Karen Goodfriend | AICPA 2011 PFP Distinguished Service Award | 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy | Feed the Pig | CPA financial planners | KK Wealth Advisors

By Deanna C. White

Karen Goodfriend, CPA/PFS, of KK Wealth Advisors in Los Altos, California, is perhaps the most aptly named CPA financial planner in the business.

For more than fifteen years, Goodfriend has volunteered her time and substantial expertise in advancing the practice of personal financial planning and expanding financial literacy efforts for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

On January 17, the AICPA recognized that long history of service when it named Goodfriend the recipient of its 2011 Personal Financial Planning (PFP) Distinguished Service Award.

"Karen is the embodiment of what it means to be a CPA financial planner," said Jeannette Koger, the AICPA's director of specialized communities. "Through Karen's many years as a volunteer on our financial planning committees and those in her home state of California, she has worked with great enthusiasm to advance the CPA's profile as a financial planner."

"Karen is the embodiment of what it means to be a CPA financial planner," said Jeannette Koger, AICPA's director of specialized communities.

The AICPA gives the PFP Distinguished Service Award annually to an AICPA volunteer who significantly contributes to the advancement of personal financial planning as a practice discipline.

According to the AICPA, "Goodfriend, a principal founding member of KK Wealth Advisors, provides personalized financial planning to high net worth clients and is an expert in stock option planning. She has served on the AICPA's Personal Financial Planning Executive Committee and the Personal Financial Specialist Credential Committee."

"I am greatly honored to be recognized by the AICPA with this award. I have always felt it a privilege to contribute to the success of the accounting profession and the CPA financial planning community of which I am very proud," Goodfriend said.

From 2002 to 2008, Goodfriend was a member of AICPA's National CPA Financial Literacy Commission, an eighteen-member group that oversees the CPA profession's primary financial literacy efforts, 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy and Feed the Pig.

"I consider working with the AICPA to promote financial literacy to be an important and gratifying public service, especially in these challenging recent economic times," Goodfriend said.

360 Degrees of Financial Literacy is a national volunteer effort of the nation's CPAs, sponsored by the AICPA, to help Americans understand their personal finances and develop money management skills. It focuses on financial education as a lifelong endeavor – from children learning about the value of money to adults reaching a secure retirement.

Feed the Pig offers free financial information and tools to empower people twenty-five to thirty-four years of age to take charge of their personal finances and live within their means.

Goodfriend was selected by Worth magazine for its annual list of Best Financial Advisors five consecutive times, and she frequently serves as a spokesperson for the AICPA. She has been quoted by the Associated Press and in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Sacramento Bee. In addition, Goodfriend has contributed numerous articles to AICPA and CalCPA publications.

She earned a BA in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Karen Goodfriend Receives AICPA's 2011 PFP Distinguished Service Award

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