Tax Planning
Tax planning has always been an integral part of our wealth management services.
Our Tax Planning Approach
Tax Location Planning
A major tax planning opportunity is tax location planning. This means matching an investment account’s tax characteristics to an investment’s tax characteristics.
For example, you don’t want to put a tax-free municipal bond into a regular IRA. Doing so would take tax-free money and make it taxable. We put most growth assets in Roth IRAs, while putting investments that don’t get a tax break into tax-deferred accounts. We allocate investments that do get a tax break to taxable accounts.
Other opportunities & strategies to enhance after-tax returns can include:
Maximizing advantages of HSAs, 401(k)s, IRAs, and other accounts for retirement planning
Emphasizing long-term capital gains
Long-term and Real-time Data
We analyze our clients’ tax planning plan both in the short term and long term. We know which years will likely be high-tax or low-tax years and know when things will shift. We also have our clients’ investment data right on our computer. We know the tax basis, taxable gain, projected income, what might work well for charitable giving, etc.
With the above information at our fingertips, we can both plan ahead to enhance our clients’ tax savings and react quickly to capitalize on opportunities. When a tax law changes, we know exactly who will be affected and we adjust their portfolio accordingly. When global trends change, we know who has certain kinds of investments, what the tax implications are, and what needs to be done next. In our regular meetings, we suggest further tax reduction strategies.
Studies have shown the potential value of our tax planning approach. An Envestnet study indicates value of 1% per year beyond fees; a Russell study indicates 0.5% beyond fees. Vanguard’s 14-year study indicates up to 0.75%.
Because we are comprehensive wealth managers, our clients receive many other services as well, creating an overall high-value service.
Talk to your financial advisor today!
Why Choose Laurel Wealth Planning?
Hear What Our Clients Say:
"As someone that always managed our own finances, I did not take the decision of hiring a financial planner lightly. I looked at many options and talked to several financial planners. In the end, I listened to the advice of our estate attorney: “My clients that work with Laurel Wealth Group love them”.
I am so grateful that we made this leap several years ago. As my husband and I have navigated the first years of retirement, Laura and her team’s advice has been invaluable. They have helped us to fully understand our financial position, our options, and they have been good at guiding us into investment strategies that we might not have considered otherwise.
One particular area of strength for them is tax planning. Early on, LWP developed an income roadmap that considered the effect of capital gains, Medicare rates and projected income tax rates on our annual income. This has proven to be invaluable to us.
We have weathered some turbulent financial times with them in the past few years. It is good to know that they have our back."
