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The 2026 IPA 100 data shows a profession in transition. Many strategies that once looked experimental are becoming standard practice.

In the second episode of INSIDE the IPA 500, Chelsea Summers and Rob Brown examine five-year trends shaping IPA’s Top 100 firms, including slower organic growth, accelerating M&A, private equity investment, offshoring and the continued expansion of advisory services.

They also explore what separates the IPA 100’s most profitable firms and preview what’s ahead as the series turns to firms ranked No. 101 through No. 500.

View the complete 2026 IPA 500 rankings and learn more about IPA’s benchmarking and analysis at insidepublicaccounting.com.

I'd say that 2026 is the year that the experiments ended. So five years ago, the private equity, offshoring, advisory expansion, alternative pricing, they were open questions. But this year's data shows that every one of them has settled and is is shifting. So the new model is simply the model now in the largest firms.

Welcome back to the INSIDE Public Accounting Podcast, where we turn the profession's most important data into insights that leaders can actually use. I'm Rob Brown

I'm Chelsea Summers, Executive Director of INSIDE Public Accounting. The 2026 IPA 500 rankings are out, and today we're walking through what the data says about the state of the profession.

This should be your playbook if you're in any kind of leadership position with a firm, this intelligence is absolutely gold for you. So make sure you pick up the report whenever you can. Today, we're going to focus most of our time on the top 100. I'm going to look at something specific, which is where the data has changed, not necessarily the storylines, not the predictions, but the numbers themselves. And Chelsea, you are the queen of the numbers.

Yeah, the five year trends are really where I think there's some interesting shifts. When we're looking at any single year of data, the data can sometimes be noisy, but when you line up the five years side by side, you're seeing what shifts are temporary and which ones are really structural and foundational in the profession. So this year a lot of things that used to look temporary are starting to turn into structural changes.

And this is the beauty of the IPA data. It's longitudinal now. It's been going for a while and you can see these trends over the years. So let's start at the top, Chelsea. Give us the headline numbers for the 2026 IPA 100.

Yeah, so I think two numbers are defining this year. And the story is the distance between those two numbers. So organic net revenue growth for the IPA 100 came in at 7.0%. So that is the slowest pace that we've seen in the last five years. It was 7.8% last year. And if you go back to that post pandemic surge, we were at 14.4%. But total growth, and that's the growth including mergers.

ran 12.8% which is up from 10.4% a year ago.

Yeah. And talk a lot about double digit growth with at least 10%. Some of them are, some of them aren't clearly. So the organic growth that slowed for the fourth straight year, but total growth has accelerated.

It.

Yeah, exactly. And I think that the gap shows you that the largest firms are growing. But growth is no longer something that firms are primarily generating client by client. It's something that they're acquiring. Yeah.

organically is slow. It can be done and you've got control over it. So what about profitability, Chelsea? Slow organic growth, usually takes people some time. It makes them nervous about margins. There's a lot of implications for growing slow and organically.

Yeah. So net income growth actually outpaced revenue growth at 14.3%, which was up from 12.5% last year. And the net income per equity partner number climbed to a record, record dollar amount this year at $973,000

That's knocking on the door of a million dollars partner.

Yeah. And five years ago it was around 933,000 and it dipped but has recovered along the way. So now it's at an all-time high. Margins came in at 25.3% of revenue, which is really in line with the five year range. So firms really had an excellent year, but how they produced it is fundamentally changing. Yeah.

It's the stories behind the numbers. Any other records in our five-year table before we move on?

Yeah, there's a few that we can note. So net revenue per employee, something we've talked a lot about, revenue per FTE, that hit a record number this year as well, 244,000. Net revenue per equity partner is now just slightly under $4 million. And pay per professional climbed to $117,000. So five years ago, that was at $99,000.

So by my sons, Chelsea, firms have paid professionals roughly 18 % more than they did five years ago.

Well, you are the math teacher, former math teacher. So I will let you do the mental math, but that sounds right. Yes. so here's the part that impresses me. Personnel costs as a percentage of revenue has held steady at 52.6% that whole time. So firms are absorbing those raises through pricing and productivity rather than margin. So I think that's a balance that firms have been trying to strike. And the data in the largest firms, those IPA 100, show that they're they're managing it.

Well, let's dig into the growth story a little bit more. You're saying that much of the growth is being acquired. How much deal activity are we talking about?

A lot. So IPA 100 firms reported 211 mergers this year. So that deal engine literally reshaped the ranking itself. We had longtime IPA 100 firms that exited through acquisitions. We had new firms debut on the list as acquisition platforms. And some of the biggest movers on the list got there almost entirely through the deals and the transactions.

Yeah. And if you've not seen our head that episode, we go through the numbers a lot more who broke in, who broke out and what's behind those numbers. So check out that episode. Does this mean though, Chelsea, that organic growth is gone? There's only one way to move up and that's to buy you.

No, I don't think so. And there's a there's a nuance there. So the 10 fastest growing organic growth firms in the IP 100 average 15.6% internal growth. So that's more than double the overall growth of 7.0. So it is very possible to grow through pricing power, through new services and new clients without having transactions and acquisitions. We will be interviewing one of those fastest growing organic growth firms on an upcoming bonus episode. So stay tuned for that.

And it's important how those firms have done it. That's what's intriguing because there are different ways to do it, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of intentionality about what kind of firm you want to be. So we've established, Chelsea, the organic playbook, it still works. It's just becoming a little bit rarer.

Yeah, I think rarer and harder for the IPA 100 as a whole, the bulk of that growth comes from acquisitions. So that's simply where the profession is. And firm leaders need to be honest with themselves about which growth engine that they're running. Hey accountants, it's time to grow your capacity, not your headcount. Introducing Bill, the AI-powered exception-based AP solution that automates tedious work and simplifies your tech stack, whether it's managing domestic and global payments or syncing receipts through deep integrations.

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brings us to what's behind these deals. Viewers will know that I'm launching a new show called Bact that IPA are involved with because you're providing the data for this, but we're talking about capital and control and power in firms on either side of the private equity conversation. And private equity seems to be everywhere. Like AI, Chelsea is driving the most amount of change in firms. Where do things stand in 2026 with the data?

So 21 of the IPA 100 firms now hold some kind of outside investment. And in this year's August insights, we analyze the difference in the data on those PE backed firms versus those that don't have the outside capital.

Well, don't leave us hanging. What exactly did that data show us?

So when you compare PE backed firms with traditional partnerships, both groups posted organic growth of exactly 7.0.

Now that's interesting. that's absolutely identical.

Identical, but the top line numbers look very different. PE backed firms grew 27.0 overall against 9.1 for those non-PE backed firms. So the entire gap is that volume of their deals. When you strip out all those acquisitions, the outside capital is not producing those faster organic growth results, or at least not yet.

fascinating because the narrative has been that the PE firm is simply outrunning everyone and so if it's not organic growth what does outside capital actually change?

So nearly everything behind that revenue line. So one example would be reinvestment. PE backed firms retain roughly a third of their income to reinvest in the business, where traditional partnerships are distributing nearly all of that. So that's a different philosophy about what profit is for. In one model, profit is payout, in the other, profit is fuel.

Yeah, that makes sense. And the partners of those firms are accepting smaller checks today then.

Yeah, so they're betting on the enterprise value that tomorrow justifies that. Whether that bet pays off is, I think, a big open question in the profession and something we're gonna keep tracking as as many are. But the point for today is that in the 2026 data, private equity doesn't seem like an experiment anymore. It's more of an established alternative model shift that's sitting alongside the traditional partnership.

It just reminds me of outsourcing and off-showing. Do remember a few years ago, there was a stigma attached to that and there were a couple of early adopters who dipped their toes in, but now it's, it's a justified business model. Pretty much all firms are doing it to scale. Okay. So we're getting a picture here, Chelsea, and there's a shift in the data. I know you've been watching for years and you are becoming something of a pricing expert. It's the billable hour.

Yeah, so revenue from the traditional model of that charge hours times billing rates fell to 54.2% for the IPA 100 total revenue this year. And it was 56.5% last year.

So still the majority of the revenue, but that's slipping.

Yeah, I would say slipping meaningfully. And when you look at the service mix of those largest firms, I think it helps to understand why. Assurance is now 25.8% of the IPA 100 firm's total revenue, and tax compliance is 31.7. So those non-compliant services, which is everything from client accounting services to consulting, tax specialty work, it's now 41.4%. It's the largest single bucket of revenue at those largest firms in the country.

Which is remarkable when you think about how these firms were built because compliance was the engine.

It was the engine and it is still a important part of the firm, but over five years, the mix has steadily tilted. And I think the pricing model is tilting with that. So non compliance work, it really fits fixed fees and value pricing better than the billable hour.

Yeah, people talked about the death of compliance and the rise of advisory, but still are both very much in play. They're just changing the way they contribute to the revenue. Is there any evidence, Chelsea, that in the data, this shift actually pays?

So we looked at firms that are advisory dominant. So more than 60% of their revenue is coming from work other than compliance. And they're generating $152 per work hour. And then compare that to $130 per work hour for the IPA 100. So not just a philosophical shift, but the economics are shifting with that.

Yeah, it's commercial. makes good sense. Let's talk about the people, Chelsea, the staffing, because the offshore numbers this year, when I saw the report, this jumped out at me.

Yeah, the IPA 100 firms, 86% now employ offshore FTE. So, like you said, it's it's nearly universal. And that's up from 83% last year. So still growing. Offshore staff average 8.2% of total headcount, and 68% of firms are also offshoring their tax returns.

So that's seven in 10 of the largest firms in the country are sending tax returns offshore. That's staggering.

Yeah, it is. And when we asked firms about their plans for the coming year, 97% said they plan to hold or expand their offshore programs. And among the top 25 firms, every single one plans to increase. We know many of you listen to this podcast on the go, driving to work, working out, even doing chores. Now you can get CPE credit for that time. With Earmark, you can earn free NASBA-approved CPE for listening to the Inside Public Accounting Podcast.

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Every single one. I'm just wondering if they tell the clients where their tax returns are actually done. But every one, that's astonishing.

Yeah. And I wanna frame that as these the strategies do not consolidate that decisively around approaches that aren't working. So the largest firms, they're not it's it's no longer whether to use that global capacity, it's whether to use a third party provider or build their own offices outshore. I think that's the question that they're looking at right now.

Yeah, there's a lot of changes in strategy with offshore and global capability centers and all these things that are coming out. Let's zoom out, look at the rankings themselves, Chelsea, because the bar even to make this top 100 list, that keeps going up, isn't it?

Yeah, it does. The minimum revenue to make the IPA 100 this year was 67.7 million. Five years ago, it was 44.5 million. That's more than a 50% increase if my mental math worked for me. in the entry fee just in five years.

Just comparing with the UK as well to hit top 100 firm in the UK, you need about 5 million pounds, which is seven or $8 million. So it's such a bigger market there in the US. Any milestones at the top of the list, Chelsea?

Yeah, so outside of the big four firms, 66 firms are now at that a hundred million mark or more in revenue. And eleven firms have crossed the one billion dollar mark.

It just used to be the big fall, wasn't it? That we're in the billions, but goodness me, times are changing. It wasn't so long ago that hitting 100 million was that headline achievement of the profession.

Yeah, and it was one of the whole stories when the when the rankings began. So now a hundred million is nearly the price of admission and it is for the upper half of the IPA 100. So the profession has scaled dramatically and consolidation keeps pushing those milestones higher every year.

Well, you need to buy this report people, this informed strategy and it should be in all of your boardrooms. Let's talk about a segment I've been looking forward to personally, Chelsea, because every year the IPA looks at the firms at the top of the profitability tables and asks what actually separates them from everyone else. So what does a top performer look like in 2026?

Yeah, so in the August insights, we look at the firms with the highest net income per equity partner and then we compare them to the IPA 100 average. There are some big differences in those numbers.

Well, that's the measurement, isn't it? Net income per equity partner. So give us the numbers.

Yeah, so starting with the bottom line, those top performers earn about 2.67 million in net income per equity partner. The IPA 100 average was $973,000. So nearly three times the average.

That is a market difference, that's nearly triple. So how? What's going on differently in these firms?

Yeah, so two things. First is leverage. So these firms run 27.2 full-time equivalents per equity partner, where the IPA 100 average is 16.2. So they built bigger teams under each partner. And then the second thing is margin. They convert 34% of revenue into their net income versus 25.3 for the IPA 100 as a whole. So they're not just bigger under each partner, but they're more profitable on every dollar that they're bringing in.

Yeah, they've got scale and leverage there if there's more people per partner working and goodness me, is a net income is a bit, that's a big start. I'm really, really surprised at that, but goodness that that's the way the game is changing. And these firms aren't coasting on growth, they? They, it's almost exponential.

Yeah, so those firms with the highest net income per partner are growing faster than the IPA 100. So those top firms posted organic growth of 9.7 versus the 7.0 and their net income grew 16.9%

So the formula is leverage plus margin plus growth all at the same time.

Easy, right?

What's the problem? Just throw those three together and you'll be millionaires and billionaires.

So I think for the managing partners listening is that partner income is really an output. The inputs are the operating model, how much capacity sits under each partner, how the work is priced, and how efficiently it's being delivered. So the firms at the top of that table, they design those inputs deliberately. They don't typically just stumble into them.

Yeah, that makes sense. Most of today's news about this IPA 500, it's right to concentrate on them because they're at the cutting edge of things and they're right at the top of the tree. But the full IPA 500 list covers a lot more of the profession. What do we know about those ranked 101 and upwards, Chelsea?

Yeah, so I'm gonna keep this brief, and there's a good reason for that, we'll get into. but the short version is that that playbook really cascades. Those 200 through 500 tiers had some solid organic growth this year, ranging from 6.5% to 7.8%, depending on their tier, with double-digit income gains at nearly every level. Net income per partner hit five-year highs at every tier, and the IPA 200 crossed the $800,000 mark per partner.

IPA 300 came in just under 792,000. The IPA 400 reached 678,000 And the IPA 500 topped just over 600,000 per partner.

So we're breaking world records up and down the rankings, not just to the top.

Yeah, across the board. Leverage is also climbing in those smaller tiers, which tells you that firms are building those same structures that the largest firm uses. I think the biggest difference that we see is the work itself. Tax compliance is still 47% of revenue in those IPA 500, 401 to 500 firms versus roughly a third in that IPA 100. So those smaller firms remain anchored in their compliance services, but the strategic direction that they're moving.

is the same. So the tools that the largest firms are arriving at is coming to all the other tiers just as fast as they can afford.

That's actually our tease, isn't it?

It is. So our next episode is going to be a deep dive of the IPA 200 through 500, the mid market and regional firms. There's a lot of interesting stories in the profession that are playing out right now in those firms. They deserve more than just a couple minutes at the end of the episode. So if you lead a firm in that range, that episode is being built for you.

Yeah, that's going to be a really good one. So before we wrap up, let's do a quick hits round. I'll start our category. Chelsea, you've got your finger on the numbers. You give me the 2026 number that's in the data, black and white. Are you ready?

Yeah, let's do

Average equity partner bill rate.

$619 an hour.

That's decent. We say in England, that's not shabby. Average equity partner age.

Fifty one years old.

Female ownership?

25% of equity partners in the IPA 100.

Interesting. Technology spend.

It's up 5.8% of revenue, up from 5.6% last year. And I do not expect that to stop climbing.

Yeah, that's going to keep going, particularly with this private equity money in there.

14.0% and about 69% of that is voluntary. So for context, turnover was just over 18% four years ago. So the talent, the talent picture has has stabilized.

That's good news. Okay. Let's bring this home, Chelsea. We always like to give the leaders list in some takeaways. What for you is the big takeaway from the 2026 data?

Yeah, if I had to put a headline on it, I'd say that 2026 is the year that the experiments ended. So five years ago, the private equity, offshoring, advisory expansion, alternative pricing, they were open questions. But this year's data shows that every one of them has settled and is is shifting. So the new model is simply the model now in the largest firms. And the differences in the firms is no longer about whether they're adopting it, but the execution of those.

Yeah, and the numbers backed that up. It's record partner income, strong margins, slower organic growth, a whole lot of consolidation. It's all happening.

Yeah, but that also means there is less margin for error. When growth is bought, the integration is very important. So when staffing is global, those systems they carry a lot of weight. And the firms at the top of the 2026 rankings, they've shown that they can adopt that new model. I think it'll be interesting to look at the next five years and see how they continue to build on those models.

Yeah. Now in this year of Chelsea, we cover some of the numbers, but I know we're just scratching the surface of the data that you guys produced. If the listeners want to go deeper on the IPA 100 data, where should they go?

So the full analysis of everything we talked about today is in our August IPA insights. So you'll find the complete 2026 rankings, those five year trends, profitability breakdowns, and a lot of data analysis that we didn't have time to get to in today's episode. If you want to benchmark your own firm against the numbers, that's really the place to do it.

So that's available through INSIDE Public Accounting.

Yeah, it is. Head to insidepublicaccounting.com and you'll find information on the August insights along with all of our benchmarking and practice management reports. And if today's conversations raise questions about where your firm stands, the answers are in there.

That is a perfect place to land it. And remember next time we're going to keep going deeper into the IPA 200 through 500, the firms that make up the backbone of this profession. You do not want to miss that one.

Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast, you can click below to subscribe and check out more from INSIDE Public Accounting.