Here's how to add value to your clients by offering tax planning services

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April 15, 2021

The age-old idiom, “Nothing is certain except for death and taxes,” rings especially true in financial advising. As fatalistic as the quote is, it truly does highlight how difficult it is to avoid the burden of taxes.

So for financial advisors searching for ways to add value, taxes can actually help grow your business, and providing tax services will always be a necessity for clients.

More so, tax planning services can be a differentiator for many financial advisors. Many advisors don’t provide this service, but it can actually be a competitive advantage.

With tax season here, I sat down with Kevin Lozer, Financial advisor and co-founder of Holistiplan. Holistiplan was created and designed by two CFP® professionals. As firm owners, they were constantly looking for ways to efficiently and consistently provide their financial planning service to clients. They designed tax planning software to accomplish what has historically been two competing goals: Make the financial planning process faster for advisors while creating more value for every client.

Kevin shares how easy it can be for advisors to use tax planning, powered by software, as a way to grow their business.

While taxes might not bring the first thing prospects and clients bring up during initial conversations, taxes can’t be avoided. Taxes must be filed annually and people want to make sure they’re optimizing their tax situation year over year.

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When it comes to taxes, many advisors refer clients to a CPA or a tax attorney. Giving tax advice is out of the realm for most advisors, but what if you could quickly upload clients' financial documents, generate personalized client-ready reports, and run tax scenarios for clients?

This possibility turns giving tax advice into providing tax planning services. Tax planning—not tax advice— is when advisors look to the year ahead and find potential planning opportunities and coordinate with CPAs to see where there are savings that might otherwise be missed.

A good way to look at this service is to think of tax planning as complementary to CPA tax advice. Financial advisors can make the job of the CPA easier by being forward-thinking and add value to their existing clients.

And regardless of the client type you serve, tax planning can be an enhanced service leveraged across niche markets, different audience types, and can also be used to bring in prospective clients.

add-value-with-tax-planning

Adding value can help grow your business, but to really scale your firm, you need to leverage technology. Software that makes tax planning streamlined and automated can help financial advisors become more efficient and serve more clients, better.

For example, with Holistiplan, financial advisors simply upload their client’s tax return and get a client-ready analysis in minutes. Rather than tracking financials in complex spreadsheets and conducting multiple meetings, advisors can use the software to receive a report with key metrics, tax planning opportunities, and scenario analysis tools. The efficiencies gained can allow advisors to replicate this process across their client base in a fraction of the time, with no additional resources.

Deep value is your best marketing tool. Adding services, like tax planning, can lead to more conversions, client referrals, and long-term client relationships.

Disclaimer: Altruist and its affiliates do not give legal or tax advice. The views expressed in this video by the participants are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Altruist Corp or its subsidiaries. No compensation was provided.