Tax Planning Impact on Client Wealth

Why tax planning is now a wealth management essential

Client expectations have changed. Investment performance alone no longer justifies advisory fees for a growing segment of high-net-worth households. Taxes have moved to the center of the conversation.

What the data shows

• 69% of affluent investors say it is important that their provider helps them reduce their tax bill, yet nearly half of advisors still do not offer structured tax planning services. (Cerulli Associates, Customized at Scale, 2025)
• Advisors who deliver coordinated tax and investment planning retain clients at meaningfully higher rates and receive significantly more referrals from their existing client base. (Kitces Research on Comprehensive Planning)
• The CPA shortage is making this worse. More than 300,000 accountants and auditors have left the profession in the past few years, driven by retirements and a decline in accounting school enrollment. Clients are finding it harder than ever to get responsive, qualified tax help, which means the advisor who fills that gap wins the relationship. (AICPA Pipeline Acceleration Plan, 2023)
• Tax alpha is real and measurable. Vanguard research estimates that tax-loss harvesting alone can add between 0.47% and 1.27% in annual after-tax returns, with certain clients seeing 1% to 2% or more through direct indexing strategies. (Vanguard, 2024)