Sidney Kess has received the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 2015 Personal Financial Planning Distinguished Service Award, the AICPA announced Tuesday.
The award is granted annually to an AICPA member whose volunteer efforts have made significant contributions to the growth and advancement of the personal financial planning profession. The award was presented at the AICPA’s Advanced Financial Planning Conference in Las Vegas.
Kess has authored and co-authored hundreds of publications, courses, videos, and practice aids on income tax and financial and estate planning for the AICPA. He is a recipient of the AICPA’s Gold Medal Award, the highest award granted to a CPA by the AICPA, for his major contributions to the CPA profession. He also received the AICPA’s Special Recognition and Distinguished Lecturer Awards. He was elected to the Estate Planning Hall of Fame by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils and is the recipient of the New York State Society of CPAs’ Hall of Fame award.
“Sid Kess has dedicated decades of service to the CPA profession, going above and beyond to raise the bar for CPAs who provide personal financial planning services,” says Susan Tillery, chair of AICPA’s Personal Financial Specialist Credential Committee. “His volunteer history for the AICPA began when he created the Tax Strategies for High Income Individuals Conference 30 years ago. In the last decade he has put a tremendous amount of effort into forwarding the CPA financial planning profession.”
In 2010, the AICPA established the Sidney Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education to recognize individual CPAs who have made significant and outstanding contributions in tax and financial planning