Experts are calling 2026 “the year of the flip,” expected some of the earliest accounting firms that signed private equity deals to reach their first “turn,” when the PE partners look to realize their return by selling on their stake.
But 2025 already saw accounting’s first flip, all the way back in January, when Top 100 Firm and earlier PE pioneer Citrin Cooperman’s PE partner, New Mountain Capital, sold its stake to even-larger PE firm Blackstone.
The reason the profession is eagerly anticipating flips is to see what kind of market their might be for these stakes — would it be other PE firms? Retirement funds? Sovereign wealth funds? Family offices or wealth management firms? Or — the nightmare scenario — would there be no buyers at all?
From the one example we have so far, it seems as if private equity’s interest in the profession remains so strong that they may be the main buyers of other PE firm’s stakes. After all, New Mountain only sold its stake in Citrin to another PE firm after investing heavily in Top 10 Firm Grant Thornton, and went on to invest in another Top 100 Firm, Wipfli.
