Tax planning is a very important aspect of wealth preservation. If you have a sizeable portfolio, there are many opportunities to peck away at your tax burden. Laura Kuntz CPA/PFS, MBT, details some of these and emphasizes the need to work carefully with your current tax advisors.
Transcript:
Another very important area of wealth preservation planning is tax planning because when a person has accumulated a sizable portfolio or a sizable amount of investment, there are lots of opportunities to get taxes down.
Generally, we can’t escape taxes entirely, but there are many ways that we can peck away at them. For example, looking at a tax rate in one year and maybe it’s lower in another or how we’re setting up the investments can have a big, big impact on the tax bill.
Now at Laurel Wealth Planning, though I’m a CPA by background and I have a masters in tax, we don’t prepare tax returns. Instead we work closely with you and your CPA, your current tax advisors, to bring strategies to you to help you cut your tax bill.
When you’re thinking about retaining a financial advisor and you’ve accumulated a sizable sum, where tax planning can make a significant difference, make sure that they can help you in this area.
Another important area of financial planning for many of our clients, not all of them, but many of them is charitable giving and there is so many ways to do charitable giving, to give to the charities you love and do it tax effectively. Avoiding capital gains tax, bunching your charitable contributions to get the highest deduction, giving when markets are high, leaving a charitable legacy when you pass on of assets that would otherwise be taxed, so many strategies.
If you have some charities that you really appreciate or that you love, make sure your financial advisor is helping you look at all these strategies that can help you give very tax effectively, which may allow you to give more or simply have more money, retain more money to work with.
Laura, the founder of LWP, is a Senior Wealth Manager, Chief Investment Officer and Shareholder. She has a master’s degree in tax and is an excellent listener. While she is a sophisticated financial planner with experience in complex issues, her priority is ensuring a financial plan works for people.
