Beau Allen

You could just VOO and chill. Sure. You could just pay a "low" flat fee. Sure. Real advisors are doing a little more. What, you might ask? Small sample from the last few weeks: - A 401(k) sitting in a 2040 target-date fund that would auto-add bonds for 14 years the client will never draw on. Their taxable account already carries the safe money. Projected opportunity cost ~$1.3M by first withdrawal. Swapped to equities at zero tax. Allocation based on when the money gets used, not a default. - $7M exit landing fast. Modeled the donor-advised fund against a long/short loss engine at 200/100 vs 250/150. How to fund. More leverage is ~$1.8M more in losses, but only ~$400K of that is permanent, and only because the client gives to charity. Deferral, not savings, until the low-basis book leaves through a gift or a step-up. Targeting seven-figure tax savings at low fees while still meeting the investment criteria. Two custodians needed; diligenced two TALS managers; assumptions challenged. Walked them through it. Another CFA. - Tax preparer missed condo depreciation on prior returns (Form 3115) and dropped a $51K PAL carryover worth ~$20K. Then caught a listing contract: client would have owed a commission if he had turned down a full-price offer. He needed to push this to next year to avoid even more taxes. - Costa Rica build. Borrowing against a direct index instead of paying the builder cash so the harvested losses keep running while the draws go out. Lower taxes, higher expected return, more flexibility, and the collateral is still working. - Client's business partners were pitched a "tax-advantaged" oil and gas fund. 12% front-end load. Killed it with thorough questions and real due diligence, not a lecture. Protected him and let him look like a boss with his partners on legitimate ways to reduce taxes, without the BS. - Complex deferred comp: a 457(f) that behaves like a 409A, stacked against a 403(b), a 457(b), and taxable direct indexing. Where does the next dollar go for taxes, and where is the Roth conversion window? Hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax opportunity if done right, and the opposite if done wrong. - Six Northwestern Mutual policies (yikes!) that added up to a $1M need and $550K of coverage. Surrendered four, kept term, closed the gap with supplemental group life, and moved the surrender proceeds into direct indexing so the client actually reduces taxes instead of paying premiums. - Peer review: Ten CPAs could not crack it. Two irrevocable trusts holding inherited IRAs, kiddie tax at 37%. The younger child's age at the father's death likely moves the depletion deadline from 2034 to 2044. Eight extra years after the kiddie tax expires. Nobody had checked. Worked it through. - Client selling ~$2MM of collectibles. Introduced him to a family member who runs operations at a major auction house in New York to review the collection, so he gets the best price or at minimum understands his options before he sells. - Reviewed a vendor's tax-alpha report on a direct-index account. It looked inflated because they used Georgia rates for a Pennsylvania resident. My book runs 3% to 4% in tax alpha I guess direct indexing doesn't work, right? (Not investment advice. Past results are not future results.) - Executive moved to Spain mid-year. The real start date was buried in the paystub seniority field. Split withholding pre and post Beckham, layered US, Colorado, Spanish, and foreign tax credit. ~$35.9K of refunds that would have been left behind. - $2.7M new build while the old house sits unsold. Box spread on the taxable account as the bridge instead of selling appreciated stock in a working year, and a mortgage lined up before the old home sells. Liquidity balanced, gains deferred into a lower bracket. That is a small sample. I need to get back to work. VOO and chill with the lowest fee you can find is not what great advisors do.