I was both shocked and elated at the Sept. 22 editorial (“Not every finance major can be an investment banker. We need more accountants”): shocked to see attention to the horrific shortage of certified public accountants and elated that the Tribune Editorial Board brought this to readers’ attention. Allow me to add some additional perspective.
Ninety-nine percent of all CPA firms are quite different than the 1% that are considerably larger. One difference is their focus. Yes, the 99% offer audit, accounting and tax services. But equally important, CPAs are their clients’ most trusted advisers in all business and personal matters. Most business owners look forward to having dinner with their CPAs almost as much as with their closest friends. Really!
The CPA profession has shot itself in the foot in several ways: For 40 years, the profession has essentially required a fifth year of college to sit for the CPA exam. The reasons may have made sense decades ago, but this requirement no longer serves any purpose. In fact, it is a strong deterrent to college students weighing a decision on majoring in accounting.
Until 10 to 20 years ago, an entry-level position with a CPA firm was one of the highest-paying positions with just an undergraduate degree. Today, it is barely average. This needs to change, quickly. CPA firm partners are making record profits year after year. They can easily afford to turn this around. Money matters to these youngsters.
The CPA examination is extremely difficult, requiring extensive post-graduate preparation. This has become a deterrent to students considering majoring in accounting. This has to change. Let’s not make the exam “easy,” but we need to stop making it rocket science.
CPAs need a massive, industrywide campaign to once and for all dispel the mistaken perception that accounting is nerdy, boring and monotonous. It should start with every CPA spending at least 100 hours a year educating and mentoring impressionable high school and college students about a career in accounting.
— Marc Rosenberg, CPA, Rosenberg Associates, Wilmette
Not just number crunchers
The Tribune Editorial Board raises a critical issue that the certified public accountant profession, along with many others, is currently grappling with: College enrollments are declining, impacting various fields of study and the corresponding professions. The reasons behind this decline are numerous, and many of these trends are unlikely to reverse in the short term.
As a licensed CPA for more than 50 years, I must respectfully disagree with several points made in the editorial. The editorial board’s description of the profession as “dull-but-important” misrepresents the true nature of our work. CPAs, whether employed by organizations or working in private practice, are much more than number crunchers. We serve as trusted advisers, integral to every significant decision. In times of crisis, such as the recent pandemic, CPAs played a vital role in helping businesses survive and prepare for the future.
Even in periods of stability, CPAs are instrumental in guiding organizations forward with sound financial strategies. This does not sound like “dull” work to me — it’s undoubtedly important and, from my experience, intellectually stimulating.
While the CPA profession does face challenges, including the difficulty of entry, this is by design. Our standards are deliberately high to protect the public interest. That said, the profession is actively focused on finding solutions that will ensure its continued success and the prosperity of the markets we serve.
— Donald P. Danner, CPA, Elburn
Devoted to being guardians
The Tribune Editorial Board is right! The accounting profession is made up of “well-organized, thoughtful people.” Today, those people are coming together with more focus than ever before to do just what the board calls for — certified public accounts are actively working to “save the CPA.”
As the talent pipeline has slowed over the years to today’s trickle of new accounting students and aspiring CPAs pursuing the profession, I think most people in the accounting world would argue that more could’ve, and should’ve, been done to rejuvenate the pipeline sooner. But as unfortunate as it may be that it took a modern talent crisis to trigger “aggressive action,” I assure the board that the profession isn’t sitting still.
Within the last 20 months, there’s probably been more effort among stakeholders to confront the accountant and CPA shortage than there has been during the last 20 years. But looking back isn’t how we’ll move forward — taking action is. There’s been widespread investment in new research to understand what’s pushing people away from pursuing both accounting as a career and the once-coveted CPA credential — or pushing them out of the profession altogether. Following suit, an important and much-needed, ecosystem-wide dialogue on how to address the issues that current and prospective accountants and CPAs raised is taking place in earnest, with the goal of better attracting and retaining the best and brightest.
Salary is a significant concern for aspiring professionals. So, too, is the burnout from multiple busy seasons and the time commitments and general challenges of taking the CPA exam. We can address these deterrents. The profession is also more proactively acknowledging that it has a perception problem. “America’s most famously boring profession,” as the board calls it, is really anything but boring — but few outside the profession truly know that. After all, countless stereotypes get played up in the media and elsewhere that make accountants look like anything but the strategic, business-savvy and trusted advisers that they are to the clients, companies, governments, nonprofits and others that count on them every day.
So, it’s not just Chicago, or even Illinois, that has a big stake in “reviving the field.” And while no single solution will solve the CPA profession’s human capital challenges, we remain committed to being the “guardians of the public trust” and are determined to turn things around.
— Geof Brown, CAE, president and CEO, Illinois CPA Society, Chicago
Pension reformer was caring
My friend Ty Fahner died recently. He was an influential and esteemed leader in Illinois.
But what I’ll miss most about him is how he could make the person he was talking to feel like the most important person in the world. It’s how he could focus his life on serving others. While Ty was originally from Michigan, his goal his entire life was to leave Illinois better than he found it.
I first met Ty at the state Capitol in Springfield 13 years ago. He was president of the influential Civic Committee of the Commercial Club. I was a low-level analyst for the Illinois General Assembly. My office was tucked away in a maze of hallways, and I remember Ty found his way to my office, sat down and said, “I wanted to get your advice on a pension bill we are working on.”
He did not need my advice. Ty was a pro. But we spent the next 90 minutes discussing pensions. He would say, “Reforming pensions is the key to improving everyone’s lives in our state.”
After years and years of work, Ty and the Civic Committee in 2013 got bipartisan pension reform passed. Unfortunately, it was deemed unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2015. That decision boiled his blood for the rest of his life.
In everything he did, Ty deeply cared about people.
A few years ago, I heard from Ty. Despite nearly 12 years passing, it felt like we hadn’t missed a day. When he asked me what I was working on, he got so fired up, he walked over to his Rolodex and started calling out names: incredibly influential people in Chicago and in other parts of the state who he firmly believed were well aligned with our goal. It was a gift I will never forget.
He wanted to help, not for any benefit to himself, but because he cared about improving the lives of Illinoisans.
His main concern was never about himself; it was persistently about how he could help serve others. Why else would a partner at one of the most successful law firms in the country spend his time down in Springfield with a 20-something staffer, trying to pass pension reform?
He was one of the legends there for the common good rather than his personal good. I will miss my friend. So will the state of Illinois.
— Matt Paprocki, president and CEO, Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago
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