Donate
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 109,000 CFP® professionals to provide valuable information on economic performance and consumer/investor sentiment.
Spring 2026 Results
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professionals report that their clients are more guarded about their financial outlook this Spring than they were three months ago. The decline in sentiment reflects persistent uncertainty and heightened market volatility in recent months, driven by geopolitical events. CFP® professionals’ clients have not felt this pessimistic about their financial outlooks since Spring 2025.
Half of CFP® professionals describe their clients’ financial outlook as neutral, while 15% say their clients have a negative outlook. Although this is the highest share reporting a neutral outlook, the percentage indicating negative views among their clients is less than half of what it was in Spring 2025. Further, nearly six in seven CFP® professionals indicate that their clients’ sentiment has either worsened (43%) or held steady (41%) over the past year.
CFP® professionals are more optimistic, with 54% reporting a positive financial outlook. Half of CFP® professionals report that their personal financial outlook has been stable over the past year, with about a quarter each either growing more optimistic or more pessimistic since the spring of 2025. CFP® professionals are confident that the economy will improve from its current position in the coming year. Two in five CFP® professionals predict better economic conditions over the next year, while only a quarter expect a deterioration.
Finally, two-thirds of CFP® professionals report that their client bases have grown over the past year, and three-quarters expect them to expand 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 |
|
Spring 2026 |
61 |
36% |
49% |
15% |
|
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