Succession Pathway is a specialized accountant business broker built for owners of established CPA and tax practices — typically 500 to 1,500 clients — who want to structure a deliberate one-to-five year exit. We bring the buyers. You keep the focus on your clients.
Most marketplaces treat your practice like a listing. We treat it like a thirty-year career. Succession Pathway is a focused accountant business broker that combines valuation, deal structure, and buyer matching with the discretion this transaction requires.
We don't post your practice publicly. Buyers are pre-qualified — funding verified, geography aligned, cultural fit screened — before they ever learn your name.
Practices in your range typically trade between 0.95× and 1.40× annual fees, but the multiple depends on revenue mix, client concentration, staff continuity and retention guarantees. We build the case behind the number.
Lump sum vs. earn-out, retention escrow, owner financing, transition consulting, non-compete scope. The structure is often worth more than the headline price. We negotiate every line.
Whether you are twelve months from retirement or planning a deliberate five-year wind-down, the work falls into the same five stages. We can enter at any point.
Confidential conversation on goals, timeline, family situation, and tax sensitivity.
We model your practice across multiple scenarios — accrual, billing realization, mix.
Clean financials, document workflows, address concentration, stabilize staff.
Curated introductions to vetted acquirers from our network — no public listing.
Letter of intent, diligence, contract, client transition. We sit beside you through every step.
Three guides we point every prospective seller to before our first conversation. Each one will save you money — and prevent a regret — at the closing table.
A step-by-step framework covering timing, valuation drivers, family communication, staff disclosure, and the year-by-year preparation calendar.
The diligence checklist most sellers don't see until it's too late — buyer quality, deal terms, escrow, non-competes, and the questions to ask before signing.
From letting clients know too early to mispricing recurring revenue — the avoidable errors that cost six figures at closing.
Our core focus is accounting and tax practices between 500 and 1,500 clients, typically generating $400K to $2.5M in annual fees. Larger and smaller engagements are considered case-by-case, but this is where our buyer network is deepest and our process is most refined.
Most successful exits we work with run between 12 months and 5 years. Owners who give themselves 24 to 36 months almost always recover a higher multiple, cleaner deal terms, and a better post-sale role than those who try to transact in under a year.
Not from us. Confidentiality is the bedrock of our process. We do not post listings publicly, buyers sign NDAs before learning practice details, and we coach you on the right sequence and timing for internal and client communication.
The headline benchmark for practices in our size range is 0.95× to 1.40× trailing annual fees, but the multiple is shaped by revenue mix (recurring vs. seasonal), client concentration, average fee per client, staff stability, technology stack, and the structure of any retention guarantee. Two practices with identical revenue can trade 30% apart.
The initial valuation conversation is complimentary. Our advisory engagement is structured as a success-based fee, payable at closing — meaning our incentives are aligned with yours. Full terms are provided in writing before any commitment.
We maintain a buyer network, but in any specific transaction we represent one side only — the seller. This avoids the conflict of interest that has become endemic in marketplace-style brokerages.
One thirty-minute call. No marketing, no listing, no commitment. Just an honest read on your practice, the current buyer market, and whether Succession Pathway is the right partner for the next chapter.
Request a Confidential Valuation