I work at a small firm that mainly focuses on doing returns. I'm doing my CPE's and have been finding the estate tax planning courses interesting and think it would be cool to do that more in the future and to get away from the constant return prep. Any advice on how to transition to something like that? I don't think I've seen any jobs in my area looking estate tax planners specifically. Is it something you would move up to in a company? Would it be helpful to get any specific qualifications in addition to CPA? Just curious if anyone has any thoughts on the subject.
Switching from knocking out returns to planning
byu/Working_On_Tax_Stuff intax
Posted by Working_On_Tax_Stuff
1 Comment
from what i’ve seen, a lot of the people who move into planning first become very strong at returns because the return work teaches you where the planning opportunities actually are
estate and tax planning also tends to live more inside:
larger CPA firms
wealth management firms
family offices
or firms that work heavily with business owners/high net worth clients
so sometimes the transition is less about finding a job titled “estate tax planner” and more about moving toward firms that already sell advisory/planning services instead of mainly compliance work
one thing that helps a lot is getting exposure to client conversations instead of only preparing returns behind the scenes
because planning work is usually a mix of:
tax knowledge
relationship building
and spotting opportunities before the return is filed
the CPA itself already carries a lot of weight. additional credentials can help depending on the direction you go, but i’d probably focus more on getting into environments where planning is actually part of the business model
once you start sitting in on strategy conversations with higher income or business clients, the path usually becomes a lot clearer