TAX PLANNING

More than filling out 1040 forms, our proactive tax planning finds more tax deductible items, creates tax-advantaged situations and teaches you how to reduce taxes for greater savings in future years. Often, the tax savings we identify are greater than our fees—essentially making our services free.

Our comprehensive Tax Planning process includes:

• Using Low-Cost, Tax-Efficient Passive Mutual Funds. By choosing the right low-cost funds for you, we limit the expense ratios you pay. By choosing tax-efficient funds for you, we reduce the annual taxes you would pay—significantly improving your bottom-line results.
• Making Smart, Tax-Efficient Asset Location Decisions. Strategically placing your investments in the appropriate taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts is one of the most effective ways to minimize your tax liabilities over time.
• Harvesting Losses Proactively for Tax Savings. At any time, a given investment within a portfolio may fall as others rise. By skillfully choosing investments to sell at a loss, we can neutralize much of the tax liability for investments that have appreciated.
• Creating Donor-Advised Funds for Appreciated Securities. Donor-advised funds provide a simple way for investors to get immediate tax deductions and avoid capital gains tax liability on appreciated assets. We set up a personal donor-advised fund in Your Family Name and then you decide where and when to make gifts to your charities.
• Funding Natural Resource Investments That Have Generous Tax Deductions. Investing in opportunities such as domestic oil and gas drilling can result in hefty write-offs for high-net-worth clients. Certain natural resource investments can also serve to mitigate or eliminate tax liabilities that arise when converting traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.
• Gifting Strategies for Tax-Free Giving. Our clients use family gifting strategies to remove assets from their taxable estates. These strategies help reduce future estate taxes, and benefit your family members immediately.
• Planning Strategies to Reduce Inter-Generational Taxes. A combination of federal and state taxes can significantly reduce the assets your heirs receive. Strategic estate planning is critical to maximizing the share that future generations will enjoy.
• Investing in College Saving Plans. With tuition inflation averaging >5% a year, you cannot afford to subject your education savings to unnecessary taxes. The right college savings plan can help ensure that you save effectively and efficiently, and gives you a state tax deduction.

TAX PREPARATION

We will gladly work cooperatively with your CPA or tax preparer. Or you may prefer to have us coordinate your tax preparation with one of the CPAs on our expert team. Our team provides income tax-preparation with a focus on proactive planning and deduction maximization. The deductions we find may more than cover the cost of our fees. For new clients, we may find overlooked deductions and recommend amending prior tax returns to claim overlooked deductions.