While we just announced the major award recipients from our 2025 awards less than a month ago, it's time to get yourselves ready for the 2026 Awards that will kick off in about two weeks. And, while I usually write about the awards on Tuesday's Insightful Accountant feature, I wanted to publish this special edition of the Award-related features two weeks before the Future Forward session I will be hosting on Friday, August 8, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern.
Last year, we extended the nomination and application period by nearly 5 months to make the award process essentially a year-long activity. This year sees a continuation of that scheduling with the award process opening around mid-August and the Application Deadline early in March of 2026. Voting will begin around the middle of March 2026 and will end around the middle of April 2026. I anticipate the announcement of recipients by group, including the Top 100 U.S. ProAdvisors, Top 25 Up-and-Coming ProAdvisors, Top 50 International ProAdvisors, and the 'new' Top 25 Tax Advisors, to begin late April or early May 2026, with the final list published a couple of weeks thereafter. We are anticipating the presentation of the 'major awards' in the middle of June 2026 at Scaling New Heights in Orlando.
There are only minor changes in the schedule for the 2025 awards; however, Insightful Accountant reserves the right to adjust, increase, decrease, or otherwise alter the approximate dates and process durations listed above.
As part of reviewing the Award Groups (listed above), I will discuss the significance of Insightful Accountant's decision to create the new Tax Advisor group.
As mentioned in my article titled, "Streamlining Our 2026 Awards - Part 3" there will be three on-line (survey style) forms this year: the 2026 Nomination Form, the 2026 U.S. Application Form and the 2026 International Application Form. The U.S. Application has undergone significant renovation to streamline the form from an applicant standpoint. The International Application has had some significant revisions, primarily in the areas of Training documentation and App-utilization Documentation.
The changes to the applications will be one of the key sections of my Future Forward session on August 8th. As in past years, my Preparation instructions, including this upcoming webinar, will also focus on the 'award categories' for U.S. Applicants and the importance of understanding how those categories drive everything about the award process. A critical aspect of successfully "making the cut" is understanding how you and your practice fit into the categorical structure of the awards. What category you are primary and second to? Once you do that, you can 'maximize' the data you provide in your application to clearly show yourself in the best light concerning your primary and secondary categorical alignments.
One individual, who shall go nameless, went from being 11th in her primary category in 2024 to top of that same categorical ranking in 2025 simply because she realized she was spending too much effort trying to record information related to areas where she was weaker, and not enough time recording information in the area where she was strongest. When she reversed that pattern and recorded everything, absolutely everything, she did in her dominant category, she excelled to the point of being the award recipient for that category for 2025.
I will discuss various ways you can accomplish"putting your best foot forward" in the application process during the Future Forward webinar on August 8th.
So here are five* learning objectives I believe you will be able to achieve by the end of the "Preparing for the 2026 Awards" Future Forward show:
- Identify the four 'Award Groups' that will be recognized for 2026.
- Identify two (or more) reasons why there is a new "Top Tax Advisor" award group as of 2026.
- Identify at least two significant differences in the 2026 Awards Applications (U.S. and International) over the 2025 Application forms.
- Identify your primary Award Category alignment if a U.S. participant in the awards process.
- Identify at least three ways to "put your best step forward" while completing your application form to maximize your primary categorical ranking.
If you are not already registered for the August 4- 8 Future Forward webinars, you can do so HERE. Don't worry if the title is listed wrong; just sign up and you will get the Zoom invitations so you can attend any or all of the sessions you want, including my Friday, August 8, 1 PM Eastern session on "Preparing for the 2026 Awards." Because I will be participating in at least two other sessions that week. (Murph)
* - Additional learning objectives and related CPE questions may be incorporated into the final content.
