The financial planning team for any high-net-worth individual or business owner typically includes multiple professionals: a tax advisor, an estate planning attorney, a financial advisor, a wealth manager, sometimes a corporate counsel, and various other specialists. Coordination across these professionals is one of the more underappreciated dimensions of effective planning, and the absence of coordination is one of the more common reasons sophisticated planning strategies fail to deliver their intended benefits.
AE Tax Advisors has built coordination into its operating model deliberately. The firm operates from headquarters in Billings, Montana, with a virtual advisory model serving clients in all 50 states. The firm’s team, IRS Enrolled Agents and licensed CPAs led by Christina Nortman, works alongside clients’ existing professional teams rather than seeking to replace them, and the coordination across the broader planning relationships is a defined part of how the firm delivers value.
The coordination work involves several specific dimensions.
The first dimension is the relationship with the client’s existing CPA. Many AE Tax Advisors clients have established relationships with local CPAs who handle their tax preparation, bookkeeping, or other ongoing financial work. AE Tax Advisors generally focuses on the strategic tax planning rather than the preparation work, which means the existing CPA can continue handling the day-to-day filings while AE Tax Advisors provides the planning overlay. The coordination involves sharing the strategic recommendations with the preparing CPA, ensuring the recommendations are reflected on the returns, and confirming that the implementation is consistent with the planning intent.
The second dimension is the relationship with the client’s estate planning attorney. Many of the strategies AE Tax Advisors recommends- entity restructuring, trust funding, charitable structures, wealth transfer techniques- require legal document drafting that AE Tax Advisors does not handle directly. The firm’s role is the tax analysis and strategic recommendation; the attorney’s role is the legal implementation. Coordination across these roles ensures the documents reflect the tax intent and the tax positions reflect the legal structures.
The third dimension is the relationship with the client’s financial advisor or wealth manager. Investment decisions have tax implications, and tax decisions affect investment outcomes. AE Tax Advisors coordinates with financial advisors on issues including tax-loss harvesting strategy, asset location decisions (which assets sit in which account types), retirement plan funding, and the integration of investment income with the broader tax planning framework.
The fourth dimension is the relationship with the client’s transactional attorneys for specific events. Business sales, real estate transactions, equity events, and other major transactions involve attorneys whose work has direct tax consequences. AE Tax Advisors coordinates on the tax structuring of these transactions, ensuring the deal structure produces the optimal tax outcome and that the tax planning is reflected in the transactional documents.
The fifth dimension is the relationship with specialized professionals: cost segregation engineers for real estate studies, business valuators for entity events, plan administrators for retirement plan operations, actuaries for defined benefit and cash balance plans. AE Tax Advisors brings these specialists into the planning process where their expertise is required and coordinates the work across the multi-professional team.
The coordination model has several practical advantages.
The first advantage is preserved relationships. Clients who have built trust with local professionals over many years often don’t want to disrupt those relationships even when they need additional strategic depth. The AE Tax Advisors model allows clients to add strategic tax planning to their existing professional team rather than replacing trusted relationships.
The second advantage is geographic coverage. The client’s local attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals provide geographically specific expertise, knowledge of local state law, local market conditions, and local regulatory environments that AE Tax Advisors as a national virtual firm coordinates with rather than duplicates.
The third advantage is specialized depth. AE Tax Advisors specializes in strategic tax planning. The local CPAs specialize in preparation and ongoing compliance. The estate attorneys specialize in legal structure. The financial advisors specialize in investment management. Each professional doing what they do best, coordinated effectively, produces better outcomes than any one professional trying to do everything.
The fourth advantage is checks and balances. Professional coordination provides built-in review across multiple expertise domains. AE Tax Advisors’ tax recommendations get reviewed by the implementing attorneys and CPAs. The attorneys’ legal structures get reviewed for tax implications by AE Tax Advisors. The financial advisor’s investment decisions get evaluated for tax efficiency. The cross-review tends to catch issues that a single-professional engagement might miss.
The annual $7,800 advisory engagement at AE Tax Advisors includes the coordination work as a standard component of the service. The firm communicates with the client’s other professionals as needed throughout the year, attends planning meetings via video where helpful, and ensures the strategic tax plan is being implemented consistently across the professional team.
For business owners and high-net-worth individuals who already have established professional relationships but want to add strategic tax depth, the AE Tax Advisors coordination model is one of the more practical examples of how serious tax planning can be added to an existing planning team without disruption. The expertise is real. The
integration is built into the operating model. And the outcomes reflect what coordinated multi-professional teams produce when they work together effectively.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, tax, or legal advice. While the article aims to highlight common strategies and trends, it does not consider individual circumstances. Readers are encouraged to consult with a qualified professional for advice tailored to their specific situation.
