Accounting
Risk should work for your clients, not against them
As a successful accountant, you are no stranger to risk. Whether working with individuals or business owners, you help your clients navigate a wide variety of economic, regulatory, political and personal factors to make the best possible financial decisions. And those factors are constantly changing.
In daily life, risk is the probability of something bad happening based on the actions you take. Take investment risk. For investors, risk is the likelihood that their actual return will differ from their expected return. To understand what is happening in a portfolio, investors must understand risk. It’s a fundamental premise of investing that the more risk you are able to tolerate, the greater your potential return can be. For instance, growth stocks experience far more ups and downs than U.S. Treasury bills and hence are much riskier.
You may not be advising your clients directly on their investments, but you owe it to them to make sure they are in touch with their risk tolerance and that they’re working with an advisor who takes that risk tolerance and their financial goals into account when constructing their portfolio.
Some investors are risk averse. Others embrace risk wholeheartedly. Most are somewhere in between. Whatever your client’s risk tolerance, the potential return on their investments should be commensurate with the amount of risk they’re willing to accept. That means understanding all the various sources of risk, managing them prudently, and using that knowledge to make better financial decisions even when the market is volatile and emotions are running high. As General George Patton famously said, “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.”
Managing risk
Managing risk is highly complex. Fortunately, there is powerful software that can assess thousands of different risk factors pertaining to securities and investments. When your client’s financial advisor connects these factors to their individual goals and helps drive risk-appropriate solutions, they can accomplish three important things:
- Understand which accounts and specific holdings are driving your client’s overall risk, using sophisticated risk analytics.
- Illustrate, hypothetically, how different market events might impact your client’s current holdings and overall financial future.
- Explore strategies to shift and mitigate some of the embedded risks your client is facing.
If your client’s financial advisor is not able to provide this type of analysis, it might be worth making a change. Doesn’t it make sense to learn about the portfolio risks your clients are exposed to before something catastrophic happens that can derail their client’s retirement cash flow and financial future? It’s essential to consider risk, not just within your client’s portfolio, but across their entire financial picture.
By understanding the specific drivers of portfolio risk, you can help your clients and their financial advisors work together to model potential changes.
We can’t control the markets. But we can help clients understand risk, manage it and use it to drive appropriate financial decisions.
Many of our new clients believe they have a diversified portfolio because they hold mutual funds from different fund families. Usually, they’re not as diversified as they think. After conducting our mutual fund overlap analysis, we often find that many of their funds hold the same stocks, leading to unintended overexposure to specific companies or sectors. This overlap reduces the diversification benefits of the portfolio, as multiple funds essentially replicate similar risks. By identifying and reducing these redundancies, we can create a more diversified, balanced allocation that further minimizes risk and aligns with the client’s goal of stable returns.
Real-world example
A client told us they were well diversified because they owned a variety of mutual funds and exchange traded funds from several major fund families. After seeing our overlap report of their holdings, however, they were taken aback. Like many investors, they had a great deal of stock overlap in their mutual funds and ETF portfolios because those different funds held many of the same stocks. This increased their concentration risk and reduced the benefits of diversification.
This overlap can expose investors to heightened market volatility and to potential underperformance if the overlapping stocks decline. For taxable accounts, mutual funds present an additional risk due to potential capital gains exposure. That’s because fund managers may distribute gains from sales of long-held assets, resulting in unexpected tax liabilities. To reduce these risks, investors and their advisors should (a) analyze fund holdings for overlap, (b) diversify across investment styles and asset classes, and (c) prioritize tax-efficient ETFs or index funds. Regular portfolio monitoring and rebalancing can help address these challenges and maintain a well-diversified, tax-aware investment strategy.
Jody Padar, an author and speaker known as “The Radical CPA,” and Katie Tolin, a growth strategist for CPAs, together launched a training and technology platform called XcelLabs.
XcelLabs provides solutions to help accountants use artificial technology fluently and strategically. The Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs and CPA Crossings joined with Padar and Tolin as strategic partners and investors.
“To reinvent the profession, we must start by training the professional who can then transform their firms,” Padar said in a statement. “By equipping people with data and insights that help them see things differently, they can provide better advice to their clients and firm.”
The platform includes XcelLabs Academy, a series of educational online courses on the basics of AI, being a better advisor, leadership and practice management; Navi, a proprietary tool that uses AI to help accountants turn unstructured data like emails, phone calls and meetings into insights; and training and consulting services. These offerings are currently in beta testing.
“Accountants know they need to be more advisory, but not everyone can figure out how to do it,” Tolin said in a statement. “Couple that with the fact that AI will be doing a lot of the lower-level work accountants do today, and we need to create that next level advisor now. By showing accountants how to unlock patterns in their actions and turn client conversations into emotionally intelligent advice, we can create the accounting professional of the future.”
“AI is transforming how CPAs work, and XcelLabs is focused on helping the profession evolve with it,” PICPA CEO Jennifer Cryder said in a statement. “At PICPA, we’re proud to support a mission that aligns so closely with ours: empowering firms to use AI not just for efficiency, but to drive growth, value and long-term relevance.”
The accountant the world urgently needs has evolved far beyond the traditional role we recognized just a few years ago.
The transformation of the accounting profession is not merely an anticipated change; it is a pressing reality that is currently shaping business decisions, academic programs and the expected contributions of professionals. Yet, in many areas, accounting education stubbornly clings to outdated, overly technical models that fail to connect with the actual demands of the market. We must confront a critical question: If we continue to train accountants solely to file tax reports, are we truly equipping them for the challenges of today’s world?
This shift in mindset extends beyond individual countries or educational systems; it is a global movement. The recent announcement of the
The CIMA/CGMA proposal for 2026 is not just a curriculum update; it is a powerful manifesto. This new program positions analytical thinking, strategic business partnering and technology application at the core of accounting education. It unequivocally highlights sustainability, aligning with IFRS S1 and S2, and expands the accountant’s responsibilities beyond mere numbers to encompass conscious leadership, environmental impact and corporate governance.
The current changes in the accounting profession underscore an urgent shift in expectations from both educators and employers. Today, companies of all sizes and industries demand accountants who can do far more than interpret balance sheets. They expect professionals who grasp the deeper context behind the numbers, identify inconsistencies, anticipate potential issues before they escalate into losses, and act decisively as a bridge between data and decision making.
To meet these expectations, a radical mindset shift is essential. There are firms still operating on autopilot, mindlessly repeating tasks with minimal critical analysis. Likewise, many academic programs continue to treat accounting as purely a technical discipline, disregarding the vital elements of reflection, strategy and behavioral insight. This outdated approach creates a significant mismatch. While the world forges ahead, parts of the accounting profession remain stuck in the past.
The consequences of this shift are already becoming evident. The demand for compliance, transparency and sustainability now applies not only to large corporations but also to small and mid-sized businesses. Many of these organizations rely on professionals ill-equipped to drive the necessary changes, putting both business performance and the reputation of the profession at risk.
The positive news is that accountants who are ready to thrive in this new era do not necessarily need additional degrees. What they truly need is a commitment to awareness, a dedication to continuous learning, and the courage to step beyond their comfort zones. The future of accounting is here, and it is firmly rooted in analytical, strategic and human-oriented perspectives. The 2026 curriculum is a clear indication of the changes underway. Those who fail to think critically and holistically will be left behind.
In contrast, accountants who see the big picture, understand the ripple effects of their decisions, and actively contribute to the financial and ethical health of organizations will undeniably remain indispensable, anywhere in the world.
Congressional Republicans are siding with Donald Trump in the messy divorce between the president and Elon Musk, an optimistic sign for eventual passage of a tax cut bill at the root of the two billionaires’ public feud.
Lawmakers are largely taking their cues from Trump and sticking by the $3 trillion bill at the center of the White House’s economic agenda. Musk, the biggest political donor of the 2024 cycle, has threatened to help primary anyone who votes for the legislation, but lawmakers are betting that staying in the president’s good graces is the safer path to political survival.
“The tax bill is not in jeopardy. We are going to deliver on that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Friday.
“I’ll tell you what — do not doubt, don’t second guess and do not challenge the President of the United States Donald Trump,” he added. “He is the leader of the party. He’s the most consequential political figure of our time.”
A fight between Trump and Musk exploded into public view this week. The sparring started with the tech titan calling the president’s tax bill a “disgusting abomination,” but quickly escalated to more personal attacks and Trump threatening to cancel all federal contracts and subsidies to Musk’s companies, such as Tesla Inc. and SpaceX which have benefitted from government ties.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who had — until recently — publicly embraced Musk, said they weren’t swayed by the billionaire’s criticism that the bill cost too much. Lawmakers have refuted official estimates of the package, saying that the tax cuts for households, small businesses and politically important groups — including hospitality and hourly workers — will generate enough economic growth to offset the price tag.
“I don’t tell my friend Elon, I don’t argue with him about how to build rockets, and I wish he wouldn’t argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it,” Johnson told CNBC earlier Friday.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told reporters that House lawmakers are focused on working with the Senate as it revises the bill to make sure the legislation has the political support in both chambers to make it to Trump’s desk for his signature.
“We move past the drama and we get the substance of what is needed to make the modest improvements that can be made,” he said.
House fiscal hawks said that they hadn’t changed their prior positions on the legislation based on Musk’s statements. They also said they agree with GOP leaders that there will be other chances to make further spending cuts outside the tax bill.
Representative Tom McClintock, a fiscal conservative, said “the bill will pass because it has to pass,” adding that both Musk and Trump needed to calm down. “They both need to take a nap,” he said.
Even some of the House bill’s most vociferous critics appeared resigned to its passage. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who voted against the House version, predicted that despite Musk’s objections, the Senate will make only small changes.
“The speaker is right about one thing. This barely passed the House. If they muck with it too much in the Senate, it may not pass the House again,” he said.
Trump is pressuring lawmakers to move at breakneck speed to pass the tax-cut bill, demanding they vote on the bill before the July 4 holiday. The president has been quick to blast critics of the bill — including calling Senator Rand Paul
As the legislation worked its way through the House last month, Trump took to social media to criticize holdouts and invited undecided members to the White House to compel them to support the package. It passed by one vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune — who is planning to unveil his chamber’s version of the bill as soon as next week — said his timeline is unmoved by Musk.
“We are already pretty far down the trail,” he said.
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