Emily Millsap, a professional from Avantax Wealth Management, discusses the critical integration of tax strategies in financial planning. She highlights the importance of collaboration between financial planners and tax professionals to enhance client outcomes. Emily shares effective communication techniques and tailored approaches that align financial goals with personal values. She also emphasizes the necessity of ongoing education and teamwork for improving client service and navigating complex tax issues with confidence.
Integrating tax planning into financial advisory services fosters more informed client decisions and enhances overall financial outcomes.
Establishing systematic processes within advisory teams ensures consistent application of best practices, promoting personalized client experiences and efficiency.
Deep dives
The Importance of Holistic Tax Planning
Tax planning is essential for clients as it integrates various aspects of their financial lives, moving beyond the traditional siloed approach of discussing taxes, investment, and insurance separately. Many clients overlook the significance of discussing tax implications with their financial advisory team, often leading to missed opportunities for effective financial planning. A cooperative relationship between financial advisors and tax professionals enhances the understanding of the overall financial picture, allowing clients to make well-informed decisions. For instance, discussing holistic strategies such as Roth conversions can reveal potential advantages, such as minimizing future required minimum distributions.
Benefits of Collaborative Client Conversations
Encouraging collaborative discussions with clients leads to successful financial outcomes and deeper understanding of their personal goals. Through constructive dialogue, advisors can identify scenarios that highlight the trade-offs of various strategies, prompting proactive tax planning. For example, when considering Roth conversions, discussions around long-term charitable giving intentions can significantly influence whether to pay taxes now or later. These conversations emphasize the importance of asking the right questions to tailor strategies that align with the client's overall financial objectives.
Creating Effective Processes for Tax Planning
Establishing systematic processes within an advisory team ensures consistent application of best practices in tax planning for all clients. Regular reviews and updates of these processes facilitate the team’s ability to personalize client experiences while remaining efficient, addressing both systemic and individual client needs. For example, conducting internal previews of financial plans with CPAs and advisors before presenting them to clients ensures a collaborative and accurate delivery of information. This structured approach not only mitigates risks but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation to changing tax laws.
In this episode Steven is joined by Emily Millsap, CFP®, from Avantax Wealth Management for a great conversation around the value (and best practices) on integrating tax in the client service experience for financial planners. Emily dives into the details and shares how she creates, refines and updates processes that can help clients pursue their financial goals. Every client situation is different but by having (and constantly improving) great systems, Emily can help ensure her team is understanding client goals and then recommending tax-planning strategies designed to support their short- and long-term needs.