Wolf & Company didn’t become the fastest-growing IPA 100 firm by organic growth because of one big move.

The firm reported 16.1% organic growth in the 2026 INSIDE Public Accounting Practice Management Survey, increasing net revenue from $90.7 million to $105.3 million without completing a merger during the reporting year. But MP Jerry Gagne says that growth was really the result of several years of investment coming together.

In the fourth episode of INSIDE the IPA 500, Chelsea Summers talks with Gagne about where that growth came from, why assurance revenue jumped 39%, how specialization has helped Wolf win work and why the firm is investing in talent before it necessarily needs it.

They also dig into Wolf’s growing offshore workforce, the firm’s plans to remain independent and what Gagne believes independent firms can learn from PE-backed competitors.

Follow, rate and review the podcast and visit INSIDEPublicAccounting.com for more IPA 500 coverage. View the complete 2026 IPA 500 rankings and learn more about IPA’s benchmarking and analysis at insidepublicaccounting.com.

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Good day and welcome to the INSIDE Public Accounting Podcast, where we bring you not only the data, but the stories behind the data. Today we're joined by Jerry Gagne, managing partner at Wolf & Company, a Boston-based accounting and advisory firm with three offices and more than 400 people. So Wolf Company stood out in this year's INSIDE Public Accounting Practice Management Survey as IPA's fastest growing firm based on organic growth.

So the firm reported 16.1% organic growth, increasing net revenue from about 90.7 million to 105.3 million. And they did that without completing a merger during the reporting year. So today we're looking behind the numbers to ask the how questions. Where did Wolf's growth come from? And what did the firm have to do differently to support it? Jerry, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Chelsea. I'm very happy to be here.

Yeah. So 16.1% organic growth. That's a really big number for a firm your size. So walk us through it. Looking back on the year last year, where did that growth come from?

Sure. You know, we're real proud of the growth, but I can't really point to a single secret ingredient. I think it was several years of investment coming together all at the same time. You know, we've been able to add new clients, but some of our best growth came from becoming more relevant to existing clients and our spanning our expanding the services to help them seize the business opportunities that they were looking for. I think one of the most impactful pieces was aligning our

industry leadership, our niches with our client service folks, our marketing folks, and our B D folks are on a common strategy. And, you know, it's it felt really good when we started seeing strong performance across multiple service lines and industries at the same time. And that's when you know, it was clear that the growth was organizational, not transactional.

Yeah. When everybody starts rowing in the same direction, it's amazing how fast you can go when we're not all pulling different ways.

Absolutely right.

Yeah, so you had a merger the year before, but you didn't have a merger in the this year. So the growth do you still kept the growth? So was staying organic this year something that you set out to, or did it just kind of there wasn't an opportunity that came up? Talk us through that decision.

Yeah. So the fact that we were fully organic wasn't really by design. we did do an acquisition in twenty twenty four and we did one in twenty twenty six. So we're definitely acquisition-minded. And for me, I think it's important to have balance. you know, in twenty-five the growth came from a combination of strategic fee adjustments, cross-selling to existing clients, winning new logos and

you know, with all the market consolidation we saw opportunity for firms that could deliver stability and industry specialization. I think that allowed us to meet the demand and grow organically.

Yeah. So do you think that merger that you had in 2024 that really helped kind of in your marketplace?

I I do think it brought some capabilities to the table that we were able to add, you know, to the current client list and also deliver those new capabilities to the new logos. So I do think it helped a little.

Yeah. So let's talk about assurance because that is where some of your growth came from. So revenue jumped from 30.7 to 42.7. So that's 39%. Then now makes up a bigger portion of your firm. What was behind that jump? Was it intentional?

Yes, it definitely was intentional. you know, specialization was a major factor. We leaned into the niche and industry focus that we have. You know, we service a lot of regulated industries, financial services, digital assets, fintech life sciences, and we aligned our messaging and delivery around those areas. So what we're seeing across the profession is that clients want advisors who bring that deep industry expertise and can handle complex regulatory environments. You know, they want

advisors who understand their business, the regulations, the technology, the risk environment impacting their organization. So I think the expertise we brought to bear creates credibility and credibility created the opportunity. And and that combination of niche focus and client trust really drove the growth trajectory for us.

Yeah, we certainly see that in the data that the firms that specialize in something typically pull ahead of those that are just the generalists doing everything for everybody. I think it's interesting. You know, there's a lot of talk in the profession right now about advisory services and the growth in advisory and everything's gonna be advisory. That's not what we've we're seeing in the data so far. And while advisory is growing, th I've had a lot of conversations with firms just like yours where it's the compliance services where they're really seeing a lot of growth, whether that's in their tax,

or in their assurance services. There there's growth to be had there. So I think just setting that aside to say, we're advisory minded, is is great, but I don't think that's the reality of what firms are seeing on the ground right now.

Yeah, I agree with you. It feels like advisory is more of a mindset than an actual service. And you know, having that mindset when you deliver an audit, on how you can advise your clients and and create more value for them, you know, we've seen a tremendous opportunity just in the consolidation, you know, folks looking for stability in their audit and tax provider.

Yeah, lots of consolidation right now in the in the profession and in the economy as a whole.

Yeah, no doubt.

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from staff to partners. Get started today at earmark.app or download the free app on the app store. So you talked about your insurance, but you did have some advisory service lines that saw some growth. It looks like business advisory and management consulting were up, but you also grew your tax practice and your client accounting services had some pretty healthy growth. So what does the rest of the firm look like?

Yeah, so that was a real encouraging part of the story for us is that, you know, assurance was certainly leading the charge, but advisory, you know, led by our dense secure practice and, you know, our tax practice, you know, all performed well. You know, clients seem to be looking for fewer providers who can solve more connected problems and you know, our p our opportunity was to help them connect the technology, the risks, the compliance operations with, you know, their growth decisions.

Yeah. I have lots of conversations with managing partners of of accounting firms and you know, giving them the an accolade or you're, you that you're the fastest growing, you're a best of the best, you're a top one hundred, and you know, how did you do it? And I always always hear the same answer. It it's our people. It's our people. You wouldn't be a good managing partner without saying, you know, it's our people that that led this way. When you grow that much, it requires a lot more people. So your head count grew from a little under 400 to 425. So how did you

Figure out where to add talent to keep up with the growth that you were seeing? Was it strategic or you just brought in people as you needed them, or did some of that come through the acquisitions?

Definitely strategic. You know, we feel that growth follows talent. So, you know, people aren't the consequence of the growth. They're they're the cause of it. So we went out into market and we looked to steal stars to continue investing in the talent here. So we invested in recruiting, we invested in leadership development, people engagement, career growth for folks. The hardest people to find, I think, are the experienced professionals who can combine that.

technical excellence with the relationship and leadership skills and and I think we tell a good story about attracting those types of folks.

Yeah. Rob and I just did a podcast series on rewriting the story of the profession and how it's kind of the responsibility of everybody to speak about the clients that we are we are serving and all the good that we're doing the profession and and let individuals know how great accounting is. It's not just cubicles and spreadsheets. It is, you know, the conversations and the relationships that we get to have with our clients. So yeah, that makes sense. D you know, in a lot of my conversations, I'm hearing the pipeline is starting to ease and you know.

finding that talent is not as hard as it used to be and we can be a little more selective on finding the right people instead of just filling the role. Is that the sense you're getting right now as well?

Definitely. I think you know, we're focused on getting the most out of our people and rewarding them for that performance. So, you know, although we want to remain independent, you know, we're looking at our private equity backed brethren and saying, you know, they're operating their businesses really well and we have to operate our business really well to be able to compete with them. And that includes making sure we can look at the data, identify the folks who are servicing clients well, bringing in new business, developing

innovative services and rewarding that.

Yeah. Give me an example of something you're seeing the PE firms do that you are pulling into your firm.

Some of that it it's it's better analytics around the data. So better understanding of what people are doing, what they're working on, what things they're working on which are are being successful. So it's really parsing the data at a real detailed level. The number of the number of meetings they're having, the number of client visits they're having, the number of leads they're developing, you know, and it's it's much more than just what we would normally capture in a CRM.

Yeah. When what a good time for that to be a problem because there are so much technology. I mean, any problem you want to solve, there is probably a new company that has started up recently to serve the accounting profession in that need that you need solved. So I'm sure there are technology vendors who can help you dig into that data. Also, my little plug, if you don't participate in the IPA survey, we can help you benchmark against other firms as well. And you could potentially be on a a fastest growing list like like you guys are.

Yeah, and I'll I'll back that plug up, Chelsea. So I became the CEO of Wolf and Company back in 2023 and really dove into the IPA survey data and really tried to understand what makes a good firm and really leaned into trying to drive our numbers towards making the top of the list.

Yeah, you can't change what you don't measure. So you gotta be able to measure it. So

That's right. That's right.

as great as our data is, I'm gonna I'm gonna talk more about your firm. So offshoring. And it seems like that was something that, you know, there was an intentional shift at your firm. You went from just a couple offshore staff to 36 last year, a bigger percentage of your personnel. So what part did the offshore talent play in your growth? How did you what made the decision to move from

the just couple that you had to nearly forty.

Yeah, so we you know, we view the offshore colleagues as part of our single firm, One Wolf. And, you know, it's not necessarily a separate labor pool. You know, the objective of going offshore was not only capacity, but scalability, you know, bringing in new capabilities and ensuring that we had the quality that we needed. We started our offshore journey in India, and we were in more of a leasing arrangement and

What we found is that India is having the same type of talent challenges that we were. So we were having a lot of churn of people and turnover. So we decided to move to the Philippines. we had a relationship with a firm that helped us get started. And you know, we got to the 36 people that we have there now. and that's allowed us to deliver deliver more advanced work, free up US teams to focus on how value client relationships and and scale. So that's all factored into the growth engine.

Yeah. So what kind of work is going offshore right now? Is there certain service lines? Is it the the company as a whole? Like what work are you using those offshore staff for?

Yeah. So it's it's audit work, it's tax work, it's our internal w audit and advisory services, it's cyber, it's some internal back office, so finance and IS and marketing and business development. So it's pretty much across the firm. We're in I'm pushing everybody to to lean into offshoring. And as I mentioned, it's not just a cost play. There's some great capabilities of of folks in the offshore market.

So we really pick up some great talent with some really great skills.

Yeah. And then with the technology, it feels like they are working right next to you as we're all on our Teams and Zooms meetings together. And, you know, thankfully we have the ability to do that. So what does that look like? What is your offshore strategy look like moving forward? Do you plan on continuing to increase that?

We do. You know, we we're we're probably gonna shoot for around getting 20% of the workforce or of the the the utilization out there. you know that's that's the target that we're aiming for. we're not there yet. and right now, more than more importantly to us than getting more is to get more efficiency out of the wan the the folks that we have out there. So getting the same type of utilization

In the Philippines as we do in the US, so making sure they're operating as effectively as our US folks.

Yeah. So wave your crystal ball. What does the next year look like? What does the next five years look like at Wolf and Company?

So, it's you know, we're very fortunate to to have seen the consistent organic growth. but I do see some headwinds on the horizon. You know, we work in a lot of regulated industries and there's some loosening regulations, increased competition for sure, pricing pressures. So you know, we do see those headwinds there. You know, we're preparing by trying to stay disciplined in our approach.

continually revisiting the service offerings to ensure they deliver the right value and focusing on training our people with the skills they need to effectively deliver. So I think that's how we'll meet the headwinds and continue to drive that sustainable growth.

Yeah, I'm certainly hearing similar of, you know, things have been pretty good, but we'll see how it continues. And you know, I think you've you hit it with the upskilling and let's get our our individuals trained and really, you know, I think a lot of firms are working off old training playbooks and we're in a completely different environment. If you are talking to another managing partner who wants this kind of organic growth for their own firm, what's the one lesson from this year that you'd want them to walk away with?

You know, for us, the sustainable growth has been a journey, as I mentioned kind of earlier, not just a single item or event. So, you know, the journey was built around clear strategy, a deep industry focus. I think a niche focus is super important. a disciplined approach to business development. I think that's key to have you know s processes around repeatable processes around how you do develop business. And then the willingness to invest in people, maybe

even before you're completely ready for it. I think that strong strong specialization, the consistent execution and a culture where everybody understands how they contribute in the mission and how they can help us be successful is how we've been successful. So I think, you know, overall the growth isn't to just have a successful year. It's to build a great firm.

Yeah. Building that growth engine and acquisition is a one time increase in revenue. Those growth engines that are organic, they can keep keep churning along. So I I'm excited to see where you guys take the firm. And Jerry, this has been a great look behind the numbers at inside your firm. And I think it's a it's a reminder that growth doesn't just happen. You build it deliberately, decision by decision, year after year. Thanks so much for joining us and sharing how Wolf and Company has put this year together and

for to our listeners, thanks so much for listening and we'll see you next time.

Terrific. Thank you very much, Chelsea. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.

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