The months and weeks leading up to Tax Day can be quite hectic for investors as well as their financial advisors and certified public accountants. Like so much over the past year, however, this tax season is anything but run-of-the-mill.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of Americans unemployed or furloughed. Many small businesses have been forced to close their doors, or continue to struggle to survive. The loss of income, the acceptance of stimulus payments, and volatility in the financial markets, among other factors, can lead to uncertainty about tax filings for the previous year, as well as tax planning for the year ahead.
Tax season is usually stressful, but this year and going forward, advisors can step in to simplify the tax-filing process, and add value by providing tax planning and tax management insights as part of a holistic wealth management offering.
The insights and efficiencies that advisors can provide, aided by financial planning technology, can strengthen client relationships today and lay the groundwork for scalable practice growth tomorrow.
Advisors can begin to make tax season easier for their clients, and their practices, by utilizing digital client portals and account aggregation tools to quickly collect up-to-date information about a client's financial situation. These technology solutions can not only help clients with gathering data for their tax filings, but also enable advisors to automate the client-onboarding process and spend more time serving and engaging with clients.
At a time when clients are focused on compiling and organizing financial statements ahead of Tax Day, advisors have the perfect opportunity to ask clients to consider the broader implications of the story those statements tell about their financial picture. Using some modern financial planning technology solutions, advisors can run unlimited scenarios for clients demonstrating the impact that certain investment strategies and products would likely have on their portfolios.
