AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)

What happens when a widely used tax strategy suddenly comes under IRS scrutiny? For advisors working with clients who hold concentrated stock positions, that question has become very real.

In this joint episode of the PFP Podcast and Tax Section Odyssey, Cary Sinnett talks with nationally recognized tax expert Bob Keebler about recent IRS guidance affecting certain Section 351 ETF conversion strategies. They discuss how the step transaction doctrine may apply, why some previously completed transactions could face scrutiny, and what advisors should be doing now for clients who have used or are considering these strategies.

What You'll Learn

• Why the IRS is focusing on transactions that combine a Section 351 contribution with a rapid ETF redemption
• How timing can influence whether multiple steps are viewed as independent transactions or a single integrated plan
• What characteristics may increase scrutiny, including prearranged diversification strategies and marketing materials
• What advisors should consider when reviewing clients who have already completed a Section 351 ETF conversion
• Why documentation, professional guidance, and penalty protection may become increasingly important as these transactions are challenged

Practical Takeaway Review any client Section 351 ETF conversions with a focus on timing, documentation, and transaction structure. For clients with significant exposure, consulting a tax specialist before filing may help clarify risks and reporting positions.

More broadly, this episode serves as a reminder that advisors add value by looking beyond the promised tax outcome and evaluating whether a strategy's substance supports its intended tax treatment.

AICPA Resource Resource: Section 351 Resource Podcast: How CPAs Are Shaping the Future of Financial Planning with Jimmy Williams Resource: Planning after tax changes Resource: Prudent Practices for Investment Advisors and Investment Stewards

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

What does it take to uncover the financial truth behind a multibillion-dollar securities fraud case?

In this episode, Cary Sinnett talks with forensic accounting expert Chris Davis about his work supporting plaintiffs' attorneys in a multibillion-dollar securities fraud case involving Elon Musk. Chris explains how forensic accountants analyze complex financial records and SEC filings, then translate technical findings into clear evidence that attorneys and juries can understand. His role was separate from the damages expert's analysis.

The discussion also explores how forensic accounting intersects with financial planning. From divorce and estate disputes to fraud concerns and elder financial abuse, CPA financial planners may encounter situations that require deeper financial investigation. Chris discusses the value of forensic expertise, the standards that support credible work, and why the Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) credential may be worth considering for some CPAs.

What you'll learn:

• How forensic accountants transform complex financial data into understandable evidence
• Why independence, objectivity, and professional standards are critical in forensic work
• Where forensic accounting intersects with divorce, estate disputes, fraud investigations, and elder financial abuse
• How financial planners can recognize when forensic expertise may be needed

Financial planners do not need to become investigators, but they should recognize when financial information raises questions that may require specialized forensic accounting expertise.

PFP Resources:

• Resource: Business exit transitions for CPA financial planners
• Resource: Tax and Financial Planning Tips: Marriage and Divorce
• Podcast: Preventing and responding to elder financial exploitation
• Learning: What is the CFF credential?

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

AI is getting faster at producing technical answers. So, what will make clients continue to choose you?

In this episode, Cary Sinnett and Brianne Smith explore how AI is reshaping financial planning and why human judgment, empathy and connection matter more than ever. Learn how advisors can use technology to spend less time on manual work and more time helping clients navigate the decisions that matter most.

What you'll learn:

• Where advisors provide value that AI cannot replicate
• How AI can amplify strong or weak professional judgment
• Why empathy and communication are competitive advantages
• How technology can create more time for meaningful client conversations
• What the next generation of advisors needs to succeed

Practical takeaway: Let AI make the work faster. Your judgment, perspective and human connection are what make the advice valuable.

PFP Resources: Resource: AI resources for accounting and finance Podcast: Andrea Millar, From Financial Expert to Trusted Guide Learning: Transformative Skills Pack

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

A footnote in the Joint Committee on Taxation's Blue Book may create significant tax consequences for trusts and estates beginning in 2026.

In this episode, Bob Keebler joins Cary Sinnett to explain why Footnote 102 has raised concerns about applying the new 2/37ths limitation to distributable net income, charitable deductions and other trust and estate deductions. They explore how the limitation could create phantom income and affect charitable planning, inherited IRAs, Roth conversions, fiscal-year elections and trusts with multiple levels of distribution.

What you'll learn

• Why Footnote 102 is generating so much discussion among trust and estate professionals.
• How the new limitation could create unexpected tax consequences.
• What it may mean for charitable giving, inherited IRAs and beneficiary planning.
• Why fiscal-year elections could become more valuable.
• How the rules could affect Roth conversion and trust planning strategies.
• Why planners should prepare clients for multiple possible outcomes.

Bob Keebler also explains why practitioners should carefully communicate the current uncertainty, review beneficiary and charitable planning strategies, and evaluate potential outcomes before making recommendations.

PFP Resources:

Archive: Understanding the Estate of Grace and its Progeny Resource: Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Chart Podcast: Jeff Levine on the Planning Tug-of-War: Income vs. Estate Resource: Useful Estate and Trust Decision Charts

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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.
• How planners can help clients move forward confidently despite uncertainty.
• Why advice adherence often breaks down when recommendations are disconnected from a client's sense of purpose.
• How linking financial decisions to personal goals and values can motivate clients to take action.
• How empathy, curiosity and active listening can help planners recognize hesitation and uncover a client's real concerns.
• The simple questions Carl uses to encourage deeper conversations and better client outcomes.
• How the best planners balance technical expertise with humility and curiosity about what matters most to their clients.

Carl also explores how financial planners can move from being problem solvers to sense makers, helping clients interpret uncertainty, connect decisions to their goals and move forward with greater confidence.

PFP Resources:

Archive: Financial Planning for Aging Clients Resource: AICPA Personal Finance Scorecard Archive: From Risk to Resilience: Disaster Planning for CPA Financial Planners Resource: Top 40 Planning Opportunities

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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 campuses and creating PFP internships to inviting young professionals into client meetings before they feel fully "ready."

What you'll learn:

• How real client stories can help students see financial planning as a meaningful career
• Why firms should consider creating dedicated PFP internship experiences
• How "graduated responsibility" can build confidence, from analysis to client meetings and recommendations
• Why pre- and post-meeting conversations can turn client exposure into professional development
• The importance of cultivating curiosity, problem-solving, communication, and the human side of advice

As technology continues to reshape the profession, Brianne argues that the ability to troubleshoot, ask better questions, communicate effectively, and connect with clients will become even more valuable. Developing those capabilities starts by intentionally giving the next generation opportunities to observe, participate, and eventually lead.

AICPA Resources: Resource: Pathways to Practicing Personal Financial Planning Archive: A story of tax to personal financial planning Podcast: Why the Future of Financial Planning Runs Through the CPA

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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 financial planning practice.
• What client psychology can teach us about financial decision-making and plan implementation.
• Why effective communication becomes especially important when clients experience major life events.
• How the client check, problem check and self check can help planners recognize when a client may need support beyond the planner's scope of competence.
• How emerging techniques such as motivational interviewing and financial anxiety assessments could influence the future of financial planning.

Dr. McCoy also explores an important opportunity for the profession: making valuable academic research more accessible and actionable for practitioners so evidence-based insights can translate into better conversations and better client outcomes.

AICPA Resources: Archive: 2026 Best Financial Planning Ideas for your Clients Podcast: Andrea Millar, From Financial Expert to Trusted Guide

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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 advantages.

What you'll learn:

• Why funded contentment starts with defining what "enough" means.
• Questions that help clients move beyond financial goals to purpose and values.
• How empathy, active listening, and emotional intelligence strengthen client relationships.
• A simple communication technique that creates deeper, more meaningful conversations.
• Why the human side of financial planning is becoming more valuable in the age of AI.

Key takeaway: As technical planning becomes increasingly automated, an advisor's greatest value may no longer be producing the right answer but helping clients discover the right questions. Financial planning is ultimately about funding a meaningful life, not simply accumulating wealth.

Resources Article: Why EQ is the future of personal financial planning Resource: Personal Financial Planning Body of Knowledge (BOK) Podcast: Andrea Millar, From Financial Expert to Trusted Guide

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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 deduction planning, and more. Bob explains why he believes the Section 645 election should be the default choice in nearly every revocable trust administration and discusses the rare situations where it may not be appropriate.

What you'll learn:

• Why estates receive more favorable income tax treatment than revocable trusts
• How the Section 645 election allows a trust to use an estate's fiscal year
• Using fiscal year flexibility to defer income and smooth taxable distributions
• How the election can effectively stretch certain inherited IRA distributions
• Why charitable deductions under IRC Section 642(c) are often more advantageous for estates
• The impact of the election on distributable net income (DNI) planning
• How the election can improve gain and loss netting in pecuniary funding situations under the Kenan case
• The interaction between the Section 645 election and S corporation stock ownership
• The limited circumstances where practitioners may intentionally avoid making the election

AICPA Resources: Chart: Useful Estate and Trust Decision Charts Podcast: Bob Keebler on Avoiding Costly Estate Planning Mistakes Resource: Summary and initial thoughts — Changes to opportunity zones Resource: 2026 Individual, Estate, and Gift Tax Cheat Sheet Guide: The Adviser's Guide to Financial & Estate Planning - Vol. 4 Program: Estate Planning Certificate Exam

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.

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. We talk about:

• The structure of IULs and why they're so often misunderstood
• The gap between marketing promises and actual performance
• The potential benefits—tax deferral and downside protection—and their trade-offs
• Why transparency and ongoing tracking matter for evaluating these products
• How planners can approach IUL conversations with clarity and objectivity

Whether you've advised clients on IULs, been pitched on them, or just want to better understand how they fit (or don't fit) into real financial planning, this episode gives you a front-row seat to an experiment playing out in real time.

AICPA Resources: Tools: Life insurance policy evaluation Podcast: Life insurance planning strategies for individuals Webcast: Advanced strategies for life insurance policies Checklist: Life insurance policy checkup

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.

Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search "AICPA Personal Financial Planning" on your favorite podcast app.