AICPA to Release Quarterly Economic Gauge of Average Americans’ Finances;
Measuring the financial pleasure and pain of typical American households
NEW YORK (April 25, 2016) – The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) will release the results of the AICPA PFSi (Personal Financial Satisfaction Index), a quarterly economic gauge that measures the personal financial standing of a typical American, at 7:00 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, April 27, 2016.
The PFSi weighs a variety of economic factors to calculate the personal financial satisfaction of a typical American.
Using both proprietary and normalized U.S. government data, the PFSi is comprised of two component indices that measure positive (Personal Financial Pleasure) and negative (Personal Financial Pain) factors equally. As a point of comparison, the University of Michigan’s monthly Consumer Sentiment Survey, released next on April 29, questions American households on their financial conditions and attitudes about the economy.
Pleasure factors include the proprietary PFS 750 Market Index, comprised of the 750 largest companies by market capitalization trading on the U.S. market, excluding mutual funds and ETFs. The additional components are the AICPA’s CPA Outlook Index, as well as Real Home Equity Per Capita and Job Openings Per Capita.
Pain factors include inflation, personal taxes, loan delinquencies and underemployment.
Additional information on the PFSi can be found here.
About the AICPA’s PFP Division
The AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning (PFP) Section is the premier provider of information, tools, advocacy, and guidance for CPAs who specialize in providing estate, tax, retirement, risk management, and investment planning advice to individuals, families and business owners. The primary objective of the PFP Section is to support its members by providing resources that enable them to perform valuable PFP services in the highest professional manner.
CPA financial planners are uniquely able to integrate their extensive knowledge of tax and business planning with all areas of personal financial planning to provide objective and comprehensive guidance for their clients. The AICPA offers the Personal Financial Specialist (CPA/PFS) credential exclusively to CPAs who have demonstrated their expertise in personal financial planning through testing, experience and learning, enabling CPAs to gain competence and confidence in PFP disciplines.
About the AICPA
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the world’s largest member association representing the accounting profession, with more than 412,000 members in 144 countries, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting.
The AICPA sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, and offers specialty credentials for CPAs who concentrate on personal financial planning; forensic accounting; business valuation; and information management and technology assurance. Through a joint venture with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), it has established the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation which sets a new standard for global recognition of management accounting.
The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Durham, NC, and Ewing, NJ.
