Why Accounting Firm Sales Stall: The Emotional Stages of Succession

Accounting firm sales can stall even after buyers and owners agree on price and deal terms. In one case, the founder of a two-partner firm spent a weekend considering a completed proposal, then called to say he wasn’t ready. The obstacle wasn’t money. It was the loss attached to handing over a business built across three decades.

That pattern points to a central challenge in succession planning: deal mechanics can be prepared, but an owner’s readiness can’t be assumed. Brett Kelly, who says he has worked on more than 90 accounting firm acquisitions over 20 years, argues that grief often lies behind abandoned deals. His framework adapts the five stages Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described in 1969—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—to the experience of selling a firm. These stages aren’t a fixed sequence; owners may move between them, revisit one or skip another.

A succession gap despite willing buyers

The figures cited in the article show why the emotional side matters to firms and their successors. An AICPA survey from 2020 found that 44% of single owners and sole practitioners planned to retire within five years. The article says that period has passed. It also reports that more than 30% of managing partners are now 60 or older, while only 55% of firms maintain a written succession plan.

At the same time, buyers and financing options have expanded. More than 1,000 accounting firms worldwide have taken private equity investment over the past decade, according to research cited from the International Federation of Accountants, with activity accelerating sharply since 2022. Better deal support, tax structures and a larger pool of potential buyers can make a transaction easier to arrange. But those resources can’t resolve an owner’s uncertainty about life after the firm.

Five responses that shape the sale

Denial can sound like a succession plan: “I’ll go in five years.” An owner may repeat that promise for years while putting off concrete steps. The firm can occupy much of the owner’s time and identity, making it hard to imagine a future in which the business carries on without them. Another busy season becomes an easy reason to defer the decision.

Anger may surface when successors, buyers or the market seem not to value the firm as its owner does. A younger partner may appear insufficiently committed; a fair offer may feel like an insult. A valuation can put a price on the business, but it can’t account for every long week, missed dinner or personal guarantee that went into building it. That gap between commercial value and personal cost can make negotiations painful, even when the offer is reasonable.

Bargaining often appears in deal terms designed to delay a clean handover. An owner might seek a five-year consulting agreement or an earn-out that leaves them closely involved in decisions. A transition period can help clients maintain continuity and give successors access to the founder’s experience. The risk is that a transition arrangement becomes a way to retain control instead of preparing the next leadership team to take over.

Depression, in Kelly’s account, may look less like visible sadness than a gradual retreat from running the business. Hiring and technology spending slow; the owner stops pursuing clients or attending industry events. Without a picture of the firm’s next decade, the owner may postpone decisions that sustain its value. The erosion can happen before a sale, as deferred investment and lost momentum leave less of a business to transfer.

Acceptance comes when succession is seen as part of the owner’s responsibility to the firm. That doesn’t mean accepting any offer or giving up on negotiations. Owners who view the sale as finishing a stewardship role can still negotiate firmly while focusing on a workable outcome for clients, employees and family. The shift is from treating departure as abandonment to making sure the firm can continue under new leadership.

Turning recognition into a plan

For owners, the practical step is to recognize the emotional weight before it controls the timetable. A succession plan with a fixed end date makes the decision more concrete; asking other people to hold the owner accountable can help prevent repeated delays. The plan also needs to address continuity: clients need a clear handover, and successors need the authority and preparation to lead.

There’s no guarantee that naming the emotions will make a sale simple. An owner may still grieve, revisit earlier doubts or find that the proposed structure doesn’t fit the firm. But treating reluctance as a real part of succession gives owners and their teams a chance to address it before drift weakens the business. The handover is more likely to protect what the owner built when the firm’s next chapter has a date, a successor and a clear path for clients and staff.

Brett Kelly is the founder and CEO of Kelly+Partners, an accounting network serving more than 25,000 private business clients across Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, India and Ireland. He wrote Progress: Ideas for Life and Business, from which the essay was adapted.