Building Wealth
Your CPA and Your Financial Planner Are Not Talking to Each Other
The gap between tax planning and financial planning is where some of the most costly decisions quietly happen.
The assumption that someone else is handling it
The most common version of this problem is not a mistake. It is an assumption. Most people assume that because they have a CPA and a financial planner, the tax implications of their financial decisions are being managed. In practice, the CPA sees what happened last year. The financial planner sees the investment and insurance picture. Neither necessarily sees both at the same time, in the same conversation, with the same goals in mind. The result is a kind of financial fragmentation that looks fine from the outside. The returns get filed. The accounts get managed. But the decisions that sit at the intersection of tax strategy and long-term planning — the ones where timing and sequencing matter most — often fall through the gap.
Roth conversion timing
A Roth conversion moves money from a pre-tax retirement account to a Roth account, triggering ordinary income tax in the year of the conversion. Done well, it can reduce lifetime tax liability significantly — particularly in years when income is lower than usual, or when tax rates are expected to rise. Done without coordination, it can push you into a higher bracket, trigger the Medicare surtax on investment income, or create a tax bill your withholding was not set up to cover. Your CPA knows your income. Your financial planner knows your account balances. The conversion decision requires both.
RSU and ISO vesting and sale decisions
For professionals at technology companies or in equity-heavy compensation structures, the timing of when to sell restricted stock units or exercise incentive stock options has significant tax consequences. ISOs in particular carry alternative minimum tax implications that can be substantial and are easy to underestimate without careful modeling. The financial planning question — how much concentration risk do you want to carry? — and the tax question — when is the right time to sell, and how much? — are inseparable. They need to be answered together.
Retirement contribution sequencing
The decision of how much to contribute to a 401(k), whether to use a traditional or Roth option, whether a backdoor Roth IRA makes sense, and whether a health savings account should be maximized first — all of these depend on your current marginal tax rate, your projected future tax rate, and your overall income picture. Your CPA knows your current rate. Your financial planner knows your account structure. The sequencing decision requires both.
What coordination actually looks like
Coordination does not necessarily mean a three-way meeting, though that can be useful. It means a financial plan that is built with your tax situation in mind — not as an afterthought, but as a core input. It means your financial planner knows what your CPA knows about your income, your deductions, and your likely tax position for the year. It means your CPA knows what your financial planner is considering — a Roth conversion, a large capital gain, a change in retirement contributions — before it happens, not after. In practice, this often requires someone to take ownership of the coordination. Your CPA is not going to call your financial planner. Your financial planner is not going to call your CPA. If you want the two to be working from the same picture, you usually have to make that happen — or work with a planner who builds that coordination into the process.
The decisions that sit at the intersection of tax planning and financial planning are often the highest-leverage ones available to high-income professionals. Getting them right requires both sides of the picture.
If you have not had a conversation that brings your tax situation and your financial plan into the same room, that is worth putting on the list.
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