8 Wealth Management Issues Can Benefit Your Clients

Print Article

Our Comprehensive Financial Planning Strategy Can Help You Identify Tax Implications and Financial Planning Opportunities.

Throughout tax season, your clients most likely mentioned their concerns about the current economic conditions and peppered you with questions about their taxes and their financial well being.  Offering financial services is a natural transition for CPAs that have this kind of trusted relationship with their clients. When they meet year in and year out, their clients share family information as well as tax information, so when it comes time for the client to think about saving money for college, or a retirement plan, the CPA is a logical choice for suggesting a solution.  Regardless of the market conditions, clients still want to retire in financial dignity, educate their children, and protect themselves from a financial crisis.  With H.D. Vest’s 8 Wealth Management IssuesSM strategy, we can help you systematically address your clients’ financial needs.

In each Tax Insider E-Newsletter from May through
November 2009, we will share with you the process of the
8 Wealth Management Issues, which will help enhance your
role as your clients’ tax advisor. If you choose to add
financial services to your practice, your clients will
understand that you are able to help them with issues
other than simply taxes, investment management and
retirement planning. Over the course of the next seven
months, we will show you how each of the following
8 Wealth Management Issues is interrelated and acts
like a balancing scale.

1. Investment Management

You can help create an investment strategy that is designed just for your clients with their unique goals and needs in mind. You can build an investment plan that considers your clients’ investment goals, comfort level, expectations, and the effect of taxes on their portfolio. Investment management is something that should be adjusted as your clients’ goals evolve and their portfolio changes, and you can work with your clients on an ongoing basis to monitor their portfolio and rebalance it as needed.

2. Cash Flow & Debt Management

Cash flow is the cornerstone of your clients’ wealth management plan. You can help your clients identify where their cash is going each month and evaluate potential opportunities to improve their cash flow through tax strategies and proper debt management.

3. Family Risk Management

Even the best investment and financial plans can crumble if you have not properly prepared for the risks that exist for every family. Should your clients face disability, death, or a long-term-care need, the careful planning and investing that they have so diligently developed can be unraveled in an instant. By evaluating your clients’ current risk plans to determine if they are adequately meeting their needs as they plan for the future, you can make suggestions that not only address their risk management needs, but also consider the tax implications of these changes.

4. Retirement Planning

People entering retirement are facing concerns that retirees simply did not face 20 years ago. Because retirement is mostly accumulated by your clients’ primary cash flow, it is important to help your clients establish a clear vision of what retirement means to them. You can help your clients create a plan considering the level of assets needed to fund their vision of retirement including likely income needs, potential tax implications and risks that can stand in the way of realizing their vision.

5. Education Planning

Every child dreams about what they will be when they grow up. A college education can be the most important factor in that dream becoming a reality. It is important that your client has someone helping them understand how their savings will affect their child’s or grandchild’s ability to qualify for financial aid, as well as the implications for their income, gift, and estate tax situation. You can help create an education plan that does not compromise your clients’ progress in the other wealth management issues or their tax situation.

6. Legacy Planning

A legacy plan ensures that what your clients want to happen will happen at the time of their passing. Having a plan in place reduces stress and the red tape that goes along with losing a loved one. This is an opportunity to help our clients’ loved ones avoid significant financial burden during a very emotionally devastating time. You can help your client create a legacy plan that minimizes the estate taxes and maximizes the amount of money going to their beneficiaries.

7. Business Planning

You can help your clients evaluate and implement strategies that not only protect their business, but also take advantage of opportunities that could improve the cash flow, tax situation, benefits and bottom line of their business.

8. Special Situations Planning

You can help your clients with situations that do not fit into the other wealth management issues. While helping your clients determine a path to get through whatever financial challenges and opportunities that arise, you can continue to monitor their tax situation as well as their progress in the other wealth management issues.

With these 8 Wealth Management Issues, you can help your clients identify the issues they have already adequately covered and those issues that need more attention and are most important to them. You can help your clients create an action plan that addresses these issues as they see fit.

The current economic and market environment reinforces the importance of using a comprehensive and repeatable process to address the wealth management challenges your tax clients face, not only for their retirement plans, but their entire portfolios. Whether their wealth is valued at $10,000 or $10,000,000, it is critical in times like these that a client has an Advisor who is knowledgeable about their complete financial picture, including their tax situation, so they can be given appropriate advice and recommendations. Our 8 Wealth Management Issues strategy can help you give your clients the service they deserve.