RTS #062 Find a doctor while you are healthy
What’s at the top of your list of criteria when you are looking for a new healthcare provider? Location, specialty, insurance network, how long it takes to schedule an appointment, patient reviews, doctors’ track record all come to mind (I would have said price, but with healthcare, that’s almost impossible to know). Now, how does that list change if you are ACTIVELY BLEEDING? And we’re not talking CPA with a paper cut, the scary pulsating kind. Your list looks a bit different, right? But a lot of people wait until they are bleeding to make a plan.
While much less graphic looking for new help on tax preparation has a lot of similarities. Most people wait until they are in pain or bleeding (aka something has gone terribly wrong or inevitably the Earth has continued its course around the sun and it once again is February) to find someone and they’ve missed their opportunity to choose proactively. All they are left with is being reactive.
If you have clients that need help on tax preparation right now is the time to begin doing something about it. It can be challenging any time of year to find great help on taxes but that gets infinitely more difficult if you are looking for that great help in the run up to a tax filing deadline. The RTS team is in the middle of working with our Premiere members to plan the 2024 filing season because addressing it during August creates a phenomenally better outcome for the client when the filing season rolls around.
That means that any of your clients who have expressed frustration with their tax prep experience (or clients where YOU have had frustrating experiences with their tax professional) need to be having a conversation about it now. You can help by giving them that reminder and helping the understand the importance of timing on this topic or go full white glove and help them find a partner if you have CPAs you like referring your clients to. It might be hard to get clients to take action on this in the middle of the summer when they’d rather not be thinking about taxes, but that’s why it’s a value add for you to get involved.
Next year will only be different if you help your clients go into it with a different plan.
Happy Tax Planning!
