Sidney Kess, a personal remembrance

Editor’s note: Andrea Millar served as the leader of the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning section from 2006 through 2020 and still works part-time for the division. She first met Sidney Kess when he invited her to serve on a panel at the Tax Strategies for High Income Individuals Conference in 2007. To Millar, Kess was more than just a legend in the accounting profession. He was also a huge supporter of the PFP section, an advocate for the personal financial planning and tax disciplines, and a dear friend. Following are a few of Millar’s memories of Kess, who remained a vibrant force in accounting right up until his passing last week at age 97.

You could apply the six degrees of separation game to Sid Kess and the CPA profession. Everyone has a story of how Sid helped them — whether through educating them for the CPA Exam back in the day, educating them on tax and financial planning topics, which he did from the 1950s through to last week, or witnessing his beautiful and inclusive leadership style through his conference and educational roles.

Year after year at the Tax Strategies for the High-Income Individuals Conference, Sid waited by the registration desk as attendees turned in their CPE forms at the end of the conference. He personally thanked each attendee and shook each of their hands. They were in awe of his appreciation for them being there. After all, Sid Kess was known as the rock star of the tax and personal financial planning worlds.

At the core of Sid were his deep relationships. Sid had a wonderful heart and loved to help others. Anyone who knew him well could see that he had a lightbulb glowing from within. He was so excited to meet with CPAs in person and have the next conference with the best education available to help CPAs give the best advice for their clients. He was the connector of people for the betterment of everyone.

There are AICPA members and subject matter experts who will attribute their entire business success to the connections that Sid Kess made for them. He was able to attract top speakers who would normally charge thousands of dollars per session to speak gratis at AICPA events. People respected Sid immensely and were pleased to do whatever he asked so that they could help him or the organizations he served. Members will talk about how Sid checked in with them regularly just to see how they were doing.

I left my full-time AICPA role in 2020 to pursue creation of my life planning and coaching business. As Sid did with so many others, he thought of me and helped me in this new role. I can attribute many of the clients I have today from connections that Sid made for me. That’s the kind of man he was. Always looking out for the best interest of others.

Sid once called me from the hospital after he underwent knee surgery. He was still drugged up from the operation. He wanted to share ideas with me that he had about the AICPA PFP Section! He always had fresh and new ideas. He told me he had been full of fresh ideas since he was 10 years old.

The AICPA PFP Section grew significantly once Sid got directly involved. In addition to his incomparable gift for education, he was also a very talented marketer. He created a PFP column in the New York state society magazine, The CPA Journal, and he created a PFP conference in New York. He made the AICPA Tax Strategies and Sophisticated Tax conferences a platform for letting CPAs know what financial planning is and why they would make great financial planners.

He used all these avenues as a platform for getting CPAs to join the AICPA PFP Section. He was also involved in grassroots effort to create a university course in financial planning that was tied to the master’s in tax programs. He was single-handedly responsible for getting many universities to adopt Susan and Tom Tillery’s PFP textbook, which was published by the AICPA. He spent his personal time going to firms to encourage them to add financial planning services and to join the AICPA PFP section for support. As a result of his tireless efforts, he was honored with the AICPA PFP Distinguished Service Award in 2016. He was honored with the AICPA PFP lifetime achievement award in 2022.

While Sid was known for the CPA profession’s all-time most amazing educator, he is even more known for how much he cared. He always asked how you were doing personally. He always wanted to know about your family. He always made sure to share that there is nothing more important than family.

I remember being at one of his conferences and he came to sit down with me and talk to me about what was most important in life. He was worried I worked too much, and he wanted to make sure I knew that people and relationships mattered most. He checked in with me regularly to make sure I was working on my relationship with my significant other. He also shared his own stories about how much his kids and grandkids meant to him. He was so proud of them. He talked about how much he loved and admired their mom.

Losing Sid is like losing a parent to the profession. He provided a beautiful caring and giving net for us all.

— Andrea Millar, RLP, CSA, CFLA, CPA/PFS, works for the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning section and also is the founder, life planner, and coach of Andrea Millar Life Planning. To comment on this article, contact her at andrea.millar@aicpa-cima.com or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Jeff Drew at jeff.drew@aicpa-cima.com.