Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention.

So it has been for many CPA firms penetrating new markets and offering new services to replace lost revenue for traditional client niches that have become casualties of the recession, or simply demanded steep discounts.

The prediction that reduced billing rates for standard services will not, inevitably, bounce back to pre-recession levels when the economy picks up adds urgency to the need for innovation. "I'm often hearing from my members that today's fees are the 'new normal,'" said Clarke Price, president and chief executive of the Ohio Society of CPAs.

In the not-too-distant past, Price would ask members how many were paying attention to new service offerings that the largest CPA firms have introduced. "I used to get blank stares. Not any more," he said.

And the change is not always driven by economics. "Some of the older partners who are winding down are looking for doing things that are intellectually stimulating," Price said.

What kinds of things?

One barometer is the growth of the specialty credentials from the American Institute of CPAs. The one most in-demand currently, according to Mark Koziel, who directs the institute's specialized communities and practice management area, is the CFF - Certified in Financial Forensics. About 3,800 CPAs have gained that designation since it was first offered two years ago, Koziel said: "We're already hitting benchmarks we were expected to hit in five years."

Interest in financial forensics isn't simply attributable to fraud on the scope of Bernie Madoff. Shareholder disputes, for example, often demand a level of detective work requiring greater technical expertise than comes from standard CPA training.

But demand for forensic accounting isn't limited to large companies or spectacular frauds.

Koziel offered an example of an engagement involving a family business that could demand the skills not only of the CFF but two other specialty designations: the ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation) and the PFS (Personal Financial Specialist). "Matrimonial disputes can involve the valuation of a business in the settlement, and one spouse is not willing to accept the business valuation at face value," he said.

The only AICPA special designation such an engagement leaves out is the CITP - Certified Information Technology Professional - unless the suspicious spouse is concerned that data systems have been tampered with to falsify financial records.

So far 12,000 AICPA members have picked up these credentials. The largest specialty group, the PFS, has 4,300 credential holders. Offering personal finance services is a natural outgrowth of a standard accounting practice involving personal tax planning and compliance.

"I'm hearing from a lot of our tax members hearing from clients trying to figure out what to do with their 401(k)s that became 201(k)s," quipped Price.

"Our members are seeing a big opportunity out there, usually using tax preparation as a springboard" to provide additional financial counseling services, he added. Relatively few firms are directly providing asset management services, but instead handling investments through a relationship with another firm, Price said.

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