Tax Coach

[erchess]

I wonder if any of you have ever heard of or tried this guy who supposedly will teach you to build your practice throughout the year by offering TAX (I originally said "financial".) planning services. I am giving him a try and so far I am impressed but am still early in the learning process so have not tried to actually get a new client.

[geekgirldany]

Never heard of him. Does he have a website? If so PM it to me.

[TaxLadyinPA]

I knew one

I knew a financial planner in the next town. Several years ago he wanted me to do it but I told him I didn't have time and I would send my clients his way for financial planning. I didn't want the responsibility of being blamed for bad planning. Well, I never sent my clients to him, and that was a good thing.

First off ... he decided he could could tax returns so he built his little practice. He was the insurance salesman first, then financial planner and then tax preparer.
When he first started preparing taxes, he would send his clients to me for Efile. I would sit there putting their info into the computer for efile only to find out he had done it wrong. I would have to send the people back to him to fix the mistakes.

I got many new clients from him as they got tired of him making errors and me fixing them.

Then he started efile himself.
Suddenly one day ... he was no longer doing efile - his clients that he still had ... returned to me for efile and said - He lost his Efile license. I'm thinking ... just how bad are you that you don't follow the Efile rules and they pull you Efin. Within 2 more years he was out of business because the IRS was again after him.
He wasn't preparing intentionally fraudulent returns, he just didn't know what he was doing and the IRS pretty much told him he wasn't going to be preparing anything anymore.

My point is ... don't send your clients to anyone else for financial planning unless you are very certain they know what they are doing. And you take the chance on losing them as clients if these planners also prepare taxes.

But also make sure you really know what you are doing if you choose to become a financial planner. Remember you are the one who is going to get the blame when things don't work the way the client wanted.

I decided I don't want to become one and I certainly won't ever send my client to one.

2 years in a row recently I've had a lady calling from Merril Lynch stating she is a financial planner and would like me to work with her by sending my clients her way.

I again thought about it and figured no way .... I will be the one in the end to get the blame when things go wrong.

I now tell my clients that I do not give advice on financial planning nor will I recommend anyone who does. I apologize, they say they understand and they leave happy and I feel assured that I still have them as a client next year *L*

Good luck to you in this venture ... is all I can say.

[erchess]

Tax Lady

I have corrected OP to indicate that it is tax planning rather than financial planning that I am getting into. I think the reason that I misspoke is that I am considering getting into that NEXT offseason. I have had very good luck referring clients to financial planners. I picked the ones whose companies produced the more helpful end of year statements and who were the most help to me when I needed information that I could not find on the statement.

[Chief]

Financial Planning

I knew a financial planner in the next town. Several years ago he wanted me to do it but I told him I didn't have time and I would send my clients his way for financial planning. I didn't want the responsibility of being blamed for bad planning. Well, I never sent my clients to him, and that was a good thing.

First off ... he decided he could could tax returns so he built his little practice. He was the insurance salesman first, then financial planner and then tax preparer.
When he first started preparing taxes, he would send his clients to me for Efile. I would sit there putting their info into the computer for efile only to find out he had done it wrong. I would have to send the people back to him to fix the mistakes.

I got many new clients from him as they got tired of him making errors and me fixing them.

Then he started efile himself.
Suddenly one day ... he was no longer doing efile - his clients that he still had ... returned to me for efile and said - He lost his Efile license. I'm thinking ... just how bad are you that you don't follow the Efile rules and they pull you Efin. Within 2 more years he was out of business because the IRS was again after him.
He wasn't preparing intentionally fraudulent returns, he just didn't know what he was doing and the IRS pretty much told him he wasn't going to be preparing anything anymore.

My point is ... don't send your clients to anyone else for financial planning unless you are very certain they know what they are doing. And you take the chance on losing them as clients if these planners also prepare taxes.

But also make sure you really know what you are doing if you choose to become a financial planner. Remember you are the one who is going to get the blame when things don't work the way the client wanted.

I decided I don't want to become one and I certainly won't ever send my client to one.

2 years in a row recently I've had a lady calling from Merril Lynch stating she is a financial planner and would like me to work with her by sending my clients her way.

I again thought about it and figured no way .... I will be the one in the end to get the blame when things go wrong.

I now tell my clients that I do not give advice on financial planning nor will I recommend anyone who does. I apologize, they say they understand and they leave happy and I feel assured that I still have them as a client next year *L*

Good luck to you in this venture ... is all I can say.

I agree with you, Tax Lady. Even some of our companies offer financial planning for preparers to offer their clients. I want no part of it.