What’s Next for the CPA Financial Planner with Matt Kidd
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Release Date: 02/20/2026
The Real Reason Clients Don't Follow Your Advice
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
The real challenge for planners is not always giving better advice. It is understanding why clients do not act on the advice they already have. In this episode, Cary Sinnett talks with behavioral finance expert Carl Richards about what gets in the way of follow-through. They explore why clarity, purpose and trust often matter as much as technical precision, and how planners can help clients move from understanding a recommendation to actually acting on it. What you'll learn: Why the best financial plan is not necessarily the most technically precise plan, but the one a client will implement....
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The Secret to Getting Early-Career CPAs Excited About Financial Planning
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
The future of personal financial planning depends in part on whether today’s professionals help the next generation see what the career can become. In this episode of the PFP Podcast, Cary Sinnett talks with Dr. Brianne Smith about how firms can expose students and early-career professionals to the human side of financial planning and give them meaningful opportunities to grow into advisory roles. Drawing on her experience as both a practitioner and accounting professor, Brianne shares practical ideas for developing future financial planners, from bringing real client stories onto college...
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What Financial Planning Research Reveals About Your Clients
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
What can the latest research teach us about helping clients make better financial decisions? In this episode Cary Sinnett talks with Dr. Megan McCoy, who leads the personal financial planning program at Kansas State University, about bringing academic research and real-world financial planning practice closer together. They explore what emerging research in client psychology, communication and financial behavior can teach planners about helping clients navigate difficult decisions, financial anxiety and major life transitions. What you'll learn How research can add another layer of insight to...
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Are You Solving the Right Problem First? Ask Dr. Brian Portnoy
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Technical expertise may earn a client's confidence, but human connection earns their trust. In this episode of the PFP Podcast, Cary Sinnett continues his conversation with Dr. Brian Portnoy, author of The Geometry of Wealth, exploring how CPA financial planners can move beyond numbers and into the conversations that truly matter. Together they discuss why "funded contentment" should be at the center of financial planning, how advisors can uncover what clients truly want their wealth to accomplish, and why emotional intelligence may become one of the profession's greatest competitive...
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Why Bob Keebler Makes the Section 645 Election Almost Every Time
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
The months immediately following a client's death create one of the most important income tax planning windows in estate administration. While many practitioners focus on basis step-ups and beneficiary distributions, one election can fundamentally change how post-death income is managed: the Section 645 election. In this episode, Cary Sinnett sits down with nationally recognized tax expert Bob Keebler to explore how electing to treat a revocable trust and estate as a single taxable entity can create valuable planning opportunities through fiscal year flexibility, income deferral, charitable...
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The IUL Experiment with Andy Panko
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance is often marketed as a “tax-free retirement income” solution, but how do these policies really work over time? To cut through the noise, financial planner Andy Panko, CFP®, RICP®, EA, decided to run his own real-time experiment. He bought an IUL, fully documented the structure, costs, and performance, and is openly sharing the results year after year. In this episode, Andy joins us to explain what IULs are, why he launched The IUL Experiment, and what every financial planner should know before considering them in retirement planning conversations....
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Your Clients Can Afford to Retire. Will They Enjoy It?
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Most retirement plans answer one question: Can I afford to retire? But far fewer answer the question that often matters just as much: What am I retiring to? In this episode, Cary Sinnett sits down with renowned researcher and Harvard Business School professor emerita Teresa Amabile to explore the hidden psychological transition that accompanies retirement. Drawing from more than a decade of research and interviews with retirees, she explains why many successful professionals fear retirement, why those fears are often misplaced, and how financial planners can help clients prepare for life...
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Bob Keebler on Avoiding Costly Estate Planning Mistakes
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Some of the biggest planning opportunities in trust and estate taxation are also the easiest to miss. In this episode, Cary Sinnett sits down with nationally recognized estate planning authority Bob Keebler to explore three highly technical areas that can dramatically impact client outcomes: portability elections, fiduciary income taxation during periods of market volatility, and the often-misunderstood Kenan doctrine. Bob explains where advisors commonly overlook opportunities, how missed elections may still be salvaged, and why funding decisions inside trusts and estates can create...
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Why the Future of Financial Planning Runs Through the CPA
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
What does the future of the CPA profession look like as advisory, financial planning, and AI reshape client expectations? In this episode of the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Podcast, Cary Sinnett sits down with Sue Coffey, CEO of Public Accounting at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, to discuss the profession’s transformation from compliance-focused work to holistic trusted advisory. Sue shares why trust has become one of the profession’s greatest competitive advantages, how technology and complexity are accelerating change, and why CPA financial planners are...
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Andrea Millar, From Financial Expert to Trusted Guide
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
What if the biggest barrier to client action is not the quality of the financial plan, but the lack of purpose behind it? In this episode, Cary Sinnett sits down with Andrea Millar to explore how life planning helps financial planners move beyond technical recommendations and uncover what truly matters most to clients. Andrea shares how deeper conversations around purpose, relationships, fulfillment, and meaning can lead to stronger engagement, clearer decision-making, and more intentional financial behavior. Together, Cary and Andrea discuss how CPA financial planners can integrate life...
info_outlineWhat is really happening with the PFS?
In this episode, Cary Sinnett talks with Matt Kidd, Chair of the AICPA PFS Credential Committee, about the modernization of the PFS Credential, including updating the PFS experienced exam, building the PFP Champions program, expanding avenues to earn the PFS Credential like the PFS Live workshop, growing the visibility of the PFS credential nationwide by highlighting CPA/PFS Financial Planners.
They discuss why tax is becoming the gravitational center of financial planning, how CPA financial planners are uniquely positioned to deliver integrated advice, and what both seasoned CPAs and the next generation should understand about the power of adding the PFS.
Top Takeaways
• The PFS exam and Body of Knowledge are being updated to reflect real-world, tax-integrated planning.
• CPA financial planners have a structural advantage in delivering holistic advice.
• Raising awareness starts with proudly displaying the CPA/PFS credential.
PFS Resources:
• PFS Credential
• PFS Live Workshop
• PFS Handbook
• PFS Business Experience
• PFS Infographic
• Earning your credential info
• Engage 2026
This episode is brought to you by the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning Section, the premier provider of information, tools, advocacy, and guidance for professionals who specialize in providing tax, estate, retirement, risk management and investment planning advice. Also, by the CPA/PFS credential program, which allows CPAs to demonstrate competence and confidence in providing these services to their clients. Visit us online to join our community, gain access to valuable member-only benefits or learn about our PFP certificate program.
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