We are all familiar with Ben Franklin’s most famous quote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” While that is certainly still true, there is much that can be done today to extend the quality of life and reduce lifetime taxes. Yet neither one happens automatically without taking proactive steps and seeking the guidance of knowledgeable, experienced practitioners to help guide our paths.
Tanglewood’s planning team has comprehensive knowledge and extensive experience in helping our Wealth Management clients through the thicket of ever-changing tax rules and regulations to minimize both their income taxes and legacy taxes with well thought out, interactive long-term tax planning and optimization.
This series on lifetime tax planning, Beyond the Tax Return, provides our clients with a broad overview of tax minimizing opportunities in six specific areas:
- Working years
- Retirement
- Charitable Giving
- Investing
- Family Wealth transfers
- Business Ownership
Although particular strategies were identified within each of those six planning areas, we also pointed out many of the inter-relationships between them. For example, accelerating taxes with a strategy in one area may reduce taxes for years into the future as it impacts other areas. Our multi-year tax modeling allows us to illustrate these trade-offs as well as the potential increase in after-tax wealth from different approaches.
Neither the strategies, nor our modeling are static. They both need to be monitored and updated with changing laws, regulations, and circumstances. This is an integral part of our approach to Total Wealth Management® and one we hope each of our Wealth Management clients takes full advantage.