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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 107,000 CFP® professionals to provide valuable information on economic performance and consumer/investor sentiment.
Winter 2026 Results
CFP® professionals report that their clients have a slightly more positive financial outlook than three months ago. Even more notable, CFP® professionals’ own financial outlook improved over the past quarter.
Half of CFP® professionals describe their clients’ financial outlook as positive, up slightly from the Fall 2025 survey but below the level from a year earlier. Two in five CFP® professionals say their clients have a neutral outlook. Moreover, four in five clients’ sentiment has either remained steady (44%) or improved (36%) over the past year.
Nearly two-thirds of CFP® professionals share a positive personal financial outlook, the highest percentage since Fall 2024. Two in five CFP® professionals have a more optimistic personal financial assessment compared to a year earlier, while 16% are more pessimistic about their financial outlook than a year ago.
The optimism about one’s personal financial future endures even as most CFP® professionals do not expect the economy to improve in the coming year. Only 31% of CFP® professionals predict better economic conditions over the next year, with nearly as many expecting a deterioration.
Finally, 69% of CFP® professionals report that their client bases have grown over the past year, and 73% anticipate their client bases expanding 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.)
|
|
Index |
Positive |
Neutral |
Negative |
|
Winter 2026 |
70 |
50% |
41% |
9% |
|
Fall 2025 |
66 |
46% |
40% |
14% |
|
Summer 2025 |
65 |
47% |
37% |
16% |
|
Spring 2025 |
44 |
23% |
41% |
36% |
|
Winter 2025 |
74 |
54% |
39% |
7% |
|
Fall 2024 |
65 |
42% |
45% |
13% |
Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
Read the Full Report With Seven CFP® Professionals Sentiment Indices