MICHELLE ROHN FOR FORBESJulie Welch, CPAFirm: Meara Welch Browne, P.C.Title: PartnerForbes List: America’s Best-In-State CPAs 2026Ascending the profession from intern to partner—with her name now on the shingle—Julie Welch has built a reputation as a thought leader. But she’s also remained grounded by offering clients clear solutions and plain-English understanding. “It’s a people business more than a bookish business,” Welch says.For Welch—an AICPA member since 1982—that business has been good: As Director of Taxation at MWB, she has served on the faculty of the AICPA National Tax Education Program for 24 years. She served on the AICPA planning committee for the “Tax Planning Strategies for the High-Income Individual” conference—where she is a frequent speaker—and is a regular panelist on the All-Star Tax Series broadcast by Edward Jones. Welch speaks nationally on tax-saving topics, including as a presenter at the Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute on the tax reform impact on bankruptcy. It’s all in a year’s work for this recipient of the coveted AICPA Sidney Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education.Welch is also co-author of 101 Tax Saving Ideas with Randy Gardner—now heading toward its 11th edition. First published in 1994, the book began as a way for her to explain complex topics more clearly to clients. Today, those clients still receive a copy, and when questions arise, they often get a scanned page that breaks down tax concepts in easy-to-understand language. “You should understand what you do financially,” Welch notes. More recent was her publication last year in the Journal of Financial Planning: “Beautiful—And Not So Beautiful—Individual Tax Provisions,” on key elements of the new tax act.Welch clearly takes pride in the personal touch she provides clients. It has, after all, helped land her on Forbes’ 2026 Best-In-State CPAs list. So it’s little surprise that she sees capacity as the greatest challenge facing the future of the profession. “The challenge for the CPA profession in 2026 is new accountants—people to help with the number of new clients calling this year,” she says. “It is unbelievable with so many CPAs retiring or selling out to PE. Most clients want the human touch. New clients tell us their past CPA wouldn’t call them back—whether it was business or personal.”Which is not to say that this member of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils’ Estate Planning Hall of Fame is afraid of the future. Far from it; like much of the profession, she now utilizes AI in her work on a daily basis, and sees it as another tool to help her bring clear solutions to clients: “It used to be called data analytics,” she says. Now, AI helps her with everything from Roth conversions and qualified distributions to spotting opportunities. “I like immediate answers, so AI and IT are an asset. You have to check the answers, but with AI we’re not just preparing tax returns—we’re considering opportunities.”For the full list of America’s Best-In-State CPAs, click here.Steel Rose, CPA is a senior editor who covers accounting, with a frequent focus on recognizing the top practicing CPAs in America in addition to investigating stories about audit failures.