← AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
The Inflection Point for CPA Financial Planners: Why Now Matters
00:26:57
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign I'm Carey Sinnett and this is your Personal Financial Planning Podcast. Today we sit down with someone who has walked nearly every path available in the CPA profession, from CFO and turnaround strategist to media spokesperson, national volunteer leader, Leonard Wright. He's a cpa, pfs, cfp, clu, even a Chartered Financial Consultant and is the current Chair of the PFP Executive Committee. And when Leonard talks about planning, it's not just theory, it's field tested leadership forged through decades of practice, advocacy and mentorship. Welcome to the American Institute of CPAs Personal financial planning Podcast. I'm Kari Sinnett. As a leader of the PFS designation, the financial planning credential exclusively available to CPAs, my role is to keep you informed, educated and connected to a premier community of thought leaders delivering trusted financial planning. We explore the full range of planning topics and the current events shaping our profession. If you're an advisor, a CPA financial planner, or simply want an inside look at today's topic of the Vision for CPA Financial Planners, in this episode, Leonard shares why this is a pivotal moment for CPA financial planners. We'll explore the growing momentum of the PFP movement, what it means for firms of every size, and how tax as a gateway to planning can open the door to deeper, more values aligned client conversations. Whether you're new to the PFP profession or a seasoned CPA looking to expand your reach, Leonard brings clarity, vision and a passionate call to action that you won't want to miss. Leonard, welcome to the podcast.
- [02:00]
B
Thank you Kerry for having me. It's great to be here.
- [02:02]
A
Excellent. Leonard, you've spent years as a champion for the CPA profession and now you're chairing the PFP Executive Committee. From your perspective, what makes this Moment unique for CPAs in personal financial planning?
- [02:21]
B
This is the most exciting time in the history of our profession to be in business. So at the largest CPA conference globally in Las Vegas last June, Mark Koziel shared how he grew his firm in Buffalo. By adding different lines of business in a marketplace that was relatively stagnant, he found a way to grow his company substantially. And so what I would say is we all are in different marketplaces across the country. There's never been a better time to thrive. This is our opportunity as a profession to add financial planning services as a natural extension to tax compliance services. Artificial intelligence is transforming everything that we know to be true. Tax preparation software will be taking client information and helping prepare tax returns and an increasing sophistication level and the lines between tax Compliance and financial planning will begin to blur. Already, financial planning software is importing a PDF of the tax return and providing tax planning options for clients. Financial planning software I currently use takes each element of the spending plan on my client over years and calculates an estimate of the tax liability and projects those differences in asset growth over time due to different tax strategies that we implement in a picture based format using Monte Carlo analysis. Clients are beginning to ask AI questions before contacting their cpa. And if a CPA cannot get back to them quickly, clients are starting to get their own answers on ChatGPT or Grok or wherever they go. Assume the complexities of taxation will be reduced for general tax compliance and the natural elevation of our profession to integrate holistic financial planning will become a natural extension of what we all do. The good news for tax compliance professionals is that there is a natural extension of financial planning services to complement services in an evolving world.
- [04:37]
A
Wow, Leonard, that is a mouthful. There's a lot going on and you started with talking about Mark Kosio and how he started his practice that he talked about at Engage 2025. I know you were there, Mark was there. And this is a good time to talk about Eng 2026 will be in June in Las Vegas. You can go to the AICPA website and look up engage 26 if you want to be there with Leonard, with Mark and these other thought leaders. Well, Leonard, you have helped shape the PFP profession at the state and national level. And it really is becoming this movement, I'm going to call it the PFP movement for CPAs. And it's been this huge momentum. What are you the most proud of as you reflect on your executive committee's recent work and what do you have on the horizon?
- [05:37]
B
There's a lot in this area. You know, I think part of it is going back and taking a look at, you know, the history of our committee and what we've done. A lot of people don't realize the extensive work that's been done to shape not only certain practices nationally, but globally. So I'll start with a couple key achievements that we've been looking at. I mean, I've had the privilege to kind of step in about halfway through the year. So there's a lot of work that was already engaged. But you know, the reality is this is work that we've been doing as a committee really for decades now. So we stand on tall shoulders of so many people that created, you know, back then was what was our present, their future and our present. And now we're having the opportunity to create another future. So one key area is the global fiduciary investment best practices. We do the technical oversight and review and we just approved that as a committee in July, the latest revision. And so to give you a little bit of background on that, which is very interesting, and again, it's the global fiduciary best practices. The AICPA originally partnered way back in the day with a gentleman by the name of Don Trone at the center for Fiduciary Studies and the CFA Institute. And it was our PFP Executive Committee that provided the technical oversight and review. Now the partnership evolved the Fi360 and Blaine Aiken, which became part of Broadridge. And the most recent refreshing of the best practices was just to prove, as I mentioned last July, some names to drop in that area of people that were there at the very beginning. And there's a new evolution to the new generation, the up and coming generation. But it's Clark Blackmun the second. Clark Blackmun III is involved with the the new best practices. Charles Colwell, Mark Dotson, Scott Sprinkle and Frank Stewart. Those who study under the guise can achieve what's called an accredited investment fiduciary aif. And although I haven't checked it recently, I've heard that about half of the 401k advisors out there currently carry the accredited investment fiduciary. So it's investment stewards, people who might be trustees. It's good to gain insight and knowledge in terms of those best practices. And so it really sets the table for the best practices on people that are involved with other people's money, regardless if it's an investment advisor or a trustee. So that's a huge deal. And AICPA has been heavily involved with it and that's part of the PFP Executive committee. And so that's very exciting. The other is standards, financial planning standards. And they're really, at the end of the day, they're really global financial planning standards. And where did those come from? Those are statements of responsibility originally and the statements of responsibility about 10 years ago became the standards and we're currently going through refresh of those standards. Now. There's a lot of evolution. I'm going to share that Susan Tillery has currently been leading the task force around standards for the last year and a half. And generally speaking, it's about once every 10 years we get together and refresh. But what I would say is a decision that we made in large part because there's so much evolution going on. Due to artificial intelligence, that the committee will be a standing committee. And so therefore we won't be shutting it down and bringing it back up again. It'll be a persistent committee. And so the reality is that each element of a financial plan is touched by tax compliance. Question is, how do tax practitioners add forward looking tax compliance, known as financial planning, to the practice? I think it'll be a good idea for everyone to review the financial planning standards because that is a value that we can give our clients, because our clients are looking for, you know, what is it that our tax compliance, CPA tax practitioner can add in terms of value over time. And that's financial planning. And then you mentioned artificial intelligence. How does that impact practice standards over time? There's very rapid change happening with respect to artificial intelligence. So bottom line is clients have a very strong desire for their tax practitioner to provide forward looking advice that they believe is important to them and transformative in their financial lives. So what does that look like going forward? I think that's going to be some questions that we talk about. And then the other interesting thing is as investment advisory firms add tax compliance to the practice, there's a big discussion in those circles, how does the combination of services impact the public's perception of our profession? So there's just a lot of change going on and a lot of dialogue that we'll have on that committee. And as part of our work over the next couple of years, we'll look at, you know, where is it precisely the tax compliance ends and financial planning begins? I don't think that's been properly defined. And so we'll take a good look at that. So we've looked at global investment best practices, huge impact globally through the PFP Executive committee. And we've looked at the standards that impact financial planning across not only the country, but globally through icpa, sema. But we also do other things. We have Marianella Collado that heads up the tax estate and PfP integration tax force. We have a PFP leg reg task force. What does that look like going forward? How is it that we might be able to make suggestions that positively impact all Americans? One of the things at the AICPA we had Benjamin Banks and you know, financial literacy was a very big part of the ICPA for many years. That's run its natural course recently. But what does that look like going forward in terms of how legislation, regulation and our role in helping all Americans achieve an on track for retirement status? What might that look like through our efforts? We were just recently commenting on the regulations related to the implementation of a Secure Act 2.0. There's a lot of complexity around how the Savers accounts. It's no longer going to be a Savers credit, but it's going to be a Savers match. And what does that look like? And we provided some good insights regarding the regulations that were just issued by the IRS in that area. So there's a lot that we can do as an organization to benefit all Americans in that respect. And there's, there's quite a bit to sort out over the coming year, which is really very exciting. Never a dull moment. And I think that's the one thing I would say is if you're, if you're not involved with either your local state, society or here at the icp, I would highly recommend. A great place to start is attending the Engage Conference and we'll talk a little bit about the PFP Symposium in San Diego coming up in January. But it's that involvement, that connection to other people, to the leaders of the profession, and it's really an exciting opportunity to forage your career through the greatness of others because so many people are great in this amazing organization.
- [13:48]
A
Leonard, that is such good insight. And you've really talked about the entire spectrum from financial literature to the global fiduciary standards and everything in between. And what do you think we can do to elevate the awareness of financial planning as a core CPA service, especially for small firms and younger professionals?
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B
Yeah, so there are three key areas that I look at. It's very easy to kind of check off the list. One is, is join the PFP section. There are many resources in the PFP section. And so join the PFP section.
- [14:30]
A
Leonard, since you mentioned that, here's a quick ad for the PfP section. Go to aicpa.org PfP for $269 a year, you get access to a library of resources. I'll mention it at the end as well, where you get to see resources that have been developed by thought leaders like Leonard and others, along with webcasts and great professional insights. Leonard, so nice of you to say that so that I can plug that quick ad. What's your second of three items to help create awareness?
- [15:05]
B
Number two, we have the PfP symposium in San Diego in January. Every year we have a PFP symposium. These are some of the top people in America that practice financial planning. It's a great team of people to network in. So if you are considering adding PFP services or even if you're not Considering, just go take a peek. And it's in San Diego, January 21st, 23rd. Some of the topics include estate planning, the impact of AI on behavioral finance, portfolio strategies in a changing world. You know, the worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to learn something for your own portfolio. And probably what's going to happen is you're going to meet people to say, hey, I like that guy or gal, and I need to follow up because they're very smart and they can benefit the integration of financial planning services into my practice. So in a worst case scenario, you learn enough for your own portfolios and you'll get intellectual capital around that. Probably what will happen is, is you'll start to think proactively about integrating financial planning services for the benefit of your clients. Because clients ask. I think one of the most important points that I like to make here is as a financial planner, I can't tell you how many times that I'm sitting in front of a client and they say, I wish my CPA practitioner would be a little bit more forward thinking. They desperately crave that extra service to be added to, you know, to their service model. And so, yeah, so anyhow, come enjoy. San Diego's a little warmer in the wintertime. Get out of the snow and enjoy the sunshine of San Diego. So January 21st, 23rd, the next one is attend, Engage. You know, was mentioned a little bit earlier. It's in June in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the largest CPA conference in the world. There are about 5,000 of us that descend upon the Aria every single year. And you get to meet Mark, you get to meet the leaders of the AICPA and our volunteer army. We are an army of great people and we'd love to see you there. So wide topics, multiple disciplines. It's like I could be wrong on this. I'm probably going to get corrected. It's probably about seven different disciplines from estate planning to tax compliance to valuation service, all kinds of different topics. And so regardless of what your passion is, you're going to spend three to four action packed days getting to meet very exciting people that'll benefit your practice. So Those are the three areas. Join the PfP section, attend the PfP symposium in San Diego, and join us in Las Vegas, Nevada every year in June. You'll be very grateful that you did awesome.
- [17:54]
A
Well. And he referred to Mark a couple of times as Mark Koziol, the head of the aicpa. Leonard, we often talk about tax being essentially the avenue through which you, you Then advance this higher skill set or let's call it an additional skill set. How have you seen CPA financial planners use their tax skill set to evolve into broader planning conversations and deepen client relationships? And why is that valuable?
- [18:29]
B
You know, it's interesting. So conceptually here I'm going to paint a picture. So the picture I'm going to paint is a wheel. Think of it as a wheel. So when I talk with my client in a fact finding meeting at the very beginning, I ask him all kinds of different questions and I close the meeting with the image of what I'm about to share. It's the image of a wheel. And think of that wheel as different elements of a plan. So it could be education, planning, it could be retirement planning, it could be insurance risk based planning, which by the way, I just want to say there's a very good text on risk management planning that covers all aspects of risk management planning as preparation for the PFS credential. It was written by Tom and Susan Tillery. It's an exceptional resource around risk management. And so that is an area that we can really help out our class. But every aspect of a financial plan, estate planning, et cetera, it's pieces of the pie, but it's wrapped in the cloak of taxation. So you know, think about the color surrounding the, the entire circumference of that wheel as tax. Because tax touches everything that we know to be true in financial planning. So it's a natural extension. And so when I'm speaking with a client about what their mission, vision, values and goals are at the very end, after all the note taking, I then overlay what it is that's important to them and then discuss the tax implications of doing things a little bit differently. And all of a sudden they realize that tax benefit, they realize that taxes really do impact every part of that financial plan. And so true to form, the taxation around the circumference of the financial planning wheel impacts every aspect of their life. Not just this year, not last year, not just next year. But it really levers up their financial well being over time. And so I think that's, that's very important to take into consideration.
- [20:42]
A
Well, Leonard, let's look ahead. So get out your crystal ball and what's your vision for the future of the PFP executive committee and the CPA financial planning profession more broadly? What excites you most?
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B
You know, like anything in life, life is driven by the greatness of people. So what I see is a community of amazing people to serve other amazing people who are our clients. And so, you know, I'll go back to many years ago when I was chief operations officer back in the 80s of one of the largest jewelers in America. I came up with my mission statement which was working together to promote people progress and productivity. It's all about people first. Without people, you can't have that progress and you can't have productivity without the first two. And so they, you know, that order is very important. I, I look at today as being an inflection point that the world has never known. I mean, we went through the industrial age, but something fundamentally different is going on today. And how exciting is it? You know, everything we know to be true will be different in five to ten years. Profound changes have already occurred, you know, within our profession around the utilization of AI. And we have Microsoft Copilot. And by the way, you know, when I was at the last Engage conference, there was three and a half hours on the keyboard. So I saw things I'd never seen before. People that have expertise in AI. I was there for three and a half hours absolutely awestruck on what the opportunities are. So that is another reason why we go to these conferences. We're certainly getting exposed to it, but we have the best people in America at these conferences open our eyes. It's amazing. One of my friends is a managing partner at BDO and he invites me to their annual CPE event for clients of COIs. What I see happening at the creation of efficiencies around artificial intelligence is just incredibly exciting. So what I would say is regardless of how many years you have served your clients, you could be just starting out, you could be mid career or you could be like me. I have white hair. You can't see it verbally, but I'm sitting here with white hair. Of course I've had white hairs for a long time. But be that as it may, it's a great opportunity to take a look at the expertise that we've built and stack on that expertise with financial planning. I see CPAs combining their tax compliance expertise with financial planning, becoming a dynamic partner with their clients in their financial future. Not just how their clients run their businesses, but how is it that the CPA can be instrumental in delivering outcomes long term, fundamentally different outcomes for the clients from a financial perspective. I'll share this personal experience with artificial intelligence and communication. This is just at a very low level. How we communicate with clients is really becoming transformative. I took a book I wrote and in only four and a half hours I created 26 different Word docs, upload it to a video program and it automatically, automatically formatted 26 different two minute videos that I could distribute to my clients regarding the content of my book. Imagine the communications to our clients with whatever it is that you do to highlight your exceptionalism just with what's going on today, let alone what's going to be happening tomorrow. So that's just one of the many opportunities in AI to enhance communications the client so bottom line is, I think we're in a new dawn for America and there's never been a better time to add financial planning as a service business to your tax compliance practice. It's an exciting opportunity.
- [24:48]
A
Leonard, thank you for sharing with our community of listeners.
- [24:53]
B
It's been a lot of fun.
- [24:54]
A
Thank you Carrie and if you're an advisor who wants to deliver premier financial planning with confidence, you might want to take Leonard's advice and explore everything the AICPA PFP section has to offer. AICPA members get, as I mentioned earlier, access to a library of technical guidance, webcasts, planning tools, expert insights, all designed to help you serve your client at the highest level. And this one's near and dear to my heart. If you're a CPA with 3,000 hours or more of financial planning experience already, consider showing your expertise next to your name by obtaining the PFS credential@aicpa.org PFS this is our podcast together. If this episode helped you in your practice, we'd be grateful if you shared it with your professional community. With over 550,000 downloads so far, the AICPA PFP podcast is helping to advance the profession one listener at a time. This has been Kerry Sinnett for the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Division. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep earning trust through clarity, guiding with compassion, and delivering premier planning that elevates our profession.
- [26:16]
C
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