thousands of independently owned practices serving local and specialized markets.
Many owners are approaching retirement without a clear succession plan. Others struggle to recruit experienced professionals, fund technology investments, or develop the specialized services larger clients increasingly expect.
Private equity-backed platforms can acquire these firms, combine certain administrative functions, invest in shared technology, and expand their geographic and service capabilities.
The strategy is commonly called a roll-up: acquiring multiple businesses and building a larger organization.
It also creates the possibility of selling that larger organization at a higher valuation multiple than the individual businesses might have commanded separately.
The Citrin Cooperman transaction demonstrates the potential, although acquisition spending and business growth also contributed to its valuation increase.
Of course, consolidation isn’t free money. Integration is difficult, financing can be expensive, and losing employees or clients can undermine expected returns.
Still, the basic investment thesis is compelling: acquire durable businesses in a fragmented market, strengthen their operating capabilities, and create a more scalable organization.
5. Investors Want a Business That Can Grow Beyond Its Owner
Many accounting practices produce excellent incomes for their owners but depend heavily on those individuals to function. The owner maintains the most important relationships, makes key decisions, resolves difficult client issues, and oversees daily operations.
That dependence creates a limitation from a buyer’s perspective.
Investors generally place greater value on businesses with transferable client relationships, consistent processes, capable management, diversified revenue, and operations that don’t require the founder’s constant involvement.
That distinction between earning a good living and building a transferable business is important enough to deserve its own discussion. We’ll examine it in the third article in this series, What Makes an Accounting Firm More Valuable in the Age of AI?
There’s a Bigger Question for Independent Firms
Private equity investment also raises legitimate questions about the future of the profession. The AICPA’s Professional Ethics Executive Committee announced plans for a revised second exposure draft in November 2026, following its initial December 2025 proposal on alternative practice structures.
The proposed revisions address professional independence, investor relationships, and conflicts of interest involving accounting firms with outside investment.
The profession is still working through what these ownership structures mean for practitioners and clients.
But regardless of whether private equity ultimately proves beneficial for every acquired firm, the underlying investment thesis deserves attention.
Investors see predictable revenue, established trust, advisory growth potential, and opportunities to operate more efficiently. They’re willing to commit billions because they believe those characteristics can produce substantially more valuable businesses.
Independent accounting firm owners should recognize those same opportunities.
At CountingWorks PRO, we’ve made our own bet on that future. We’re building technology to help independent accounting firms improve efficiency, strengthen client relationships, and grow advisory revenue. We’re doing it without venture capital backing, and we have no plans to raise outside investment.
I believe independent firms have an enormous opportunity ahead of them. The real question is how they capture it.
Private equity is betting on the future value of accounting firms. Independent owners should be asking how much of that value they can create for themselves.
Next in this series: How Independent Accounting Firms Can Compete With PE-Backed Giants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are private equity firms buying accounting firms?
Private equity firms are attracted to accounting practices because they often generate recurring revenue, maintain long-term client relationships, and serve essential business and compliance needs. Investors also see opportunities to expand advisory services, improve operating efficiency, and consolidate smaller firms into larger organizations.
How many accounting firms are being acquired by private equity?
According to MarshBerry, private-capital-backed buyers accounted for 103 of the 248 announced U.S. accounting and tax firm transactions in 2025, or 41.5%. During the first half of 2026, they represented 51 of 108 transactions, or 47%. These are announced transactions involving private-capital-backed buyers, not a count of all firms owned by private equity.
Why are accounting firms attractive to investors?
Accounting firms can offer relatively predictable demand, recurring client revenue, established relationships, opportunities for higher-value advisory services, and potential efficiencies through technology and consolidation.
Is AI driving private equity investment in accounting?
AI is an emerging part of the investment opportunity, particularly for administrative automation, research support, and more efficient service delivery. However, recurring revenue, succession challenges, consolidation opportunities, and advisory growth are established drivers of accounting firm acquisitions.
Do independent accounting firms need private equity investment to grow?
No. Independent firms can adopt modern technology, strengthen recurring revenue, expand advisory offerings, and improve operations without selling equity. Outside investment is one option, but it’s not a prerequisite for building a growing and profitable accounting practice.
