Tax Planning
Incorporating tax planning into your overall financial plan means you’ll avoid higher taxes—or stiff penalties for errors. Whether you’re:
- Saving for retirement or college
- Thinking about selling investments to help with the down payment on a new home
- Preparing to take an annual required minimum distribution from your 401(k) plan or IRA
Or in the midst of many other money scenarios, proper tax planning is a smart move.
Without it, your actions—or inactions—may result in a higher annual federal and state tax bill. These could even push you into a higher tax bracket. And you may not be taking advantage of tax-reducing benefits offered by certain kinds of investment accounts.
Tax rules are complicated and change regularly. That’s why you may want to join so many families and individuals who rely on a fiduciary financial advisor to identify ways that make your financial plans more tax efficient.
Key tax planning questions a financial advisor can answer
- How can I reduce capital gains when I sell investments at a profit?
- Should I shift more of my taxable account assets to tax-advantaged securities like municipal bonds?
- Does a traditional IRA or Roth IRAmake the most sense for me from a tax perspective?
- Which college savings plan options won’t require me to pay federal and state taxes on qualified withdrawals my children make to pay for higher education expenses?
- How can I reduce the tax impact of required minimum distributions from my retirement accounts?
- Should I convert some or all of my IRA and 401(k) account assets to a Roth IRA? If so, what’s the most tax-efficient way to make these conversions?
- What can I do to minimize or avoid estate taxes when my assets and property are passed on to my heirs?
- How can I exercise and sell my vested stock options without a huge tax bill?
- How can I get the greatest tax benefits from my charitable donations?
Tax-Planning Challenges
How a fiduciary financial advisor in the Wealthramp network can address your tax-planning challenges
Serving as your financial advocate, your financial advisor in the Wealthramp network works directly for you. Collaborating with your tax advisor, they can examine every aspect of your financial life and offer recommendations and strategies to help reduce the tax consequences of spending, saving and investing.
Their work may include:
Avoid expensive tax mistakes
The biggest investing & diversification mistakes
Failing to understand that any short-term capital gains you realize from selling stocks or exercising stock options could move you into a higher tax bracket
Investing in expensive, poorly performing mutual funds that make significant capital gains distributions every year
Rebalancing your portfolio in a tax-inefficient manner
Neglecting the income-lowering benefits of pre-tax contributions for 401(k) plans
Paying early withdrawal penalties and taxes on withdrawals made from 401(k) and IRA accounts before age 59½
Incurring IRS penalties for failing to take annual required minimum distributions by year-end deadlines