The nation’s largest accounting firms are still growing, but how they grow, operate and generate profits looks increasingly different from just five years ago.
In the second episode of INSIDE the IPA 500, INSIDE Public Accounting Executive Director Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown examine five-year trends across the IPA 100 and what they reveal about the changing firm model.
The data points to a profession where strategies once considered experimental — private equity investment, aggressive M&A, offshoring and a broader service mix — are becoming increasingly common among the largest firms.
Growth Is Increasingly Coming From M&A
One of the clearest changes is the widening gap between organic and total growth. Organic growth among the 2026 IPA 100 slowed to 7.0%, while total growth reached 12.8% as acquisitions continued to fuel expansion.
But organic growth remains an important part of the story. The 10 fastest-growing IPA 100 firms by organic growth averaged 15.6% internal growth, more than twice the overall rate. Pricing, new services and new clients continue to provide firms with opportunities to grow without acquisitions.
At the same time, the scale of the largest firms keeps rising. Outside the Big 4, 66 firms now report at least $100 million in revenue, while 11 have surpassed $1 billion.
Outside Investment Is Reshaping the IPA 100
Private equity has also moved further into the mainstream of the profession. Twenty-one IPA 100 firms now have outside investment, reflecting how quickly alternative ownership models have gained ground among the nation’s largest firms.
The effects extend beyond ownership. Investment and consolidation are influencing firm growth, operating structures and competition across the rankings, making the distinction between organic and acquired growth increasingly important when evaluating firm performance.
Offshoring Becomes Standard Practice
Global staffing provides another example of how quickly the operating model has changed. Eighty-six percent of IPA 100 firms now employ offshore FTEs. Roughly seven in 10 send tax returns offshore, and 97% of firms with offshore programs plan to maintain or expand them in the coming year. Every firm in the top 25 with an offshore program plans to hold or increase its use.
Those numbers suggest that for the largest firms, the question is increasingly less about whether to use offshore talent and more about how to incorporate it into the broader workforce model.
The Service Mix Continues to Shift
What firms sell is changing alongside how they operate. Work outside assurance and tax compliance now represents the largest single revenue bucket among IPA 100 firms, reflecting the continued expansion of advisory and other noncompliance services.
That shift is happening alongside changes in pricing and delivery models as firms reconsider long-standing assumptions about the billable hour, staffing and how professional services are packaged.
Together, those changes point toward a firm model that is becoming more diversified in both its revenue streams and its approach to serving clients.
What Separates the Most Profitable Firms?
Despite significant changes in ownership, staffing and growth strategies, the fundamentals of firm performance still matter.
The episode also examines the IPA 100’s most profitable firms and the operating characteristics that distinguish them, offering another lens through which to evaluate the changes taking place across the profession.
The larger takeaway from the 2026 data is not that every IPA 100 firm is following the same playbook. It is that many of the profession’s biggest strategic questions have changed.
M&A, outside investment, global staffing and service expansion are no longer emerging ideas at the top of the profession. They are increasingly part of how the largest firms operate.
Listen to the full episode of The INSIDE Public Accounting Podcast for Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown’s analysis of the 2026 IPA 100 and what the data could signal for firms throughout the IPA 500.
