Bracing clients for higher taxes

For Todd Moll, a director and chief investment officer at Provenance Wealth Advisors, his focus in the wealth management space is to create a “smoother financial journey for clients.”

This is done through a holistic approach honed over many years.

“The biggest thing for us in our firm is to compile a team of experts around the client,” says Moll. “We have experts in specific areas because you can’t know everything there is to know about everything. Traditionally, we will have a general planner as part of the team, an investment professional, tax assistance, as well as legal professionals. The idea is to make sure all the professionals are working in coordination with one another.”

Moll touches on a common challenge for busy and successful individuals: the lack of synchronization among their various advisors.

“Our clients usually will have some professionals they’re working with – a CPA, an attorney, a financial advisor. The challenge is that there’s no one person whose job it is to make sure that the right hand and the left hand are working together. As clients make decisions on tax planning, for example, it creates holes in other areas – perhaps in legal planning or business succession, retirement, and investment banks. [It’s about] trying to fill the role of the quarterback if you will, take a bird’s-eye view over the landscape and coordinate those advisors to make sure that things are working in harmony.”

This approach leans into Moll’s ethos of ensuring clients’ needs are meticulously addressed through every life stage.

“The starting point for us is something called a standard of care for the client. [That’s] based upon where they are in their life, whether it be career-building, pre-retiree, or post-liquidity event. There are key metrics that we’re looking at to determine whether or not those areas have been addressed in the client’s financial plan. [For example,] family or personal considerations, insurance, liability exposures, risk exposures, estate planning, gifting – it’s a checklist for us to make sure that the key areas of concern as individuals move from one phase of life to the next are taken care of.”

But it’s not just about covering all bases; it’s about doing so with maximal efficiency, particularly in a world where tax implications can significantly impact financial health.

“We’re in a world now where everyone can agree that we will likely see higher taxes as opposed to lower taxes in the future,” Moll explains. “We help clients plan for this inevitability.”

This anticipation of fiscal shifts drives the firm’s strategy to optimize tax benefits and minimize exposure for their clients. Moll says shifting growth-oriented investments out of retirement plans and repositioning income-producing assets can lead to a more tax-efficient portfolio.

“By simply changing where those assets are located, we will be more tax-efficient in their overall plan,” he adds.