The CFP® Professionals
Sentiment Indices

The CFP® Professionals Sentiment Indices (CPSI) measure the financial and economic outlooks of CFP® professionals and their clients. They provide investors, the media and the public with a new set of data that will measure the strength of the economy, leveraging the trusted advisor-client relationship. The CPSI capitalizes on the voices of more than 100,000 CFP® professionals to provide valuable information on economic performance and consumer/investor sentiment. 

Fall 2025 Results

CFP® professionals report that their clients’ financial outlook has remained steady over the past three months. There are some signs of cooling, however, with respect to CFP® professionals’ personal financial futures as well as future economic conditions more broadly.

Nearly half of CFP® professionals report that their clients have a positive financial outlook—about the same proportion as the Summer 2025 survey. A sizable 40% of CFP® professionals have difficulty deciding whether their clients hold a positive or negative outlook. Further, CFP® professionals are about equally likely (about one-third each) to report that their clients’ outlook is more positive, the same or negative relative to a year earlier. This is steady compared to three months ago.

Similarly, about half of CFP® professionals hold a positive personal financial outlook. This is somewhat lower than in the Summer 2025 survey and much lower than the two-thirds who described their personal financial outlook as positive in the Fall of 2024. Two in 5 CFP® professionals have a more positive personal financial assessment compared to a year earlier, while 1 in 5 are more pessimistic about their financial outlook than a year ago.

Overall, CFP® professionals’ broader economic expectations have cooled, with 37% believing that economic conditions will stay about the same 12 months from now and 36% anticipating worse economic conditions. One quarter of CFP® professionals expect an upturn over the next 12 months—this is the lowest proportion of CFP® professionals expressing a positive forward-looking economic outlook since the CFP® Professionals Sentiment Indices began surveying in the Fall of 2024.

Finally, 64% of CFP® professionals report that their client bases have expanded over the past year, and 72% expect to take on more clients over the next 12 months.

In your opinion, which of the following best summarizes your clients’ current financial outlook?

(A higher index score indicates clients are more positive.)

Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Archived Reports

• Summer 2025
• Spring 2025
• Winter 2025
• Fall 2024