Finsyn Logo White

Tax Planning in Houston

Leveraging tax mitigation strategies to maximize your income and investment returns

Tax planning is a critical component of any financial plan or investment strategy.

Investment Management

Taxes can take a big bite out of your income and investment gains, so proper planning is critical. You simply cannot successfully manage money without taking taxes into account every step of the way. We’ll incorporate your specific tax circumstances into your custom financial plan and investment portfolio.

We strive to reduce the impact of taxes across all areas of your financial plan. We implement effective and efficient tax strategies designed to help you meet your goals for retirement planning, estate planning, investment portfolios, and more.

Taxes are an inevitable part of money management, but with Financial Synergies you can be confident that your savings and assets are being distributed in a tax-efficient manner.

Learn more about our tax planning and mitigation strategies by contacting us today.

Tax Planning and Mitigation Strategies

At Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors, we help you better understand what your tax situation may look like in the future and how the decisions you make today can affect your future wealth. Your fiduciary advisor, (also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional) has intimate knowledge of your financial goals and wealth management issues from working with you and can provide a complete picture of how taxes impact your financial plan.

Tax Return Review

Good tax planning starts with an analysis of your tax return.

Your tax return is the foundation of your full tax picture, so a thorough analysis can yield great financial planning opportunities. We’ll roll up our sleeves to uncover as many areas for improvement as possible. This will also help us to get a better handle on your overall financial picture and produce a more comprehensive financial plan.

We also work with your CPA (if you have one) to uncover new ways to maximize your savings going forward.

Tax shelters & deferral strategies

The right tools and investment vehicles result in lower lifetime taxes.

At Financial Synergies, we look at many ways to distribute your income in the most tax-efficient manner possible. These tax strategies may include retirement plan contributions, retirement plan conversions, contributions to HSA or 529 accounts, charitable gifting, etc.

Retirement plans (e.g. IRA, Roth, 401(k)) can shift income between tax years, protect assets from creditors, and shelter income over years or even decades. Employment circumstances, income levels and other factors may limit the available options that make sense. Unique benefits of Roth conversions increase their planning appeal. Combining other planning techniques can smooth the tax curve even more.

Tax-efficient portfolios

We build and manage investment portfolios with taxes in mind.

Taxes can take a significant chunk out of investment returns, so we always strive to create and manage tax-efficient portfolios for our clients.

Different types of investments can have different tax implications. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), annuities, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and private placements all have different tax advantages / disadvantages.

We balance these investment tax characteristics with your financial goals and needs to create the optimal portfolio as part of our ongoing investment management strategy.

Capital gains management

Short-term vs. long-term capital gains must be managed prudently.

The realization of capital gains in portfolios can come in two primary forms – the sale of an asset / investment or a distribution from an investment fund. Also, the taxation of short-term and long-term capital gains is very different – a gain is considered short-term if the investment is held for less than a year, and long-term if held more than a year. For most investors, long-term gains are taxed at a lower rate than short-term gains.

It can be difficult for investors to know when to sell an investment vs. hold onto it, and this decision can have major consequences. At Financial Synergies, we monitor and manage these potential tax issues on an ongoing basis. Our portfolio management team and advisory team work together with you to look at your whole financial picture when considering taxes, as these decisions should be made with regard to your holistic financial plan and not just the investment portfolio.

Tax-loss harvesting

An effective strategy if utilized properly.

Tax-loss harvesting can help to reduce your overall tax burden by offsetting taxable portfolio gains with tax losses. But ideally, we don’t just want to take tax losses and lose exposure to that asset class or security. We want to maintain exposure and continue to have your money invested and working for you after harvesting the tax loss. The goal would be to reinvest those proceeds into a comparable investment so that we remain optimally invested and in balance.

Many advisors only look for tax-loss harvesting opportunities once a year, usually near year-end. This can be a mistake, as tax-loss opportunities can occur throughout the year as well. If these are not taken advantage of in a timely manner, those available losses could evaporate quickly. We monitor for tax-loss opportunities on a regular basis and strive to act quickly to the benefit of our clients’ investment portfolio after-tax returns.

*IRS regulations around tax-loss harvesting are complex and restrictive, so it may not always be possible to achieve desired results.

Tax-advantaged retirement accounts

Your most powerful tax deferral tool.

Prudent use of retirement accounts can be the most powerful tax deferral tool at your disposal, as they can provide long-term shelter for your income and investment gains. Our financial advisors and Certified Financial PlannersTM will help you determine what types of retirement accounts are best for you based on your unique circumstances.

In some cases, tax-deferred accounts such as traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, where contributions are made pre-tax, may be most appropriate. Or it might make more sense to utilize post-tax contributions to Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k)s. Our experts will advise you on the most appropriate retirement account types when building out your comprehensive financial plan and tax strategy.

Estate tax planning

Don’t let your hard-earned wealth go to taxes after death.

Estate tax laws are constantly changing and have become somewhat of a political football. Even if you are out of range from the estate tax directly impacting you and your legacy now, that could change in the future. We’ll help you safeguard your assets and investments for generations to come.

Our estate planning services (in some cases in collaboration with your estate attorney) may include the creation of trusts and wills, gifting and charitable giving, marital deductions, and beneficiary titling.

Charitable giving

Fund your most valued causes.

Donating to charities not only helps to fund your most cherished causes but can also reduce your taxable income. Our advisors will work with you to determine the most optimal way to contribute to charitable causes, which may include direct gifting, donor-advised funds, IRA required minimum distributions, etc. 

Tax Projections

We can’t predict the future, but we can plan for different outcomes.

Today’s tax deferral decisions could be a good idea (if taxes will be higher later) or a terrible idea (if taxes will be lower). Tax projections are not an exact science, but it’s still a worthwhile endeavor to try and mitigate the negative impact taxes can have as much as possible. Using our financial planning and analysis software to make educated tax projections, a clearer picture emerges providing a framework for today’s decisions. Our Certified Financial PlannersTM will ensure your plan incorporates many possible outcomes, so you won’t be caught flat-footed when it comes to taxes.

Tax Planning and Strategies​

Collaboration With Your CPA

The financial advisors and tax planners at Financial Synergies will gladly work closely with your CPA to ensure your financial plan and investment portfolio are optimally aligned with your complete tax situation. If you do not have a CPA, and would like to engage one, we have several strategic partnerships with CPA firms in the Houston area. We can certainly coordinate that engagement and will continue working with them on your behalf in the future.

Download Your Free Guide

Fill out the form below for instant access