Article: Staying in My Lane—Tax expertise in my defined area
Category: 1040 Income Tax
Staying in My Lane
Tax expertise in my defined area and relying on synergistic financial partners
Jessica I. Marschall, President, Marschall Accounting Services LLC
January 24th, 2020
I had the pleasure of meeting my financial advisor today for lunch. Chad Williams, of Edward Jones, has been my personal and business advisor for over two years. He is also my go-to financial advisor for tax clients. Recommending a complimentary service provider to a client can be catastrophic if the provider ends up dropping the ball. Chad does not drop financial balls…ever. In fact, he appears to be a walking database of all personal and business financial planning tools—updated in real time. His mastery in executing strategic and complementary financial planning tools, coupled with his two master’s degrees in finance-related disciplines make him a perfect fit for my clients.
One of the best services I can offer my tax clients is to stay in my lane. I purposefully keep my tax practice relatively small in client number and narrow in scope—individuals and small businesses only, enabling me to dig deep into current IRS codifications, relevant case law and tax publications and articles pertaining primarily to my chosen client base. I may occasionally peruse an audit-related article or one suggesting best practices for hedging derivatives of a corporate conglomerate, but the majority of my time is spent learning how to better serve individual and small business clients. Often, clients ask me for advice on investing. The advice I give is to speak with Chad, or another well-educated financial advisor for specifics on which funds to invest, how to hedge and mapping out retirement plans. I explain the tax ramifications of various choices and deliberate over the most advantageous plans from a tax perspective but I stay in my lane as a CPA and Chad stays in his as a Financial Advisor.
The CPA and finance industry runs the gamut in sub-categories from corporate taxation, internal audit, regulations, governmental and not-for-profit accounting, compliance and banking. It is my opinion that the best CPAs and Financial Advisors pick their defined lane and stay in it. We can certainly can and must understand the underlying principles of each other’s professions. Yet, expertise is best developed in a well-defined area to better serve clients. Creating and cultivating professional relationships, like the one Chad and I share, adds value to our shared clients and ensures all personal and business tax and financial planning needs can be met across the tax-finance continuum.
Chad Williams AAMS, ChFC, CRPC, CRPS is a Financial Advisor at Edward Jones and can be reached via email or phone:
(571) 297-4212
