ASL Recognized on the 2025 Best CPA Firms for Equity Leadership List
Campbell, CA (November 4, 2025) – Abbott, Stringham & Lynch (ASL) was named to the Accounting MOVE Project’s 2025 Best CPA Firms for Equity Leadership list. The Accounting MOVE Project is based on the MOVE methodology, developed by research partner Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., which investigates the factors proven to be essential to women’s career success:
- M – Money: fair pay practices
- O – Opportunity: advancement and leadership development
- V – Vital supports: work-life programs that remove barriers
- E – Entrepreneurship: operating experience for managing or business ownership
The 2025 Accounting MOVE Project report examines why the firms that will win the next decade share one key characteristic: high-belonging cultures that reduce turnover costs, stabilize client teams, and accelerate advancement for all team members.
The report explores four major forces reshaping retention and advancement in accounting:
- The Real Cost of Turnover: Replacing even one experienced accountant costs 50% to 200% of annual pay, but the ripple effects, from client trust to team culture, are far greater.
- The Belonging Quotient: Employees who lack a sense of belonging are 4x more likely to leave. Neuroscience shows that social exclusion triggers the same regions of the brain as physical pain, which is why perks alone can’t fix retention.
- Three Trends That Work: Leading firms are pairing pay equity with real accountability, turning succession planning into a documented and measurable process, and transforming flexibility from a benefit into a core business model.
- The DEI Crossroads: With some firms sitting out this year over optics, the report calls on leaders to stay the course.
ASL has achieved true partnership parity with women comprising exactly half of its 18-member partner group. At 71% women across its 112-employee* workforce, ASL surpasses national averages significantly. The firm has continued to grow year over year while remaining independent, with employees consistently providing feedback that they’re happy with engagement activities, benefits, and work-life balance. ASL’s expansion of belonging efforts demonstrates an ongoing commitment to maintaining the supportive environment that has become its hallmark.
*Data submitted as of July 2025
About Abbott, Stringham & Lynch (ASL)
Founded in 1977, ASL offers a wealth of experience in delivering high-quality services and specialties to its clients. The Firm works with emerging- and middle-market privately held businesses to help them thrive in their markets. It also partners with high net worth individuals – owners, founders and executives – to help them protect and grow their wealth. ASL identifies untapped opportunities, challenges and solutions, enabling clients to make the effective and timely decisions today that lead to a fuller and more secure tomorrow.
Designed to facilitate quality decisions, ASL’s services cover corporate and individual tax planning and compliance, assurance and accounting, estate and gift tax planning, litigation support, succession planning and valuation. The Firm’s services are contextualized by its specialties in real estate, construction, technology, international, manufacturing and distribution, nonprofit organizations and renewable energy.
