on April 10, 2026, 13:51:42, in reply to "My dad maintains a license but hasn't used it in decades, he was affiliated with a firm"
I think the industry will always be needed, but the question is how to adapt to changing times. The best accountants are proactive and get out ahead of the problems. The issue is that too many are reactive and wait for the problem to occur and then react to the issue. We also get a bad wrap in that we are simply the ones who report the results, so being reactive is second nature. There are a few of us that are better at seeing the trends and being able to convince management to adjust course.
I am ranting. 
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as their wealth management guy. He quit and took his book when they tried to jam him because he was so accretive to the business as the rest of the firm was tanking. The firm collapsed a year after he left under the weight of deferred comp obligations to retired partners and utter inability to hire any new partners. He says that the whole industry outside the rarified air is just utterly cooked. Previous Message
my next move. I have had conversations to get out by 55, and I just turned 50. I need something that will get me a pension after 10 years, so I have more security in retirement. My firm is not going to be around in 10 years when all the partners, who are my age, are ready to retire, and there is no one to take over. They will be forced to sell, and I am not going to be around for that. Previous Message
the workforce than accounting.
- CPA exam watered down to nothing
- Offshoring so these kids are competing with Philippines and India, which has killed wages
- Boomers pulled ladder up 3 decades ago and there is almost no one who is even moderately fucking competent between the ages of 28 and 50
- Massive simultaneous demand spike due to 4/15 deadline makes the job absolute hell for shit wages for two months
Good luck, bro. I don't know how the hell most of these shops outside of the national firms are going to hold together over the next ten years.
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