Tax planning

Private-placement life insurance can offer tax-free growth and alternative investments for ultrawealthy clients, but advisors warn it isn't right for everyone who can afford it.

Recent tax law changes are prompting businesses to rethink entity structures. Here's what financial advisors need to know when guiding clients or making decisions about their own RIAs.

State-level estate taxes can be imposed at much lower thresholds. From domiciles to the timing of moves, here's what financial advisors should keep in mind.

Taxes can erode portfolio value in ways that add up over time. Explore five active investment strategies that can reduce capital gains tax impacts for clients.

Advisors can leverage the updated opportunity zone program, starting in January, to help ultrahigh net worth clients defer capital gains.

While donating stock is a clear win for clients to avoid capital gains taxes, gifts of property require a qualified appraisal to get a deduction.

The proposed investment rules for Section 530A accounts, also known as Trump accounts, limit choices, and advisors say that could make decisions easier.

Borrowing against art can offer liquidity without triggering capital gains, but high costs keep it from becoming a first-choice strategy.

The 2025 tax law changed the factors involved in the decision to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth.

Some financial advisors are becoming enrolled agents in order to provide tax advice, helping to enhance relationships with clients.

As clients consider when to claim Social Security, an advisor proposed a strategy to maximize tax-free retirement income using certain benefits and senior deductions.

As wealth tax proposals pop up around the country, advisors guide clients through assessing how these factors change the equation of financial planning.

With recent changes to tax law, non-grantor trusts have become attractive vehicles for gaining tax efficiencies, such as when making charitable contributions.

New York City's new pied-à-terre tax is prompting financial advisors to help wealthy clients reassess their options, from residency status to estate plans.

Advisors can help clients to diversify their stock portfolios, maximize growth and defer taxes with this increasingly popular method for harvesting losses.

Even more than access to alternative assets and simplified platforms, advisors are looking to outside account providers to help them manage clients' taxes.

Allowing clients to surrender or lapse life insurance policies before gauging value on the secondary market amounts to a fiduciary fail, argues Cole Hallman of Citizens Life Group.

Parents who don't effectively communicate estate plans to their children set them up to fail financially, emotionally and relationally.

Financial advisors can differentiate themselves by knowing when to apply the tax-friendly strategy — and when to take a pass.

As RIAs look to offer more holistic planning, many are partnering with CPA firms to deliver tax expertise without the cost and complexity of building it in-house.