What is a Personal Financial Planning Specialist (PFS)? And how can a Personal Financial Planning Specialist help you? These are important questions to ask yourself – and if you haven’t yet, you may be surprised to find out how a Personal Financial Planning Specialist can help you realize your financial goals.

When looking through the yellow pages, you may have noticed the letters PFS after an individual’s name, or more often, CPA/PFS. You may also have noticed firms advertising themselves as a Personal Financial Planning Specialist partnership. This refers to more than just a chosen occupation – a Personal Financial Planning Specialist has been approved and certified by a number of associations as one of the most qualified CPAs for personal financial planning you can find.

A Personal Financial Planning Specialist is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), or a CPA for short, who has passed a rigorous amount of required education, exams and experience in order to achieve designation as an expert in personal financial planning. The credential was created by the AICPA, the National Accreditation Commission and the Personal Financial Planning Specialist Credential Committee. Currently, in order to become a Personal Financial Planning Specialist, a CPA must:

• Complete 80 hours of Personal Financial Planning education
• Serve 2 years of full-time Personal Financial Planning experience
• Pass the Personal Financial Specialist exam, or the CFP or ChFC exams.  Until December 31, 2010, a CPA can also achieve PFS status after passing the Series 7, 65, 66 and CFA exams.

Because the Personal Financial Planning Specialist credential is only awarded to CPAs who are members of the AICPA, it represents the highest professional standards of any personal financial planning credential. In fact, according to the AICPA, only about 3,800 CPA/FPS credentials have been granted to date.

Personal Financial Planning Specialists wield all the finely honed skilled of a CPA, as well as specialized experience in:

• Income Tax Planning
• Insurance Planning
• Investment Planning
• Financial Independence
• Retirement Planning
• Personal Financial Planning Process and Fundamentals of Financial Planning
• Employee Benefits
• Estate Planning
• Charitable Planning
• Special Needs

With this specialized knowledge, a Personal Financial Planning Specialist can help you create an investment plan to meet your retirement goals, save for a child’s education and structure your assets and investments advantageously. As CPAs, a Personal Financial Planning Specialist are also one of the best professionals to turn to in order to file your income tax. Note that not all companies that file your taxes for you – such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt – staff licensed CPAs. When you work with a Personal Financial Planning Specialist, you are working with a dedicated, full-time professional rather than a “seasonal” tax worker.

When deciding on a CPA or a personal financial planner, look for the CPA/PFS distinction. This credential, while not necessarily a requirement for personal financial planning, is the hallmark of an experienced and skilled personal financial planner.