Accounting
The 2025 Wealth Magnets: Mastering the puzzle
Few puzzles are more complex that running a wealth management practice, which combines all the usual challenges of an accounting firm — from staff shortages and succession issues to the introduction of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence — with volatile markets, skittish clients whose expectations change at the drop of a hat, an uncertain regulatory environment and an ever-fluctuating economy, and a constant flow of new and confusing investment options.
What’s more, it’s a puzzle that even CPA financial planners as successful as this year’s Wealth Magnets can never hope to fully solve, since the factors impacting it are always changing — as is the practice area itself.
“I’ve had a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of wealth management, and it’s clear we’re at a critical crossroads,” explained Matthew Delaney, managing partner of his eponymous firm in Santa Rosa, California. “One of the biggest challenges we face today is meeting the rising expectations of a new generation of investors … [who] want transparency, accessibility, and personalized guidance that fits seamlessly into their digital lifestyles. At the same time, increasing regulatory complexity and the ever-present threat of cybersecurity breaches add new layers of difficulty for firms trying to stay agile and responsive.”
(See this year’s ranking of the Top Firms by AUM here.)
Making the puzzle even more complicated is that it needs to be constantly worked out over time, handling the immediate crush of work while also laying the groundwork for the future.
“We’re focused on balancing long-term goals with daily responsibilities,” said John Valleau, president of Skokie, Illinois-based ShankerValleau Wealth Advisors. “When clients need us, they come first. But it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture amid day-to-day demands. To stay aligned, we now hold weekly team meetings to share ideas, discuss trends, and review our goals.”
And all that has to be managed while firms themselves are changing, metamorphosizing as a result of their own success.
A good problem to have
In fact, the most common challenge that 2025’s Wealth Magnets are puzzling over is how to handle being so good at what they do.
This year, the 150 top CPA financial planners in the country reported $311 billion in assets under management, up from last year’s $295 billion, and 60 reported more than $1 billion in AUM, up from 53 in 2024.
Put simply, many of them are expanding rapidly, and that can strain an accounting firm in multiple ways.
At Steel Tower Investments in Pittsburgh, “Our greatest challenge is managing growth effectively,” according to its president, Elizabeth Urish. “As we continue to scale, we remain focused on delivering meaningful value to our clients by strategically adding key talent and enhancing our infrastructure and processes. Staying disciplined and focused on the fundamentals is essential to sustaining long-term success.”
Maintaining a personal touch as a practice grows is a concern for many of this year’s Wealth Magnets, including Braintree, Massachusetts-based Napier Financial.
“One of the biggest challenges we’re currently facing is scaling and growing the practice while maintaining the same high level of personalized client service,” said business operations manager Prescott Busk. “As we expand, managing bandwidth effectively becomes critical. To address this, we’re streamlining internal processes, leveraging technology for greater efficiency, and being strategic about team growth to ensure we continue elevating the quality of service our clients receive.”
It’s rare that expansion only strains one aspect of a firm; usually it brings pressure in multiple areas.
“Our firm is experiencing extreme growth, which is both exciting and demanding,” explained Trevor Hodges, chief operating officer of Parsippany, New Jersey-based Sax Wealth Advisors. “With that comes the need to scale everything: systems, processes, communication, and most importantly, our people. Scaling the business intelligently is a top focus. We’re investing heavily in infrastructure-tech, workflows, and operational support, to make sure the client experience remains seamless as we grow. We’re also being intentional about who we hire, making sure every addition to the team adds both talent and cultural alignment. … In short, we’re growing fast in a volatile environment, so staying client-centered, people-focused, and process-driven is what’s keeping us on track.”
“The biggest issue our wealth management practice is currently facing is finding internal efficiencies to better serve our clients,” added Steve Neher, managing member of Wenatchee, Washington-based Cordell, Neher & Co. “As our practice continues to grow, we recognize the importance of sustaining our service quality and adapting to evolving demands. By leveraging technology, we strive to streamline daily tasks for our staff, allowing them to focus on meaningful client interactions and provide personalized solutions where they are most needed.”
The strain of rapid growth is felt not just with high-level concerns like quality control and maintaining strong client relationships; growth also means more daily tasks for everyone in the firm.
At Frisco, Texas-based Cain Watters & Associates, for instance, “Managing growth is an ongoing issue, especially with the numerous investment operational tasks like requests to open new accounts, move money, and perform other investment operations tasks,” said chief marketing officer Erin Jeffries. “To handle these issues, we are expanding our investment operations team and looking for a more efficient process.”
Efficiency is available to everyone, and in multiple ways; finding extra staff, on the other hand, is as much a problem for the Wealth Magnets as managing their growth.
The people problem
Staff shortages are plaguing every part of the accounting profession, of course, and CPA financial planners are feeling the pain as much as anyone.
“Acquiring talent and quality advisors to execute the business model of building high-performing teams inside our accounting firm office locations” is a major challenge for Dallas-based Level Four Advisory Services, according to chief executive officer Edmon “Jake” Tomes. “We are investing in a recruiting and sales team to identify and secure talent from banks, wirehouses and regional brokerage firms, while executing an aggressive strategy for RIA acquisitions.”
The solutions vary from firm to firm, from higher compensation and extra bonuses, to hiring more nonaccountants or taking advantage of opportunities in technology or outsourcing. Among those who are focusing on hiring, some are taking a long-term approach to talent attraction and retention, like Minneapolis’ Boulay.
“We have to stay focused on creating paths to ownership for our best people,” explained its president, Jay Brown. “We are committed to staying independently owned and operated — and we believe that will be a key differentiator for talent.”
That kind of long-term thinking can also uncover some long-term problems.
“We are good at developing staff into advisors, but the next hurdle is developing the next generation into people that can generate new business,” said Joe Pitzl, managing partner of St. Paul, Minnesota-based Pitzl Financial. “Our founding partners have grown organically from scratch to where we are today. The next wave of growth falls onto the next generation of the firm.”
At CRA Financial in Northfield, New Jersey, co-managing member Matthew Reynolds also noted the challenge of succession planning.
“Although it is more than a decade out, monetization for the founders is an issue because valuations make anything close to market value almost impossible for an internal transfer,” he said. “We’re still searching for a viable solution.”
Finding the talent — whether to handle immediate work or to shore up the long-term viability of the firm — is only the first step; making sure they’re up to the work is a perennial problem.
“One of the biggest challenges we are currently navigating is ensuring consistent training across our team, especially as we grow and onboard new talent,” said Ryan McEntire, a director and chief compliance officer with Brown Edwards Wealth Strategies in Lynchburg, Virginia. “With the evolving complexity of financial planning and increasing client expectations, it is critical that our advisors and support staff are not only technically proficient but also aligned in how we deliver value and service.”
“To address this,” he continued, “we are building a more structured internal training program that includes ongoing education, case study reviews, and mentorship. We also launched an internship program designed to create a pipeline of future talent. This initiative allows us to train individuals early in their careers, expose them to real-world client work, and assess their cultural fit before moving them into full-time roles. The combination of formalized training and the internship program is helping us ensure we are equipped to meet client needs.”
Problems and solutions
Challenges involving technology have the greatest potential upside for CPA financial planners: If they can solve the puzzles that come with new tech tools — from cybersecurity and data privacy issues to simply keeping up with the flood of new solutions — they stand to revolutionize their practices.
“The adoption of emerging technologies in wealth management has the potential to reshape our industry, and with it comes challenges and opportunities both internally and externally,” said Laurie Peer, president of RKL Wealth Management in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “From the responsibility to safeguard sensitive information to helping our clients navigate the use of digital tools with confidence, nearly every aspect of our work involves a degree of change management and technology adoption that’s redefining the way we work.”
“We’re invested in fostering a culture of innovation, encouraging exploration of new technologies, and actively seeking feedback to refine our strategies,” she continued. “Through strategic investments and client-centric solutions, RKL Private Wealth is well-positioned to deliver an enhanced client experience that leverages the efficiencies of technology while capitalizing on our true differentiator — personal connection and alignment around our clients’ most significant aspirations.”
Of course, no discussion of technology can avoid touching on artificial intelligence, which is still in its early days, but is taking up a lot of mindspace in the profession.
“As the development, availability and accessibility of AI-based applications has increased, we’ve had to evaluate the use case for said applications and devote time and resources to broadscale testing and deployment through to our end clients,” said John Lesser, group managing partner of Southfield, Michigan-based Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “While many of these applications can and will allow us to be more efficient as advisors, they also present unique challenges to a client-centric business, as ours is. First and foremost, we need to ensure we are doing everything we can to maintain client confidentiality and not expose our clients to unnecessary cybersecurity risks or data breaches. Second, we don’t want to lose our personal touch or have automation take away from our interpersonal relationships with our clients.”
The eternal puzzle
Of all the riddles CPA financial planners face, the one that truly can never be solved lies at the intersection of the volatility of markets and the economy, and the hopes and fears of clients.
Bryon Gragg, senior partner at Shelby, North Carolina-based Gragg Financial, shared a concern that keeps all of his fellow Wealth Magnets up at night, year in and year out: “Keeping clients focused on their long-term plan rather than current market conditions. We spend a lot of time educating clients upfront of the nature of investing; there are times that can be uncomfortable but it’s the price to get the long-term results.”
Sax Wealth Advisors’ Hodges echoed that: “One of the biggest challenges we’re facing right now is managing through market uncertainty while continuing to grow at an aggressive pace. Clients are understandably anxious, and staying ahead of their questions, while continuing to provide clarity and confidence, is a constant priority.”
This year, uncertainty in Washington, D.C., is playing a larger role than usual in challenging wealth managers, both in terms of client concerns and the tax and regulatory environment. This is making it harder to keep clients on track, and to help them manage change.
“The current political climate has resulted in some clients being very anxious about the market and others very optimistic,” said Kellie Masters, director of operations and chief compliance officer of Wealth Advisors of Iowa, in West Des Moines. “We try to temper expectations on both sides and are encouraging clients to stick to their long-term plans.”
“Our advisors have to balance investment advice with tax planning and tax filing deadlines,” added Morgan Tesoriero, chief compliance officer of Joel Isaacson & Co. in New York City. “With the current administration and the uncertainty in the market surrounding policy decisions, it was especially time-consuming and challenging to balance the tax work and client fears about the economy/market.”
Putting the pieces together
With so many pieces to keep track of, the puzzle of running a wealth management practice can seem insoluble — and as we’ve noted, in some ways it is; there are permanent challenges involved in helping clients achieve their financial goals (often coming from the clients themselves!).
But the search for solutions itself can yield benefits, according to California’s Delaney: “The good news? These challenges present real opportunities for innovation and growth. At our firm, we’re embracing technology not just to keep up, but to lead. … But technology alone isn’t enough — it’s the human insight behind it that makes the difference. That’s why we’re committed to a hybrid advisory model that blends digital efficiency with the deep, trusted relationships our clients value. The path ahead won’t be without its hurdles, but with the right strategy, we can turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s strengths.”
The Financial Accounting Standards Board met this week to discuss its projects on accounting for transfers of cryptocurrency assets and enhancing the disclosures around certain digital assets, such as stablecoins.
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During Wednesday’s meeting, FASB’s board made certain tentative decisions, according to a
At a future meeting, the board plans to consider clarifying the derecognition guidance for crypto transfer arrangements to assess whether the control of a crypto asset has been transferred.
FASB also began deliberations on the
The board decided to provide illustrative examples in Topic 230, Statement of Cash Flows, to clarify whether certain digital assets such as stablecoins can meet the definition of cash equivalents. It also decided to include the following concepts in the illustrative examples:
- Interpretive explanations that link to the current cash equivalents definition;
- The amount and composition of reserve assets; and,
- The nature of qualifying on-demand, contractual cash redemption rights directly with the issuer.
FASB plans to clarify that an entity should consider compliance with relevant laws and regulations when it’s creating a policy concerning which assets that satisfy the Master Glossary definition of the term “cash equivalents“ will be treated as cash equivalents.
“I agree with the staff suggestion to look at examples,” said FASB vice chair Hillary Salo. “From my perspective, I think that is going to help level the playing field. People have been making reasonable judgments. I agree with that. And I think that this is really going to help show those goalposts or guardrails of what types of stablecoins would be in the scope of cash equivalents, and which ones would not be in the scope of cash equivalents. I certainly appreciate that approach, and I think it has the least potential impact of unintended consequences, because I do agree with my fellow board members that we shouldn’t be changing the definition of cash equivalents, and it’s a high bar to get into the cash equivalent definition.”
“I’m definitely supportive of not changing the definition of cash equivalents,” said FASB chair Richard Jones. “I believe that’s settled GAAP in a way, and we’re not really seeing a call to change it for broader issues. I am supportive of the example-based approach. The challenge with examples, though, is everybody’s going to want their exact pattern, but that’s not what we’re doing.”
The examples will explain the rationale for how digital assets such as stablecoins do or do not qualify as cash equivalents and give a roadmap for other types of digital assets with varying fact patterns to be able to apply.
“We really don’t want to be as a board facing a situation where something was a cash equivalent and then no longer is at a later date,” said Jones. “That’s not good for anyone, so keeping it as a high bar with certain rigid criteria, I think, is fine.”
Stablecoins are supposed to be pegged to fiat currencies such as U.S. dollars and thus provide more stability to investors. “In my view, while a stablecoin may meet the accounting definition established for cash equivalents, not every one of those stablecoins in the cash equivalent classification represents the same level of risk,” said FASB member Joyce Joseph.
She noted that the capital markets recognize the distinctions and have established a Stablecoin Stability Assessment Framework to evaluate a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its peg to a fiat currency. Such assessments look at the legal and regulatory framework associated with the stablecoin, and provide investors with information that could enable them to do forward-looking assessments about the stability of the stablecoin.
“However, for an investor to consider and utilize such information for a company analysis the financial statement disclosures would need to include information about the stablecoin itself,” Joseph added. “In outreach, the staff learned that investors supported classifying certain stablecoins as cash equivalents when transparent information is available about the entities at which the reserve assets are held. Therefore, in my view, taking all of this into consideration a relevant and informative company disclosure would include providing investors with the name of the stablecoin and the amount of the stablecoin that is classified as a cash equivalent, so investors can independently assess the liquidity risks more meaningfully and more comprehensively by utilizing broader information that is available in the capital markets and its emerging information.”
Such information could include the issuer, reserves, governance and management, she noted, so investors would get a more holistic look at the risks that holding the stablecoin would entail for a given company.
The board decided to require all entities to disclose the significant classes and related amounts of cash equivalents on an annual basis for each period that a statement of financial position is presented.
Entities should apply the amendments related to the classification of certain digital assets as cash equivalents on a modified prospective basis as of the beginning of the annual reporting period in the year of adoption.
FASB decided that entities should apply the amendments related to the disclosure of the significant classes and amounts of cash equivalents on a prospective basis as of the date of the most recent statement of financial position presented in the period of adoption.
The board will allow early adoption in both interim and annual reporting periods in which financial statements have not been issued or made available for issuance.
FASB also decided to permit entities to adopt the amendments to be illustrated in the examples related to the classification of certain digital assets as cash equivalents without the need to perform a preferability assessment as described in Topic 250, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections.
The board directed the staff to draft a proposed accounting standards update to be voted on by written ballot. The proposed update will have a 90-day comment period.
Senators introduced several pieces of tax-related legislation this week, including measures aimed at improving customer service at the Internal Revenue Service, cracking down on tax evasion and curbing the carried interest tax break, in addition to efforts in the House to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act.
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Senators Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, teamed up on introducing a bipartisan bill, the
The bill would establish a dashboard to inform taxpayers of backlogs and wait times; expand electronic access to information and refunds; expand callback technology and online accounts; and inform individuals facing economic hardship about collection alternatives.
“Taxpayers deserve a simple, stress-free experience when dealing with the IRS,” Cassidy said in a statement Wednesday. “This bill makes the process quicker and easier for taxpayers to get the information they need.”
He also mentioned the bill during a
“I’m happy to meet with the team … and do all I can to make it as good as you want it to be,” said Bisignano.
“My bill would equip the IRS with the legislative mandate to create an online dashboard so that taxpayers can monitor average call wait time and budget time accordingly,” said Cassidy. He noted that the bill would allow a callback for taxpayers that might need to wait longer than five minutes to speak to a representative, and establish a program to identify and support taxpayers struggling to make ends meet by providing information about alternative payment methods, such as installments, partial payments and offers in compromise.
“I know people are kind of desperate and don’t know where to turn for cash, so I think this could really ease anxiety,” he added. “This legislation is bipartisan and is likely to pass this Congress.”
Cassidy and Warner
“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get basic answers from the IRS — and in the last year, those challenges have only gotten worse,” Warner said in a statement. “I am glad to reintroduce this bipartisan legislation on Tax Day to ease some of this frustration by increasing clear communication and making IRS resources more readily available.”
Stop CHEATERS Act
Also on Tax Day, a group of Senate Democrats and an independent who usually caucuses with Democrats teamed up to introduce the Stop Corporations and High Earners from Avoiding Taxes and Enforce the Rules Strictly (Stop CHEATERS) Act.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, joined with Senators Angus King, I-Maine, Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island. The bill would provide additional funding for the IRS to strengthen and expand tax collection services and systems and crack down on tax cheating by the wealthy.
“Wealthy tax cheats and scofflaw corporations are stealing billions and billions from the American people by refusing to pay what they legally owe, and far too many of them are getting a free pass because Republicans gutted the enforcement capacity of the IRS,” Wyden said in a statement. “A rich tax cheat who shelters mountains of cash among a web of shell companies and passthroughs is likelier to be struck by lightning than face an IRS audit, and Republicans want to keep it that way. This bill is about making sure the IRS has the resources it needs to go after wealthy tax cheats while improving customer service for the vast majority of American taxpayers who follow the law every year.”
Earlier this week. Wyden also
The Stop CHEATERS Act would provide the IRS with additional funding for tax enforcement focused upon high-income tax evasion, technology operations support, systems modernization, and taxpayer services like free tax-payer assistance.
“As Congress seeks ways to fund much-needed policy priorities and address our growing national debt, there is one common sense solution that should have unanimous bipartisan support: let’s enforce the tax laws already on the books,” said King in a statement. “Our legislation will make sure the IRS has the resources it needs to confront the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid – while ensuring that our tax enforcement professionals are focused on the high-income earners who account for the most tax evasion. This is a serious problem with an easy solution; let’s pass this legislation and make sure every American pays what they owe in taxes.”
Carried interest
Wyden, King and Whitehouse also teamed up on another bill Thursday to close the carried interest tax break for hedge fund managers that
Carried interest is a form of compensation received by a fund manager in exchange for investment management services, according to a
Under the bill, the
“Our tax code is rigged to favor ultra-wealthy investors who know how to game the system to dodge paying a fair share, and there is no better example of how it works in practice than the carried interest loophole,” Wyden said in a statement. “For several decades now we’ve had a tax system that rewards the accumulation of wealth by the rich while punishing middle-class wage earners, and the effect of that system has been the strangulation of prosperity and opportunity for everybody but the ultra-wealthy. There are a lot of problems to fix to restore fairness and common sense to our tax code, and closing the carried interest loophole is a great place to start.”
Repealing Corporate Transparency Act
The House Financial Services Committee is also planning to markup a bill next Tuesday that would fully repeal the Corporate Transparency Act, which has already been significantly
If enacted, the repeal would eliminate beneficial ownership reporting requirements, removing a transparency measure designed to help law enforcement and national security officials identify who is behind U.S. companies.
“This repeal would turn the United States back into one of the easiest places in the world to set up anonymous shell companies, something Congress worked for years to fix,” said Erica Hanichak, deputy director of the FACT Coalition, in a statement. “These entities are routinely used to facilitate corruption, financial crime, and abuse. Rolling back the CTA doesn’t just weaken transparency, it signals to bad actors around the world that the U.S. is once again open for illicit business.”
The Internal Revenue Service rarely penalizes taxpayers who have high balances in foreign bank accounts and fail to file the proper forms, according to a new report.
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The
Taxpayers with specified foreign financial assets that meet a certain dollar threshold are also required to report the information to the IRS by filing Form 8938. Failure to file the form can result in penalties of up to $60,000. However, TIGTA’s previous reports have demonstrated that the IRS rarely enforces these penalties.
The IRS created an Offshore Private Banking Campaign initiative to address tax noncompliance related to taxpayers’ failure to file Form 8938 and information reporting associated with offshore banking accounts, but it’s had limited success.
Even though the initiative identified hundreds of individual taxpayers with significant foreign bank account deposits who failed to file Forms 8938, the campaign only resulted in relatively few taxpayer examinations and a small number of nonfiling penalties. The campaign identified 405 taxpayers with significant foreign account balances who appeared to be noncompliant with their FATCA reporting requirements.
The IRS used two ways to address the 405 noncompliant taxpayers: referral for examinations and the issuance of letters to them.
- 164 taxpayers (who had an average unreported foreign account balance of $1.3 billion) were referred for possible examination, but only 12 of the 164 were examined, with five having $39.7 million in additional tax and $80,000 in penalties assessed.
- 241 noncompliant taxpayers (who had an average unreported account balance of $377 million) received a combination of 225 educational letters (requiring no response from the taxpayers) and 16 soft letters (requiring taxpayers to respond). None of the 241 taxpayers were assessed the initial $10,000 FATCA nonfiling penalty.
“While taxpayers can hold offshore banking accounts for a number of legitimate reasons, some taxpayers have also used them to hide income and evade taxes,” said the report.
Significant assets and income are factors considered by the IRS when assessing whether taxpayers intentionally evaded their tax responsibilities, the report noted. Given the large size of the average unreported foreign account balances, these taxpayers probably have higher levels of sophistication and an awareness of their obligation to comply with the law.
TIGTA believes the IRS needs to establish specific performance measures to determine the effectiveness of the FATCA program. “If the IRS does not plan to enforce the FATCA provisions even where obvious noncompliance is identified, it should at least quantify the enforcement impact of its efforts,” said the report. “This will ensure that IRS decision makers have the information they need to determine if the FATCA program is worth the investment and improves taxpayer compliance.
TIGTA made three recommendations in the report, including revising Campaign 896 processes to include assessing FATCA failure to file penalties; assessing the viability of using Form 1099 data to identify Form 8938 nonfilers; and implementing additional performance measures to give decision makers comprehensive information about the effectiveness of the FATCA program. The IRS disagreed with two of TIGTA’s recommendations and partially agreed with the remaining recommendation. IRS officials didn’t agree to assess penalties in Campaign 896 or with implementing performance measures to assess the effectiveness of the FATCA program.
“From our perspective, TIGTA’s conclusions regarding IRS Campaign 896 are based, in part, on a misguided premise and overgeneralizations, including the treatment of ‘potential noncompliance’ as tantamount to ‘egregious noncompliance’ that warrants a monetary penalty without contemplating the variety of justifications that may exempt a taxpayer from having to file Form 8938,” wrote Mabeline Baldwin, acting commissioner of the IRS’s Large Business and International Division, in response to the report.
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