Confidence tapping into the trusted expertise of CPA financial planners.

• Author: Grainger, Angie M.
• Position: Rebuilding - Interview

The last few years have likely brought much angst to your clients when it comes to their personal finances. And as a trusted adviser, your clients may want to turn to van for help lo deal with the aftermath of the economic fluctuations and scale their jitters. Yet too often those big personal financial planning questions go unasked.

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But why?

For die answer to that question and tips on closing the gap to get appropriate financial planning advice to clients Rob Healy. CPA/PFS, CFP. chair of the CalCPA Personal Financial Planning Committee, and I spoke with several CPAs and CPA/PFS financial planners and narrowed the important points into four key areas.

1. Understanding Financial Planning

   Financial planning means different things to different people, and every planning situation is different. Clients often mistake financial planning for investment planning and CPAs often don't have a clear picture of the financial planning process either. To best address clients' concerns. CPA Sue Tollis advises that CPAs should have enough knowledge of financial planning to sort out a client's needs and recommend an appropriate referral.

   According to die AICPA's Statements on Responsibilities in a Personal Financial Planning Practice, "Personal financial planning is the process of identifying individual goals, family goals or a combination of the two; evaluating existing resources; and designing financial strategies that, when implemented, move the individual toward achieving these goals. In addition, personal financial planning may include implementing, monitoring and updating a financial plan. Personal financial planning encompasses a broad range of services in a variety of interrelated financial areas, including, but not limited to, the following:

   * Budgeting and cash How planning.

   * Income tax planning.

   * Risk management and insurance planning.

   * Retirement planning

   * Investment planning.

   * Wealth transfer planning.

   "In addition, personal financial planning often addresses more specialized issues, such as financial recordkeeping, planning for education costs, philanthropy, divorce, planning for elder issues and other issues related to clients' finances."

   Investment planning focuses primarily on bonds, securities and other types of investments traded on the markets and plans for a certain rate of return or rate of withdrawal.

   Investment planning is also commonly mistaken for investment trading, which is the buying and selling of...