How to Buy an Accounting Practice: Who Hears First
How to buy an accounting practice: the CPAs, society chapters and vendors who hear first, the ownership rules to check, a 90 day plan and sample texts.
By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.
If you want to know how to buy an accounting practice that never hits a listing site, start with the people a retiring CPA already trusts: peer CPAs, state CPA society chapters, software reps and attorneys who share clients. Check the ownership rules for your state early, then stay recent with those people so you hear first.
Here is the scene. It is mid May. Tax season is over. A sole practitioner in his sixties sits at a chapter breakfast and tells the CPA next to him that he is not doing another season. He has 300 returns, two staff, and no successor.
The CPA next to him now knows something no broker knows. Whoever she thinks of first is the buyer the owner hears about.
Who hears first when an accounting practice owner wants out?
Peers hear first, then the vendors and advisors around the firm, and brokers hear last. Here is my map. It is a framework, not data.
| Person | What they hear | When | How you show up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peer CPAs in the same chapter | “I am not doing another season” | After busy season, at chapter events | Committee work, coffee in May or October |
| A CPA named in the owner’s continuation plan | Health and timing, before anyone | Years ahead | Be the buyer they would recommend |
| Senior staff and managers | Who is pulling back, which clients matter | Every day | Respect them, they come with the firm |
| Software, payroll and practice tool reps | Renewals not renewed, seats cut | At contract time | Ask about their book of small firms |
| Attorneys, bankers and wealth managers who share clients | The owner’s own retirement planning | At the owner’s personal planning meetings | Be useful to their clients first |
| Practice brokers | The listing | Last | Keep them warm too, they still see deals |
The owners are the targets. The other rows are how you hear about them early. For accountants as a source of other business deals, see CPAs as a deal source. This page is about buying the practice itself.
What ownership rules apply when you buy an accounting practice?
State law decides who can own a CPA firm, and most states follow a model. I am not a lawyer, so treat this as a map for your questions, not advice.
The Uniform Accountancy Act, the model law published jointly by the AICPA and NASBA, says in Section 7 that to get a firm permit, “a simple majority of the ownership of the firm, in terms of financial interests and voting rights” must belong to licensed CPAs. It allows owners who are not licensees, as long as they are of good moral character and “active individual participants” in the firm, and it says the firm and its ownership must comply with rules set by the state board.
The UAA is a model, not a law. Each state writes its own version. Before you make an offer:
- Read your state’s accountancy act and board rules on firm permits and ownership.
- Decide what you are buying. Attest work, tax work and advisory work can carry different rules. Ask counsel which parts of the practice your structure can own.
- Ask the state board how a change of ownership is reported and how long it takes.
Where do buyers meet accounting practice owners?
At state CPA society events, where owners are already talking about succession.
The New York State Society of CPAs is a good example. It lists benefits for members who are not CPAs, including access to more than 60 committees. Its calendar has held a Succession Planning for Solo and Small CPA Firm Owners session on July 24, 2026, in person at a diner in Woodbury, covering internal transitions, external sales and mergers. It also ran a panel on traditional mergers versus private equity or investor groups for CPA firms in June 2025.
A two hour breakfast about small firm succession is a room full of owners thinking about exactly your question. Check membership rules for your state society and join honestly, as a buyer. The trade association playbook covers how to show up in a room like that without pitching.
How to buy an accounting practice in 90 days
Here is how I would run it, timed around the tax calendar.
- Days 1 to 14: pick one state and one firm size. Read the state accountancy rules. Join the state society and one chapter.
- Days 15 to 30: meet the chapter. One breakfast, one committee meeting. Introduce yourself to the chapter leader and ask what small firm owners are worried about.
- Days 31 to 60: map the advisors around firms. Two software or payroll reps, one attorney and one banker who work with small CPA firms. Ask each who they know that is thinking about the future.
- Days 61 to 90: one coffee a week with an owner or peer CPA. End each one with “who else should I talk to?”
- Before January: send one useful note to everyone on your list. Then go quiet until the April deadline passes. Pick it back up in May.
Write down what each person told you the day you hear it: their timing, their clients, their staff. That note is what makes the May text specific.
What should you text?
Short, specific and never during busy season. Each of these is under 40 words.
After a chapter breakfast:
“[Name], good to meet you at the chapter breakfast. Your point about small firms with no successor stuck with me. If anyone you know wants a quiet conversation about options, I am glad to just listen.”
To a software rep:
“[Name], thanks for the time last week. If any of your small firm customers are thinking about what comes after this season, I would value an intro. Happy to send you anyone looking for your product.”
To an owner in May:
“[Name], hope the season ended well. You mentioned last fall you were thinking about next steps. No agenda, I would like to hear how you are thinking about it now. Coffee next week?”
What does a worked example look like?
Illustrative, not a real deal. Say you want a tax focused practice in one metro area. Over nine months you build a list of 30 people: six chapter CPAs, four vendor reps, three attorneys, two bankers, and fifteen owners.
Say two of the 30 mention an owner who said this was his last season. One of them makes an intro in June. No broker, no auction. You meet the owner and his senior manager together, and the handoff plan for the top clients is part of the first real conversation. The Illinois CPA Society makes the same point from the seller’s side: transition client relationships earlier.
For the owners and connectors already in your phone, see how to find owner direct business deals in your network. The full map is at deal flow for business buyers.
Where does this break?
Between seasons. You meet the chapter CPA in May. You get pulled into another deal. She hears about a retiring owner in October and mentions the buyer who texted her last month. If that was not you, the breakfast did not count.
That is the job I built FRONT OF MIND for. At the breakfast, say a name and a sentence out loud, snap a business card, or take a selfie together, and it is filed under the event. Then it opens on your 10 minutes for today. Each person has a one line reason why today: they posted, their firm was in the news, you met weeks ago and never followed up, or they are going cold. Every draft is a text style message, 40 words max. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits. Ask Liala “who do I know that is a CPA in Ohio” and get the right people with why.
It runs in your phone’s browser and can be saved to your home screen. There is no native iPhone app yet. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them. Export or delete anytime.
Start free with your first 25 contacts and see which CPA comes up first.