7 Tax-Planning Moves Your Financial Advisor and CPA Should Coordinate
Sam's List Editorial | 2026-06-27
Plenty of affluent households have both a financial advisor and a CPA, and the two never talk. That gap is expensive. The advisor manages investments, the CPA files the return, and the tax-aware decisions that live between them fall through the cracks. Here are seven tax-planning moves your financial advisor and CPA should coordinate, and why siloed advice quietly leaves money on the table.
None of this is advice for your situation, and every move has trade-offs that depend on your facts. The point is that these decisions are best made by your advisor and accountant together, not in separate rooms.
1. Roth Conversions
Converting traditional retirement funds to a Roth can make sense in lower-income years, but it raises current taxable income. Your advisor sees the account; your CPA sees the tax bracket. Coordinated, they can time conversions well. Alone, they often miss the window.
2. Tax-Loss Harvesting
Selling investments at a loss to offset gains is an investment decision with a tax consequence. The advisor executes it; the CPA reports it. When they coordinate, the harvesting actually matches your tax situation rather than happening in a vacuum.
3. Asset Location
Which investments sit in taxable versus tax-advantaged accounts affects your long-term tax bill. This is squarely a joint decision, and it is one of the most overlooked sources of avoidable tax drag.
4. Required Minimum Distribution Planning
As retirement accounts mature, required distributions affect both your income and your tax bracket. Coordinating withdrawals with other income lets the team manage the bracket rather than react to it.
5. Charitable Giving Strategy
Donor-advised funds, appreciated stock, and qualified charitable distributions each have investment and tax angles. Your advisor knows the holdings; your CPA knows the deduction rules. Together they can give more efficiently.
6. Business Income and Entity Decisions
If you own a business, decisions about income timing, distributions, and structure ripple into your personal investments and taxes. This is exactly where an advisor and CPA who talk can outperform two who do not.
7. Multi-Year Tax Projections
The biggest win is simply looking ahead together. A shared multi-year view reveals opportunities, like filling up a low bracket, that neither professional sees from their own seat alone.
Why Coordination Beats Silos
The theme is integration. Tax-aware planning works best when investment and tax decisions are made with one view of your situation. Calculated Wealth, led by Nate Byers, is a Madison, Wisconsin advisor listed on Sam's List whose focus includes tax-aware planning for clients near or in retirement, the kind of profile suited to working alongside your CPA. As with any advisor, confirm registration, ask how they are paid, and ensure the fit before engaging. No professional can guarantee a particular outcome.
You can review Calculated Wealth's profile on Sam's List.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should my financial advisor and CPA work together? Because investment and tax decisions are connected, and handling them separately means the tax-aware moves between the two, like Roth conversion timing and asset location, get missed. A coordinated approach treats your finances as one picture rather than two disconnected halves.
What is asset location, and why does it matter? Asset location is the practice of holding different investments in taxable versus tax-advantaged accounts to reduce your long-term tax bill. Because it depends on both your portfolio and your tax situation, it is a decision an advisor and CPA are best positioned to make together.
Are Roth conversions a good idea? They can be, particularly in a lower-income year, because you pay tax now to potentially avoid more later. But a conversion increases current taxable income and only makes sense under specific circumstances, which is why coordinating the timing with your CPA matters.
How do I get my advisor and accountant to coordinate? Give each permission to talk to the other and ask them to align on a tax plan, ideally with a shared multi-year view. Some advisors, like those who emphasize tax-aware planning, build this coordination into how they work. The key is making it explicit rather than assuming it happens.