← AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP)
Transform Tax Season into Year-Round Client Value with Dr. Brianne Smith
00:18:45
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You
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I'm Kari Sinnett and this is your Personal Financial Planning Podcast. What if thousands of experienced CPAs are sitting on the most powerful advisory opportunity of their careers and they don't even fully realize what's possible until they step into financial planning? Across the profession, some of the most successful CPAs have embraced planning and are seeing deeper relationships, greater client impact, and an entirely new dimension of professional fulfillment. Welcome to the American Institute of CPAs Personal financial planning Podcast. I'm Carey Simmit. As the leader of the PFS designation, the financial Planning credential exclusively available to CPAs, my role is to keep you informed, educated and connected to a premier community of thought leaders delivering trusted financial planning. We explore the full range of planning topics and the current events shaping our profession. If you're an advisor or CPA financial planner or simply want an inside look at today's topic of The Path to Pfp, this podcast is for you. Today's guest is Dr. Brianne Smith, a seasoned financial professional with 25 years of experience helping clients plan confidently for their financial futures. And Brianne manages both a CPA firm and a financial planning and advisory practice, giving her a unique perspective on how tax accounting and planning intersect in the real world. She also serves as an accounting professor at Auburn University, where she is deeply committed to developing the next generation of financial leaders. Her passion is making finance accessible, understandable and and engaging, especially for CPAs who are exploring the possibilities of personal financial planning as a career path. Brianne, welcome.
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Thank you so much for having me. It is good to see you today.
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It's nice to have you on again and I'm excited about this particular topic. So Brianne, how does a CPA's understanding of client service transform once they begin incorporating financial planning into the relationship? And also what shifts have you seen when tax focused practitioners start engaging with clients?
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Full financial lives as far as providing this service, I'm thinking first of the perspective of the CPA and how it transforms just the lifestyle of running a practice or working in public accounting and serving clients. You know, everybody has to get their compliance work done, their tax return done, but it's really enjoyable to provide that extra planning service. And I always tell people I love to shut the doors of the conference room and we sitting around a conference room table and they just fill your spill their guts and you get to help them work through all of these financial decisions which is really rewarding. But on the other side, the business model of adding financial planning to a CPA practice actually relieves a lot of that billable hour grind that is very much leading to burnout of a lot of CPAs in public practice. So I think it's enjoyable and helping people in a different way in their planning lives. But then it also provides a nice business model lifestyle for the CPA practitioner.
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All right, so if you enjoy helping people, you like connecting deeply with them and understanding their lives and helping them see their goals come to fruition, that's a good reason, a second good reason. It's good for your business. Right? That's what you're saying. It adds a additional revenue stream. It frees up your schedule a little bit from being dependent on that busy season to kind of make all the numbers that you need to. And what a flexibility that is added because when you're doing financial planning and Brianne, correct me if I'm wrong, you kind of get to decide when you make the appointments. It's not I'm going to work a hundred hours the three weeks before April 15th. Is that right?
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That's right. You know, and people are asking me quite a bit, is this your busy season? And I say we're the same amount of busy all year long. We're just in a different season throughout the year. So we really do focus on that tax compliance work at the beginning of the year. But after we get the tax return done and we find planning opportunities for our clients, we spend post tax season through about when extension start planning and working with clients on those goals, helping them through the decisions that they need to make and helping remedy maybe some things that came up during the tax prep process.
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I love that. And you have a deep insight into what's going on with them financially and through financial planning. You get deep insight into what they want to have happen in the future. Brianne, I know you've worked with many experienced CPAs who already have deep technical expertise. So what do you believe prompts, let's call it a mid career or established practitioner to recognize that planning is not just an add on but a natural extension of the advisory role they're already fulfilling.
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This is a really great question because I think where we're seeing the trends and advisors in general is the trend towards the financial advisors who are not CPAs are getting the tax experience that they need. And then the CPAs who have the tax background are getting the investment and the planning experience. And I think in the future we're going to see these advisors rise to the top and that's where clients are going to want to work with their advisor who knows both sides. So I think that on the technical side, it's really important for SCPAs to maintain that tax knowledge and planning knowledge, but then also really grow in the advisory space. I have other financial advisors who I work with, who are clients, call me and ask me tax questions for their clients. So we're already providing a lot of this service to our client. We're just not billing the same way for it. So it's actually really great to transition into this service.
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You know, this happened to me Friday. So it really shows me when you look into a different industry, when there are complimentary services that are offered. So I have a little rental and sweet old lady on Social Security and the H VAC went out. She didn't have any heat. It was getting very cold. And so I wanted to take care of that immediately. And I called the H VAC company, they put in a brand new H vac and I thought everything was going to be great. And then the installer said, actually there's something wrong with the electrical. And so we have to fix that to be able to turn it on. And in my mind, I was like, now I have to go find an electrician and kind of give them the whole story, what's going on? And before I even. They could probably see the worry lines growing on my forehead, they said, don't worry about it. We have an electrical side to our business and we'll have somebody out in just a few minutes to finish that part up, if that's okay with you. And I was like, yeah, that's okay. And I think clients feel exactly the same way. When we're doing taxes or doing financial plan, to have those complimentary services that give us that whole view really makes a huge difference. You know, many CPAs hesitate to offer plan because they feel they aren't ready or they don't know enough. From your experience, what are the real barriers, whether they're psychological or educational or even structural, that keep established professionals from taking that leap?
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Well, really, the very first step in taking this leap is to get the PFS credential. And honestly, a lot of the other barriers or worries are solved with this one. Because even if you feel like I don't have the knowledge and experience to actually give financial advice or prepare a financial plan, you need the license to do it anyway. So if we go ahead and get started on taking the coursework for the PFS credential, going through the study material, taking the exam, you actually do get a lot of knowledge just from that exercise there. And then once you pass the pfs, you're now licensed to provide the investment advisory services because the PFS is a Series 65 equivalent and you don't have to take any other exams or tests to do it. So it's very manageable for a CPA to get this credential. So that is really where I would have someone start. And then once you get that knowledge to get the credential, you've got that base foundation and start working with clients to provide this service. I offer a coaching service and help people who are trying CPAs who are trying to add this service through some of those barriers. And that does actually make it nice to have somebody ask questions too that is trying to help you get there. So PFS is a good start.
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You know, when a CPA integrates planning into their practice, it often reshapes the entire client relationship. Right. Where do you see the greatest point of impact, whether it's financial or emotional or relational, once planning becomes part of the engagement?
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This is really a nice part of having this service is that it takes off the table that sending the client a bill for asking questions throughout the year. You know, I say I never send a bill for a 15 minute phone call because clients feel like they can call me and ask questions anytime. And it takes the fee struggle or the fee barrier between the client and the advisor away because they are paying for this service of your financial advice and your ongoing just help with financial decisions. But it's a fixed percentage that comes out of the investment account at periodic times and it is not salient. So it's, it's really not. You're not getting an invoice in the mail or an invoice in your inbox. And you don't have to spend the time trying to figure out am I going to bill for that question they called about. It takes all that off the table. So you really can just focus on helping your clients through their financial decisions. And neither of you are worried about who's, you know, how much is this going to cost me or can I get really help the client and can I really get paid for this advice is. And all of that's gone. So it's really wonderful to just be able to focus on the client solutions.
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It really is. How can I help you? And let's take care of whatever question that you have now. I just want to add a little parentheses here. CPAs who are financial planners choose to have their clients pay for the financial planning services in lots of different ways. And what you were describing sounds like a percentage of the assets under management Did I infer correctly?
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Yes. Yes.
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Well, Brianne, looking ahead, what capabilities do you believe established CPAs just really have to develop not just technical knowledge, but new ways of thinking or advising or even leading in the marketplace in order to successfully evolve their firms into, can I say this, true planning centric practices, because that sounds like what you described. What do they need to do?
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Well, this is also a barrier, like we talked about that it's, it's difficult to get into the market and into providing this service when you have never done it before. And for the first time, that can be a challenge. So it is important to either start your own RIA firm registered investment advisory practice to provide these services underneath that umbrella, or my recommendation for CPAs who are going to maintain a CPA practice, also to look for a hybrid RAA solution. So this is like an RAA plug and play already set up, has the compliance solution, the operations, the back end trade desk, investment portfolios to choose from and help in setting up the relationship with the custodians. So that's already set up. All you need to do is find a firm that will work with you and begin using their services to add on to the CPA practice. So that is really the challenge. It's nice to have someone introduce you, which is, I would say a benefit of working with me as a coach is that I have a lot of these relationships and will help with that process. And then working through the processes of adding investment accounts for new clients is. There's a little bit of a learning curve, but it's not like doing a tax return.
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That's right.
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Just filling out a form. And we are very good at that.
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Yeah, absolutely. So, Brianne, it sounds like there's lots of different firms that are out there that are willing to partner with a CPA who is mainly doing tax practice, but they're willing to, to kind of take those first steps into financial planning. And I appreciate you being available to help people to get connected with them. And do some of the larger firms, are the brand names, do they also work with CPAs who want to start into this financial planning area or is it just a particular set of companies?
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It's very particular because, and I have heard them say it this way, not every RAA is going to have an appetite for are working with a group of professionals like us because being a CPA and having that CPA practice continue on does create some compliance challenges, does create some workflow challenges, and there are rules about those things. So the setup of two practices, which is how I do. It is complex. So it is helpful to have that understanding of how everything needs to be set up before you start working with an ra, before you start interviewing, because immediately they're gonna not want to work with you if you don't have everything ready to go. And it's easier to convince an RAA to work with you if you are not going to take a whole lot of time on the front end just to set up, to get going. If you're already set up and ready to go, they're more likely to say yes.
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Brianne, thank you so much for sharing with our community of listeners and to those listening also, a lot of really interesting actionable items here. We have a wonderful group of volunteers called the PFP Champions. And so if you want to, you can obviously talk with Brianne, you can look her up on LinkedIn. And if you want to connect with a PFP Champion that's local to your area, just go to the AICPA websites, type in PFP Champions, and it'll come up by what state they're in. So find somebody who's in your state and you can say, hey, what did you do? These people are ready to answer your questions and share with you their particular knowledge, their experience of, of what's happened. Now, if you're an advisor who wants to deliver premier financial planning with confidence and just as Brianne talked about, here's the resource. Explore everything the AICPA PFP section has to offer@aicpa.orgpfp For 269 a year, AICPA members get access to a library of technical guidance, webcasts, planning tools, expert insights like Brianne, thanks for being on today. We so appreciate you all designed to help you serve your clients at the highest level. And if you're a CPA with 3,000 hours of financial planning experience already, consider showing your expertise next to your name by obtaining the PFS credential. Simply go to aicpa.orgpfs for more information. This is our podcast together, me and you. You listening right now. And if this episode has helped you in your practice, we'd be grateful if you shared it with your professional community. With almost 600,000 downloads, which is. I'm so amazed by that. Thank you for listening. The AICPA PFP podcast is helping to advance the profession one listener at a time. This has been Kerry Sinnott for the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Division. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep earning trust through clarity, guiding with compassion, and delivering premier planning. That elevates our profession.
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