CohnReznick takes on 48 Aldrich partners and a wealth arm advising $8 billion in its third deal of 2026

Set beside the other two deals the source names, Aldrich is small. Grant Thornton, the ninth-largest US firm and private equity-backed, announced in July an all-cash purchase of CBIZ, the eighth-largest, at an enterprise value of $5 billion ^[12]. Baker Tilly, a top 10 firm, announced in June that it would buy Anchin, Block & Anchin, a top 50 firm, and move its headquarters from Chicago to New York ^[11]. Aldrich CPAs + Advisors, a top 100 firm ^[1], had $103.3 million of revenue in its most recent fiscal year, according to INSIDE Public Accounting ^[6]. The source calls the Aldrich deal the latest top-100 combination of the year ^[13], but three deals at three sizes do not show a single force behind them.

Divide the $103.3 million by Aldrich's 48 partners and each stands behind about $2.15 million of revenue ^[14]. That is a rough number: the revenue covers the CPA firm alone ^[6], and the partner count may include people in the group's other companies ^[1].

The part of Aldrich that sits outside that revenue figure is the part CohnReznick describes first. David Kessler, CEO of CohnReznick Advisory, said Aldrich brings "a wealth management platform that creates an important new avenue for growth" ^[8]. Aldrich Wealth will become the platform for CohnReznick's wealth management business, according to a statement from its CEO, Heather Wonderly ^[10]. John Lauseng, Aldrich's CEO, said Aldrich becomes "the cornerstone of CohnReznick's new West Region" ^[9]. In our view the wealth platform and the West Region are what CohnReznick is buying that it did not have, or rather, what it says it did not have, since company statements are the only evidence on offer. The counter-thesis is that 500-plus professionals ^[5] are the real asset and the wealth line is a supplement, and nothing in the source rules that out.

The cadence is better evidence of what CohnReznick is spending on. It bought Smith Schafer in January and Ham, Langston & Brezina in July ^[3], a gap of six months, and announced Aldrich on October 13, about three months after the second ^[15]. Over the past year it also expanded in San Francisco, Tampa, Tallahassee and Richmond, after taking investment from Apax Funds in early 2025 ^[4]. Integrating a Minneapolis firm, a Houston firm and a West Coast group of 500-plus professionals takes partner time that a fourth acquisition would also need, so we'd expect no further CohnReznick announcement before the mid-December close ^[1]. An announcement before then would mean we have that constraint wrong.

The source names private equity behind two of the buyers: Grant Thornton ^[12] and, since early 2025, CohnReznick ^[4]. If sponsor capital sets the timing, the deal count says more about the buyers' funding than about how many top-100 firms want to sell.