Many CPA financial planners added financial planning services to their tax practices because their clients asked questions that went beyond taxes, including educating children, transferring wealth, protecting assets, funding retirement, etc. These CPAs have built their financial planning practices off of their existing tax practices, and take a holistic approach in the delivery of financial planning services to ensure all of their clients’ needs are met, including tax, estate, retirement, investments and insurance. Not only does this expansion of service offerings open up new revenue streams, but also brings CPA financial planners fulfillment as they work to help their clients realize their financial goals.
The following steps will help you transition from tax preparer to financial planner:
- Step 1: Understand the wealth of information at your fingertips with your clients’ individual tax returns, and ensure that you are considering both tax and financial planning impacts.
- Step 2: Use your clients’ tax returns as the roadmap to understanding their overall financial situation, derive opportunities to provide financial planning to your clients and begin taking a holistic approach to your clients’ planning needs.
- Step 3: Formalize financial planning services in your practice to be most effective in providing this advice.
Attend all or portions of this 3-part web seminar series to assist you in moving from tax return preparer to financial planner.
Part 1: The 1040 Diagnostician: Tax and Financial Planning for Individuals
Seminar recording | Presentation materials
(5/3/2011) Robert Keebler
The 1040, when properly analyzed, reflects a wealth of information and planning opportunities that you can use to ensure you are thinking through all potential tax impacts of financial decisions and begin considering financial planning opportunities, including:
- Current tax mitigation strategies
- Long-term tax reduction and retirement strategies
- Education funding
- Retirement funding
- The estate tax conversion
- Charitable giving
This highly technical line by line approach will give you a detailed methodology to gather information and look for information. Attend the May 18th web seminar, Expand Your Financial Planning Practice through Your Client’s Tax Return, to use this knowledge as a basis to advise your clients from a holistic approach.
Part 2: Expand Your Financial Planning Practice through Your Client’s Tax Return
Seminar recording | Presentation materials
(5/18/2011) Lyle Benson and Jerry Love
Supplemental materials:
Analysis of a Tax Return for Personal Financial Planning
Roadmap to Developing and Managing a CPA Personal Financial Planning Practice
This strategic session will help you use your client’s tax return to gain a snapshot of their current financial situation and begin to develop a closer relationship to cover all of their financial planning needs, including tax, retirement, estate, investments and insurance. You will learn:
Supplemental materials: This strategic session will help you use your client’s tax return to gain a snapshot of their current financial situation and begin to develop a closer relationship to cover all of their financial planning needs, including tax, retirement, estate, investments and insurance. You will learn:
- How to best use your tax preparation practice to develop personal financial planning ideas for your clients
- The key issues to consider as you prepare, review, and discuss individual tax returns with your clients
- How to implement a checklist developed by leading CPA financial planners to identify planning opportunities
Those new to the area should attend the May 3rd web seminar, The 1040 Diagnostician: Tax and Financial Planning for Individuals, to gain a highly technical line by line review.
Part 3: Formalize Personal Financial Planning Services: Stories from Successful CPAs
Seminar recording | Presentation materials | Supplemental materials
(6/8/2011) Lyle Benson, Jerry Love, Ted Sarenski, Scott Sprinkle, Susan Tillery and Jimmy Williams
There are a multitude of personal financial planning business models you can implement. The one you choose should be what works best for you, your practice and your clients. This web seminar will bring together a panel of successful CPAs in the most common business models to share how they have built their practice to provide the highest value for their clients while also running a successful business. They will share:
- How they got started and what they would have done differently in hindsight
- The varying business models they have used that have been successful, including fee structures
- How to ensure proper documentation via engagement letters, client files, etc.
- Tools used for success
- Best practices and lessons learned along the way
Watch Video Recordings from the 2011 Pre-Conference Session:
Implementing PFP Services in Your Firm: Developing Step by Step Plans for Success
Moderator: Lyle Benson, CPA/PFS
Panelists: Jimmy Williams, CPA/PFS, Scott Sprinkle, CPA/PFS, Susan Tillery, CPA/PFS, Ted Sarenski, CPA/PFS, and Jerry Love, CPA/PFS
Whether you are considering adding, expanding or formalizing personal financial planning services within your firm, or you are already established and want to hear how some of the most successful CPAs are doing it, tune into a video recording of an intensive workshop from the 2011 Advanced PFP Conference, Implementing PFP Services in Your Firm: Developing Step by Step Plans for Success.
This session profiles the multitude of personal financial planning business models you can implement by bringing together a panel of successful CPAs in the most common business models to share the nuts and bolts of how they have built their practice to provide the highest value for their clients while also running a successful business. It also includes special segments on technology and regulatory issues from industry experts, Joel Bruckenstein and Ellen Bruno, CPA/PFS, respectively.
Other Resources
Analysis of a Tax Return for Personal Financial Planning
This checklist was developed by leading CPA financial planners to help you find personal financial planning opportunities in your tax practice. This checklist will help you analyze and identify key issues to consider as you prepare, review and discuss your individual tax returns with your clients.
Roadmap to Developing and Managing a CPA Personal Financial Planning Practice
If you are looking to formalize your PFP services, download a free copy of the Roadmap to Developing and Managing a CPA Personal Financial Planning Practice. The Roadmap is your PFP atlas, with the information you need to plot a route to successfully add personal financial planning as another value-added service to your established practice.