CPA - Tax & Financial Planning

[Young and Horned]

Today as I sit and do my taxes, I realize I do not care to do my own taxes anymore. I was going to look for a good CPA office that offers tax preparation and financial planning, but thought I would check and see if anyone on here or if anyone on here knows of a good Horned Frog CPA that may be able to take care of me. I realize the timing is short (in which I may just end up doing my own this year if needed), but I want to go ahead and start looking for someone to hand over my taxes to and also get into financial planning with moving forward.

Just let me know if there are any good Horned Frogs out there. Being close to Plano would be a benefit, but will make whatever happen.

Thanks.

 

[Frog-in-law1995]

Field Lange.

 

[froginaustin]

You can use a tax person-- tax lawyer, CPA, or EA recommended (and not necessarily in that order)-- in Philadelphia about as easily as someone in your home town. You will be dealing with them by phone, email, etc. I respectfully suggest that location should be a minor consideration in deciding who to deal with.

 

[froginaustin]

You can use a tax person-- tax lawyer, CPA, or EA recommended (and not necessarily in that order)-- in Philadelphia about as easily as someone in your home town. You will be dealing with them by phone, email, etc. I respectfully suggest that location should be a minor consideration in deciding who to deal with.

 

[Young and Horned]

You can use a tax person-- tax lawyer, CPA, or EA recommended (and not necessarily in that order)-- in Philadelphia about as easily as someone in your home town. You will be dealing with them by phone, email, etc. I respectfully suggest that location should be a minor consideration in deciding who to deal with.

Thanks for the suggestion. I suppose location would not be the determining factor. However, I would like to find a place where I could get our taxes completed, financial planning, and also will/estate planning, is possible. For some of that, I would prefer discussions in person. That is the main reason I seek proximity.

 

[cdsfrog]

Seperate tax planning and financial planning. They are not even close to the same field, CPAs have a 80% fail rate of the CFP who dont take the courses.

Better to get 2 specialists, no reason to cut corners

Its a worse comparison than a CFA versus a CFP

 

[BigRedFrog]

Sounds like you are looking for an attorney, but be warned that many, many attorneys are not as good at tax preparation as they think.
My wife is a tax accountant and you wouldn't believe the horror stories she has had to tell about cleaning up tax messes attorneys have made.

If you change your mind about the all-in-one approach PM me. My wife still has room for new clients and she has clients all over the country.

 

[froginaustin]

As soon as you say will/estate planning, you are talking about a lawyer. Advisors that make money on financial-planning "products" as opposed to billing for services rendered have conflicts of interests that can't be wished away. Not to say you don't need such products. Insurance, funds, etc., are sometimes very useful, and they involve sales commissions, usually.

 

[cdsfrog]

Depending on your assets, Fidelity does estate planning for free. Trust utilization to minimize taxes, no incorporation of insurance or anything other product, as its rarely needed. 1 million up to 25 million Schwab and Fido are solid. 25 mil under 100 mil go Schwab

 

[froginaustin]

Sounds like you are looking for an attorney, but be warned that many, many attorneys are not as good at tax preparation as they think.
My wife is a tax accountant and you wouldn't believe the horror stories she has had to tell about cleaning up tax messes attorneys have made.

If you change your mind about the all-in-one approach PM me. My wife still has room for new clients and she has clients all over the country.

I've seen the other side of the CPA/tax lawyer argument too many times. CPA's make tax return blunders, too, and they tend to have tax tunnel vision.

 

[berryfrog95]

I wouldn't combine your taxes & financial planning.....rarely is a CPA a CFP or vice versa.

It could come in a combined package but that would be quite expensive and you need to probably be an accredited investor ($1m+)

I'd use turbo tax and get connected with a CFP, bc CFP can help with tax "concepts", but I've not seen many CPAs be really good with investment/financial planning

 

[BigRedFrog]

I've seen the other side of the CPA/tax lawyer argument too many times. CPA's make tax return blunders, too, and they tend to have tax tunnel vision.

I'm sure it runs both ways, but in my experience CPA's don't have the egos that many lawyers do and aren't as shy about recommending someone else if their expertise isn't up to the job. Best situations that I know of are folks who have three specialized professionals -- CPA for taxes, attorney for wills, and CFP for estate planning and investments -- who talk among themselves.

 

[Zen Moon]

Good news is that after you pay your taxes, you won't have a need for a financial planner...

 

[froginaustin]

Depending on your assets, Fidelity does estate planning for free. Trust utilization to minimize taxes, no incorporation of insurance or anything other product, as its rarely needed. 1 million up to 25 million Schwab and Fido are solid. 25 mil under 100 mil go Schwab

Nothing in the estate planning area is free.

 

[ScottPatrick]

Depending on your assets, Fidelity does estate planning for free. Trust utilization to minimize taxes, no incorporation of insurance or anything other product, as its rarely needed. 1 million up to 25 million Schwab and Fido are solid. 25 mil under 100 mil go Schwab

Schwab wouldn't know how to handle anything over a couple mil. Fidelity is fine until you pass $5 mill and even then they just try and max fees.

I like Schwab but do not trust them to one penny.

 

[Land Frog]

Taxes suck.

 

[Ron Swanson]

Depending on your assets, Fidelity does estate planning for free. Trust utilization to minimize taxes, no incorporation of insurance or anything other product, as its rarely needed. 1 million up to 25 million Schwab and Fido are solid. 25 mil under 100 mil go Schwab

Who's good for the under $1MM range?

 

[82 Frog Fever]

I would suggest having your financial / life planning and your taxes performed by two different firms.
It's very rare to find a one stop shop that has proven expertise and bandwidth to cover both.

For financial planning I use Morgan Stanley. They have been pretty good in combining my investments, which were spread across 4 different firms and lacked a cohesive strategy. Also managing estate planning and real estate holdings.

Whoever you use, as soon as their fee structure approaches 1%, dump them and find someone else.

 

[TCUdirtbag]

You should be using a different professional for each of tax return preparation, financial planning and estate planning. Each should be handled by a CPA, financial planner, and attorney, respectively.

 

[TCUdirtbag]

Depending on your assets, Fidelity does estate planning for free. Trust utilization to minimize taxes, no incorporation of insurance or anything other product, as its rarely needed. 1 million up to 25 million Schwab and Fido are solid. 25 mil under 100 mil go Schwab

Are fidelity employees practicing law without a license? Trusts are not appropriate for some investors and some investment advisor shouldn't not be drafting estate planning documents--an experienced estate planning attorney should. And if you have kids and normal estate planning needs, you should not be relying on some non attorney fidelity employee to be managing your estate plan.