Follow us: CPAs take lead in financial literacy.

• Author: Ascierto, Jerry
• Position: Certified public accountants

WHAT IF YOU GAVE a party and everybody came? CalCPA did. We called on CPAs, educators, students, consumer groups, nonprofits, legislators, regulatory agencies and others to imagine a California in which everyone--children, adults, young and old, and families--have a secure financial future. And more than 500 individuals representing all of those groups, as well as the public, answered CalCPA's call April 26 and convened at the Sacramento Convention Center for the inaugural California Summit on Financial Literacy.

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"What a day!" said CalCPA CEO Loretta Doon, CPA, who hosted the event. "The summit has placed CalCPA and the profession at the forefront of the fight against financial illiteracy in California--and the nation. The summit has created a tremendous buzz; it literally is being talked about across the nation."

Since the summit, CalCPA has had requests from organizations across the country and throughout California to collaborate on financial literacy programs, provide CPA experts as speakers, distribute materials and share tips on how to launch similar efforts. Additionally, legislators are reaching out to CalCPA to host Dollars & Sense workshops in their districts, and the media has taken an increased interest in interviewing CPAs to discuss personal finance topics.

The summit was a culmination of a year's effort by co-hosts CalCPA, CalCPA Institute, the California Jump$tart Coalition and the California CPA Education Foundation.

"When the planning started for this event, we felt 200 attendees would be a huge success," said Stanley Breitbard, CalCPA life member and chairman emeritus of the California Jump$tart Coalition. "It was tremendously rewarding to walk into a standing room only situation today--more than 500 people attended the summit."

"No one knows better than CPAs about what a huge problem financial illiteracy is--it is rampant throughout our state and our country," said Mitchell Freedman, CPA/PFS, a founder and chair of the California Jump$tart Coalition and a member of CalCPA's Financial Literacy Committee. "That's why it made sense for the California Jump$tart Coalition to partner with CalCPA on this event."

The summit was designed to review the state of financial literacy in California, create a vision of a financially literate California and develop a blueprint for success.

According to Robert Duvall, president and CEO of the National Council on Economic Education, a nonprofit organization that trains elementary, middle and high school teachers in economics and personal finance, the summit's timing was perfect. "Financial literacy has become a front page issue. People are increasingly aware of the problem, so we must seize this opportunity and make a difference," he said.

THE (NOT SO) STARTLING REALITY

Like CalCPA's financial literacy initiative, the summit was about improving the financial literacy of all Californians, with significant focus on helping students and young adults.

"Our nation's young people stand to inherit an increasingly complex and rapidly changing economy, yet too many are unprepared for the challenges ahead," Duvall said. "Getting to kids effectively, while they're still at school, is the best practice to improve financial literacy."

Lewis Mandell, a professor at the State University of New York at the Buffalo School of Management, presented the audience with recent findings from the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy's biennial survey, which in 2006 tested 5,775 high school students on basic financial literacy concepts, such as managing credit cards, insurance, retirement funds and savings accounts.

"In 1997, the average test score was 57 percent, not even close to a passing grade," said Mandell, who has conducted the survey since its inception. But in this year's test, the...