Free Disaster Preparedness Guide for Consumers

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the AICPA Foundation, the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®) and the American Red Cross have launched a new, broad-based disaster preparedness and planning guide to help consumers take steps to minimize financial loss before a disaster strikes.

Disasters and Financial Planning: A Guide for Preparedness will be distributed free of charge by local Red Cross chapters across the country as a public service. An online version of the guide is also available on the Red Cross Web site at www.redcross.org/financialplanning.

The guide outlines steps the public can take before disaster strikes to minimize any financial impact. It concerns the protection of one’s family, personal property, income, and important documents and records, and also provides guidance on the financial considerations of an evacuation plan.

“The CPA profession’s primary mission is to protect the public interest, and one of the ways we do this is by helping consumers prepare financially for any disaster that may strike,” said Anat Kendal, director of financial planning at the AICPA. “This guide is a comprehensive tool to help us accomplish our mission.”

The new guide expands on a previous publication called Disaster Recovery: A Guide to Financial Issues, which was issued in 2003 in collaboration with the AICPA, the AICPA Foundation, NEFE and the American Red Cross. More than 120,000 copies of the guide have been distributed to those affected by disaster. The guide provides much-needed financial advice when individuals are at their most vulnerable, after a disaster. Both guides now provide a personal financial perspective to help the public prepare and recover from a disaster.

“This past year the nation faced a multitude of natural disasters, from the California wildfires to the tornadoes in the Midwest to the hurricanes in Florida—proving that it is vital for Americans to be prepared for any type of disaster,” said Joe Becker, senior vice president of preparedness and response for the Red Cross. “This guide is one of many free tools the American public should utilize to help them prepare before a disaster, which, in turn, will help minimize financial loss.”