We all know the adage about death and taxes. And we all know that no one likes paying taxes.
So, now that the 2024 tax season has ended, it’s time to plan for the 2025 tax season. It may seem early, but this is the time to show clients you have the insights and experience they’re looking for to help them minimize taxes on their next returns. This is also the time to talk to prospects about how their current Financial Advisor is helping them—or not—with tax mitigation strategies.
The lead-up to next year’s filing date helps ensure you have time to establish a clear understanding of your clients’ personal situations and financial objectives.
Should You Offer Tax Planning Services to Your Clients?
Not all Financial Advisors provide tax-focused planning and advice. If you don’t provide these services, it may be something you want to consider—because they’re highly valued by investors.
According to a 2023 study conducted by CEG Insights, tax planning was among investors’ top five most values services (more than two-thirds of respondents), while only 58% of Advisors perceived tax planning as a high-value service for their clients.[1]
Providing tax planning services to clients—particularly affluent investors—can fill a gap between the services Advisors provide and the services investors prefer. The CEG Insights study revealed that nearly 90% of wealthy investors expressed a need for tax planning services; however, close to 25% feel it’s being met.[2]
By offering tax planning services, you’re helping your clients see their entire financial landscape. You can show your experience and recommend various tax planning strategies to help clients understand different tax implications—with the overall goal of minimizing their taxes.
This doesn’t mean you need to be a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), but it does mean providing tax-aware advice on everything from tax-managed solutions to asset location to tax loss harvesting.
Partnering with a trusted CPA may extend your capabilities and create a mutual referral alliance.
Tax Solutions to Meet Your Clients’ Needs
At Symmetry Partners, recognize that your clients have a spectrum of sophisticated tax concerns, which is why we offer a variety of different solutions, including:
Delphi Plus — an innovative solution that can help your ultra-high-net-worth clients potentially build wealth with a diversified multi-strategy portfolio designed to generate diversifying sources of return with potential tax savings. Note: This solution is only available to Qualified Investors—with $5 million+ in investable assets as well as Financial Advisors. The account minimum is $250,000.
Tax-Managed Mutual Funds and Models — Evidence-Based tax-managed mutual fund models and funds offer can potentially help minimize the impact of taxes in your clients’ portfolios—and potentially maximize after-tax returns.
Tax-Managed PrecisionCore —utilizing Symmetry’s Evidence-Based philosophy, these tax-managed ETF models aim to increase the tax efficiency of your clients’ portfolios, helping them achieve their financial goals with less lost to taxes.
Tax Alpha — for clients seeking to reduce capital gains taxes, this solution is designed to help substantially limit the potential long-term impact of taxes for those with $1 million+ taxable accounts with substantial embedded capital gains. This solution can also be used to minimize the impact of taxes while diversifying from a concentrated portfolio (such as a single stock) and can be used to generate losses in advance of a liquidity event, such as the sale of a business.
Interested in learning more about implementing the right tax-management solutions for your clients? Contact your Symmetry Regional Team.
For financial professional use only. This document does not constitute tax advice or a recommendation or offer to sell or a solicitation to deal in any security or financial product. It is provided for information purposes only and on the understanding that the recipient has sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to understand and make their own evaluation of the proposals and services described herein, any risks associated therewith and any related legal, tax, accounting, or other material considerations. To the extent that the reader has any questions regarding the applicability of any specific issue discussed above to their specific portfolio or situation, prospective investors are encouraged to contact Symmetry Partners or consult with the professional Advisor of their choosing.
Certain information contained herein has been obtained from third party sources and such information has not been independently verified by Symmetry. No representation, warranty, or undertaking, expressed or implied, is given to the accuracy or completeness of such information by Symmetry or any other person. While such sources are believed to be reliable, Symmetry does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such information. Symmetry does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein as of any future date.
Certain information contained herein constitutes “forward-looking statements,” which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate,” “intend,” “continue,” or “believe,” or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or actual performance may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Nothing contained herein may be relied upon as a guarantee, promise, assurance or a representation as to the future.
[1] “The Wealth Management Divide: Addressing the Gap Between Investors’ Expectations and Advisor Services,” CEG Insights, 2023 CEG Insights Unveils Transformative Study – The Wealth Management Divide: Addressing the Gap Between Investors’ Expectations and Advisor Services – CEG Insights
[2] Ibid