Baker Tilly and Moss Adams have made their merger official, combining to form what promises to be the sixth largest CPA firm in the U.S.

Rumors of the impending merger began to leak out earlier this month. The two firms plan to combine under the Baker Tilly name. Moss Adams already has a large presence in the West and Central regions, while Baker Tilly dominates in the East and Midwest, and their merger will give them a larger national footprint.  

Baker Tilly, based in Chicago, ranked No. 11 on Accounting Today‘s 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms with $1.8 billion in annual revenue, over 600 partners and nearly 6,900 employees. Moss Adams, based in Seattle, ranked right below it at No. 12 with $1.3 billion in annual revenue, over 400 partners and more than 4,800 employees.

Baker Tilly CEO Jeff Ferro will be CEO of the combined firm through his retirement, while Eric Miles, who is currently Moss Adams’ chairman and CEO, has been named CEO-elect. Miles will assume the role of CEO on January 1, 2026, with Ferro remaining a director on Baker Tilly’s board thereafter. 

“Moss Adams is a great strategic fit with Baker Tilly,” Ferro said in a statement Monday. “We’ve long respected the firm, its people and its industry-focused approach. By bringing together our strengths, we are expanding our ability to serve middle-market businesses with greater expertise, resources and insights.” 

“The resources, geographic reach and go-to-market strength of the combined firm magnifies opportunities for our people to grow, collaborate and innovate,” Miles stated. “We are proud to offer our clients these expanded resources to deliver even greater value and set a new standard for advisory services in the middle market.” 

As part of the deal, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, an existing investor in Baker Tilly, will make an additional strategic investment in the business, with existing shareholder Valeas Capital Partners also increasing its investment. 

The deal is expected to close in early June of this year. Once the deal closes, Moss Adams and Baker Tilly’s audit business will combine as Baker Tilly US, LLP and the firms’ business advisory, tax and other services will combine under Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP. Both entities will remain partnerships, with all principals holding equity alongside H&F and Valeas in BTAG. 

“Since we invested in Baker Tilly, we have been focused on building a differentiated firm with the ambition to change the game in the middle-market accounting industry,” said H&F partner Blake Kleinman in a statement. “This landmark merger between Baker Tilly and Moss Adams is an important step in creating a firm that will be the destination of choice for the industry’s best talent and for firms considering their strategic options in a rapidly evolving sector.” 

Former AICPA president and CEO Barry Melancon recently joined as a strategic advisor to Baker Tilly and independent chair-elect of the Baker Tilly International board of directors: “The CPA and advisory profession requires firms to operate effectively at the local, national and global levels,” he said in a statement. “This combination brings together two firms at the forefront of the profession, further empowering them to deliver on their commitment to serving their clients as the needs of middle-market businesses evolve.” 

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Vedder Price PC served as legal advisors to Baker Tilly. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. served as financial advisor and Dechert LLP as legal advisor to Moss Adams. 

Baker Tilly is part  of the Baker Tilly International network, based in London, which reported $5.6 billion in worldwide revenue in 2024. Baker Tilly has done several acquisitions since receiving private equity funding in February 2024 led by Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners, accelerating the firm’s growth strategy. Earlier this year, it acquired CironeFriedberg, a firm based in Bethel, Connecticut, and Hancock Askew, a Regional Leader based in Savannah, Georgia.

Last May, it merged in Seiler LLP, a Top 75 Firm based in Redwood City, California. Prior to the private equity funding, in 2022, Baker Tilly merged in Henry + Horne in Tempe, Arizona, True Partners Consulting in Chicago; Management Partners in Cincinnati and San Jose; Bader Martin in Seattle; Orchestra Healthcare in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Vanilla, based in the United Kingdom. In 2021, it added MFA Companies in Boston; The Compliance Group in Carlsbad, California; Arnett Carbis Toothman in West Virginia; AcctTwo in Houston; and Margolin, Winer & Evens in New York.

Moss Adams does not do M&A deals as often, but last December, it entered the Salesforce.com consulting market by acquiring Yurgosky Consulted Limited LLC in New York.

International accounting and consulting firm KNAV Advisory added U.K.-based firm Aventus Partners, effective April 4.

The deal strengthens KNAV’s operations in the U.K. and continues its international expansion strategy. Last year, it integrated Natarajan & Swaminathan in Singapore and HLG Netherlands.

“This is a major milestone for KNAV’s UK operations,” KNAV CEO Nishta Sharma said in a statement. “It reinforces our commitment to a unified, integrated model that delivers exceptional value to global clients.”

KNAV reported $21.5 million in revenue in 2024 and has three offices, 12 partners and 202 employees. It was one of the fastest-growing firms with a growth rate of 25.6% on Accounting Today‘s Top 100 Firms and Regional Leaders list.

Aventus, with $5.3 million in revenue, provides audit and assurance, tax advisory, financial reporting and outsourced finance team services. The deal adds four partners and 27 employees to KNAV.

Both firms are members of Allinial Global, a global association of independent accounting and consulting firms.

Earned Wealth, a New York-based financial services firm that caters to health care professionals like doctors, dentists, veterinarians and podiatrists, has acquired Chahal & Associates, a tax and accounting firm based in Hercules, California.

The acquisition will add Chahal’s client base of approximately 2,500 doctors, business owners and high net worth professionals to Earned Wealth. Earned received a $200 million capital commitment last July led by growth equity investors Summit Partners and Silversmith Capital Partners with participation from existing investors Juxtapose, Hudson Structured Capital Management, and Breyer Capital. Earned now counts over 5,500 doctors, practices and medical enterprises among its clients, providing services such as wealth management, investments, retirement plans, tax compliance and planning, accounting, and payroll, managing over $2.3 billion in assets under management.

Financial terms of the deal with Chahal & Associates were not disclosed, nor were current revenue figures for either firm. However, Earned plans to reach $150 million in revenue in three years. Earned has six partners and 124 staff for a total of 130 employees, while Chahal has three partners and 32 staff members, totaling 35 employees.

“Earned launched three years ago, with the mission to be the only financial services partner a doctor or their practice would ever need,” Earned Wealth CEO John Clendening told Accounting Today. 

“We’ve been on a mission to reach as many doctors as we can because we know that when we work with them, we will improve their outcomes,” he added. “We’ve also embarked, as of last June, on what we think is a really interesting redefinition of an acquisition strategy around accounting and tax firms and other firms as well.”

Clendening was formerly CEO of Blucora, which owned HD Vest and 1st Global, now known as Avantax, tax-focused wealth management firms that partner with CPA firms. 

Chahal & Associates was founded by CEO Navjeet Chahal in 2003, focusing on health care professionals as well as business owners and high net worth individuals as clients. “Our core focus is health care, that is, doctors, dentists and veterinarians,” he told Accounting Today. “We felt they were so busy, and they needed somebody who could take care of their financial aspects for them. We help them with their accounting, tax services and so on.”

By joining up with Earned, he is able to offer them more comprehensive services such as financial planning, wealth management and education savings plans. He will remain with Earned as a managing director.

Most of Chahal’s client base is within California, mainly in the Bay area, but he also has clients from out of state. The combined firm has clients in over 35 states. Last year, Earned acquired Thomas Doll, a multiservice firm that focuses on doctors’ practices and is also based on the West Coast, in Walnut Creek, California.

However, Clendening is aiming to build a nationwide firm. “We’re adding new states all the time,” he said. 

Earned is not only adding accounting firms, but other types of financial services firms as well. “We look to keep scaling up,” said Clendening. “It’s great to get where we are with Chahal & Associates, and we’re looking forward to keep on adding so we can extend our reach, including new services, all focused on bringing in another set of firms that are good, well run firms, client focused, to ensure our vision that the doctor does better financially when they’re served by a specialist that really understands them and their career dynamics.”