The Power of 3 Letters in a Changing Profession

Brian Blaha, CPA Managing Director, Winding River Consulting
Strategic Insights for Today’s Firm Leaders

My certified public accountant (CPA) journey began more than 30 years ago, back before the 150-hour rule existed. Back then, in Wisconsin, you needed to pass the CPA exam and complete three years of professional experience before becoming licensed.

Those of us who took the exam in those days remember exactly where we were when we received our results. For me, it was January. I still remember standing in my first apartment out of college, opening the letter, and seeing that I’d passed all four parts in one sitting. I was overjoyed and, strangely, incomplete.

It wasn’t until three years later when my certificate arrived from the state that it finally hit me: I was a CPA. I marched straight to my office manager and ordered new business cards. I was a card-carrying CPA, and I was proud of it.

For many years, that sense of pride lived quietly in the background of my career—until recently, when I started hearing that some firms are now asking people to remove their CPA designation from email signatures, business cards, and LinkedIn profiles.

While this isn’t directly tied to the influx of private equity firms or the rise of alternative practice structures impacting the CPA profession, it’s certainly related.

From the perspective of firms requesting this change from staff, it’s mostly to avoid confusion about whether someone is “holding out” as a CPA in public practice, especially amid varying jurisdictions. Friends of mine at large, diversified firms tell me this has technically been policy for years—but it was rarely enforced or questioned. Now, with the rise of alternative practice structures and mobility concerns, the debate is front and center.

Here’s the reality: In many alternative practice structures, the main business entity isn’t technically a CPA firm, so it can’t represent itself as one. The audit firm (or CPA entity) remains a separate legal entity, operating under a management agreement with the non-CPA entity. From a legal and compliance standpoint, I understand the rationale for removing the CPA designation from employees’ names. Our licensing rules were written for a time when “CPA firm” meant audit, accounting, and tax—not a multifaceted professional services organization with advisory, technology, and strategy practices.

Needless to say, this all points to one conclusion: It’s time for us to modernize our licensing model—for individuals and firms.

A Changing Profession

We’ve talked for years about how firms are expanding into advisory services because clients want more holistic services. While that’s true, firms need new growth engines to keep pace with rising expenses, technology investments, and partner expectations. The accounting industry grows at roughly 6% to 8% annually, yet to be competitive, many firms push for growth north of that range.

As firms have evolved, so have their competitors. Today, many wealth advisory and law firms offer tax services. Outsourced accounting providers—often not CPA firms—deliver accounting and fractional chief financial officer services. Consulting firms handle valuations and mergers and acquisitions. Many of these organizations employ CPAs, even if they’re not CPA firms. Yet, as a profession, we’ve been fixated on “the firm” rather than “the professional.” Ultimately, I believe the CPA designation should be owned by the individual and portable throughout their career journey.

A Personal Reflection

As I shared in my spring 2025 Insight article, “How Are You CPAing?,” earning the CPA credential opens a “choose-your-own-adventure” career. CPAs work in every corner of the economy. We should be proud to display those three letters—they reflect a standard of excellence and trust that we’ve worked hard to earn.

A year ago, I left a top 20 firm to join Winding River Consulting, where our clients are primarily CPA firms or firms adjacent to the profession. I also continue to volunteer with the Illinois CPA Society, serve as a member of AICPA Council, and serve on two boards in the education sector. That CPA designation still carries weight—not just in our profession, but in every boardroom and client conversation I enter.

I’m careful, of course, not to represent myself as a practicing CPA performing audits or tax work. But my license is part of who I am—a reflection of the education, ethics, and rigor that shaped my career.

That’s why I believe it should be up to the individual to decide whether they want to display their CPA designation. After all, we earned our licenses. We should be proud to tell the world we’re CPAs and to show that this profession opens doors to countless career paths.

The Pipeline and the Next Generation

If anything, the current conversation about the CPA designation should motivate us to double down on restoring our talent pipeline, because the world is going to need more CPAs, not fewer.

In a world powered by artificial intelligence (AI), for example, a CPA’s value isn’t going away—it’s evolving. Someone must keep AI in check, validate its outputs, and ensure what’s being reported is trustworthy and ethical. Someone has to interpret those results in a way that makes sense to clients, regulators, and stakeholders. That someone is, and should remain, a CPA.

But the next generation of CPAs will need to be different. They’ll need to be both technically sharp and emotionally intelligent, blending business acumen with adaptability, curiosity, and human understanding. Technical mastery—the foundation of our credibility—will always carry weight, but the profession demands talent with what we used to call “soft skills.” In today’s reality, those soft skills have become the new hard skills: relationship management, critical thinking, storytelling with data, and the ability to guide clients through complexity with empathy and clarity. Combined with technical acumen, these are the capabilities that make the CPA designation timeless.

The facts remain that every business needs accountants, and accounting is the language of business. Every business needs people who bring the analytical mindset, discipline, and integrity that come with being a CPA.

So, despite what some may say, a well-rounded education and the professional foundation behind the CPA credential still matter. The world may be changing fast—but the power and meaning of those three letters following our names endures.

Related Content:

• Telling Our Story Beyond the Numbers and Balance Sheets: The accounting profession has a branding problem—fixing it will require a collective voice to showcase all the good it has to offer future-driven professionals.
• Flipping the Script: How CPAs Can Rewrite the Profession’s Story: While an accounting career can lead to exciting, rewarding work, too often the profession’s negatives get highlighted. Here’s how CPAs change the narrative and tell a better story to support the talent pipeline.