Tax planning advisors

Preparation reports what already happened. Planning changes what happens: timing income and deductions, choosing account types, harvesting losses, structuring conversions, and coordinating with your investment and estate decisions during the year, while there's still time to act.

Most advisors don't file returns - they plan alongside your CPA. Some firms have in-house tax professionals. The productive split: the advisor owns strategy and timing across your whole financial life, the CPA owns compliance and filing, and they talk to each other.

The recurring ones: maxing tax-advantaged accounts (including backdoor and mega backdoor Roth where available), tax-loss harvesting, asset location across account types, charitable strategies like donor-advised funds and QCDs, Roth conversions in low-income years, and equity compensation timing. Which apply depends entirely on your situation.

Quarterly at minimum, and always before year-end: most levers close on December 31. Equity events, business sales, and large bonuses each deserve their own session before the transaction, not after.

Compare your effective rate against what your income mix should produce, and check whether you're using the standard strategies available to you: retirement contributions, HSA, harvesting, charitable bunching. An advisor or CPA can quantify the gap in a single planning session.