CPA Practice Advisor - 3

FROM THE EDITOR

It's Time to Take a New Look at
Your Tax Practice

IF YOU'RE A tax practitioner, you might have started worrying that some of your practice

GAIL PERRY, CPA

Editor-in-Chief
gail.perry@cpapracticeadvisor.com
@gperrycpa

might become automated in the future, thus rendering some of the work you do unnecessary. Have you given any thought to what you might do if that occurs? Will you expand
your practice by adding more clients? Will you reduce your staff size? Will you lower your
revenue expectations? Or would you consider adding additional services?

This month's magazine features
a fascinating article by Ryan Genor,
CPA/PFS, and Sarah Lane, CPA,
integrated tax and planning professionals at CLS Financial Advisors in
Portland, Oregon. If you are in the
business of tax preparation and are
worried about the future of your
practice in this world of automation
(and maybe, someday, simplified
taxes), the concepts presented in
this article should resonate with
you.
Now, while you still have time to
prepare yourself for what appears
to be inevitable future change, you
might want to consider adding basic
financial planning services to your
tax practice. You don't have to be
a registered investment advisor,
you don't need financial planning
credentials - although none of these
would be bad things to have. What
you do need is a desire to help your

CPA

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm

clients get to a better place.
Your clients already confide in
you and trust you, so taking your
relationship to a higher financial
level should be an easy step. By
expanding your services to include
future planning in areas that might
include retirement, education,
budgeting, eldercare, estate, risk
management, and yes, even investment/wealth management, you can
improve your stickiness with your
clients and increase the level of
services that you offer to them.
You don't have to make this
change all at once, and there are
many ways to approach an expansion of your services. Start small,
with one or two clients and with one
skill you're already good at, and see
how that service line resonates with
your clients and your staff. Find the
clients who are a good fit for the
services you are able to offer. And

NSA

then expand from there.
You already have the discussions with your clients that can
get this process started. Each year,
when you meet with your clients to
go over their tax situation, isn't it
the case that topics come up that
could benefit from additional services that you could provide? Any
time there is a life change, there
are financial issues that should

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm

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VOLUME 29, NUMBER 6
Publisher: Barry Strobel
Editor-in-Chief: Gail Perry, CPA
Managing Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon
Contributors: Ken Berry, JD
Doug Sleeter
Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP
Kristy Short
Randy Johnston
Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP
Paul McDonald
Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Becky Livingston
Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA
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John Higgins, CPA
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Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, CGMA, MBA
Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CISA
Randy Johnston, MCS
Greg LaFollette, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Doug Sleeter
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JULY 2019 ■

be addressed. Rather than trying
to answer quickly during the tax
meeting, so you can get on to your
next client, start letting yourself
consider how you could actually
provide a service in this area,
beyond the preparation of the tax
return. ■
- Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief

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