Hats off to those of you who made it through the first part of tax season 2024! Hopefully, you are reading this with your feet up, relaxing on a beach somewhere, enjoying time with your family and friends, forgetting all about the heavy load of the last few months—enjoy another sip of that mai tai you're drinking, you've earned it!
In last month’s blog, we discussed how to prevent another grueling tax season by adding personal financial planning to your practice. As CPAs, we're trained to be professional skeptics, so I know you must be thinking, “How can I add a whole new line of business to my practice without increasing staff while making more and working less? You’re crazy!” Yes, it does sound too good to be true. Hear me out, and once I make my case you can decide for yourself. If you are seeing this article for the first time, I’d highly encourage you to click here to read last month’s blog before continuing.
Our home office, Chas P. Smith and Associated, CPAs PA, is a licensed CPA firm in the state of Florida, as well as a Registered Investment Advisory Practice doing business as CPS Investment Advisors. Since 1975, we have been a practicing CPA firm, and have become one of the nation’s first to register as an investment advisory firm.
In the years since, CPS has offered our guidance and experience to assist colleagues and fellow CPAs to expand into investment advising. I'm telling you this not to brag, but to illustrate how many others have been where you are now, and that you are not on your own. There is a solution to get you to where you want to be.
Over the years we’ve learned many valuable lessons in the art and science of integrating PFP and IA services into a CPA practice,. Here are the three most important lessons we have learned along the way:
Lesson #1: Make room for your new line of business
First, you need to be willing to scale back your tax practice. To gain the time necessary to grow another business line, you will have to take some time away from your current business. Think of it this way: for every $1 of investment advisory revenue you bring in, you will need to reduce your tax book revenue by $1. While this may seem counterintuitive at first, you will quickly notice that generating revenue on the investment advisory side of your business takes much less time to generate than the tax side of the business (see last month’s article for a better breakdown of why this works). So, if you effectively implement scaling, you will gain exponentially more time back, giving you the control needed to help your ideal clients more thoroughly and holistically.
Lesson #2: Be prepared to evaluate your clients
While you may be used to serving several clients as a CPA, adding personal financial planning to your practice will allow you to spend more time with fewer clients. In determining the specific niche or target audience you enjoy working with the most, ask yourself: What do you enjoy about working with certain clients versus others? What clients do you get excited to see in person? What do you wish you saw more of in your clients?
In one of our previous blogs, we discuss how you can begin evaluating and developing your client target market. Read more for a step-by-step guide to identify your ideal client, and focus your efforts on serving them.
Lesson #3: Find your TAMP partner
Lastly, you're going to need a trusted partner, and a Turnkey Asset Management Platform (TAMP) is just the one you need. Most gut reactions are, "I simply don’t have the time to offer financial planning services." You aren't wrong—unless you partner with a TAMP. TAMPs are designed to help you operate as your back office by providing the technology, support, and investment expertise you need to best help your clients. Not all TAMPs are the same, so how do you know what to look for? Some only provide the technology, leaving you to do most of the work yourself, while others such as CPAlliance® provide concierge, white-glove service, and support allowing you to focus on planning and building stronger client relationships.
When looking for your partner in your new business endeavor, ask yourself: "Do I want someone who is only going to be there some of the time? Or do I want someone I can count on and trust to care for my clients in the same way I do?" If you are answering yes to the second question, a full-service TAMP such as CPAlliance® will allow you to offer personal financial planning services while enjoying a realistic work-life balance.
If you’d like to learn more about TAMPs, tune in next month as we take a deeper dive into how a TAMP works and how they help CPAs become their clients' most trusted advisors! Better yet, join us and FICPA for a CPA Personal Financial Planning Boot Camp during this year's MEGA Conference in Orlando! This one-day conference will dive into how CPAs can offer tax, retirement, estate, risk management, and investment planning services to their clients, how to get started, and how to begin calling yourself a CPA Financial Planner. Click the button below to receive $100 off your CPA Boot Camp Registration!
Shawn J. McCabe | CPA/PFS, CFP®, MSA, MBA
CPAlliance® Director | Partner