Coach's Corner

Your ability to inspire action requires you to understand your clients' ongoing thoughts and reflections about how it would feel to work with you.

You're in the unique position to bring advanced planning ideas to your clients' attention.

Systematic tax-loss harvesting helps investors take advantage of the systemic volatility that is inherent in investing, see investment returns compounding over time and delay tax payments until a later date.

Using a systematic tax-loss harvesting¹ strategy year-round can help build better tax outcomes for clients and be more efficient for your team.

When the calendar collides with big market memes, think opportunity.

When you choose to be in a moment, be in that moment rather than thinking about your next move.

Illustrate the importance of understanding how owning the right asset (asset allocation) in the wrong account (asset location) can have unintended tax consequences by asking these three questions.

While asset allocation decisions may explain most of a client's pre-tax returns, tax-smart asset location helps them keep more of what they've earned.

It's vital to keep watch on state elections and ballot initiatives advocating for state-level tax reform.

Rather than debating a prospective client's view, lift the conversation to a higher plane by using an ism—a timeless, pithy sound bite that connects the dots between your foundational beliefs and the advice you give to clients.

How you communicate with clients will likely vary based upon individual coping strategies.

Help clients identify how they can capitalize on current opportunities and prepare for the possibility of tax law changes.

Articulate your view and connect the dots to their personal balance sheets. You may not have all the answers, yet your call will be appreciated.

Your role as an After-Tax Advisor is to get clients thinking and talking about how different tax scenarios might affect their financial goals.

Providing sound counsel and context can help alleviate your clients' fears, despite the headlines surrounding today's market volatility.

It's vital for you to remain clear-eyed, never allowing your personal political views to influence your objectivity./p>

Is your ability to influence the conversation between your client and his colleague as easy as delivering an ism such as, it's profits not politics that drive markets?

How you frame the after-tax conversation with clients will determine your success.

The more you attempt to position yourself to a wide array of clients, the less you are perceived as bringing unique value to any of them.

While clients may not be able to get exactly what they want, tax benefits with retained access and control, they might find they can get what they need with a SLAT.

The best way to meaningfully help someone during turbulent markets is to be empathic in your approach.

Risk is symmetrical: There's both upside and downside risk. It's important to consider hedging the upside risks.

Isms can have a multiplier effect on the growth of a team practice as they help you in various dimensions of conversation.

For thesis inspiration, we turned to the July issue of The BEAT's key takeaway of slowing wage growth in the U.S. and Eurozone, which in turn should help ease persistent services, inflation, and allow central banks to adjust rates lower.

How do you increase the chances that you'll organically pop up in conversations? Develop and articulate your theses—timely, pithy, soundbites that connect the dots to the advice you are delivering to your clients.

When meeting your clients' children for the first time, ask questions to learn more about their goals and investment philosophy.

As you prepare for a first meeting with a prospective client it's important to ask questions that can help uncover the source of their wealth and any biases they may have when it comes to their portfolios.

The June issue of The BEAT can help you navigate today's increasingly confusing crosscurrents and help you inspire prospective clients to change their current trajectory.

Although we can't predict how tax laws will evolve, you can help clients 'skate to where the puck (in this case, tax law) is going' by discussing strategies to help reduce their tax bill.

Whether a first meeting occurs in person or virtually, we believe the same fundamentals apply for running purposeful, coordinated, and conclusive first meetings.

Midyear is a great time to check in and remind clients of the ways they can minimize their tax liabilities and help maximize returns with tax-loss harvesting.

When executed well, there's no abrupt, potentially uncomfortable, pivot.

Using a tax tenet as your response can help turn a follow-up phone call into a first meeting.

How can you break through their inertia and inspire prospective clients to step out of cash and play the long game? Consider using a thesis.

A pithy ism, timeless sound bite conveying your financial beliefs, or thesis, timely statement about market conditions, can help you create a curiosity gap that leaves people wanting to learn more in a follow-up phone call.

The one thing we know for certain is that tax laws are likely to change to help lower the national debt.

What if you reframe the purpose of your call to determine together whether a meeting might make sense? You might think there's a subtle difference—hardly.

It's important to diagnose the cause of an unpleasant tax surprise quickly—while it's top of mind for clients—and initiate corrective action.

Imagine if you ended your opening statement with a pause—now you're in learning mode.

Leading with how a failure to diversify could jeopardize their plans for a comfortable retirement would make for terrible conversation, and they're likely already aware of this since they brought it up.

Capitalize on these opportunities by following our four best practices of great thesis articulation.

Leverage the power of isms and theses to make first encounters count and be ready for follow-up questions.

After-tax advisors can help clients navigate the uncertainty and provide clarity with a tax tenet: Uncle Sam can be a coach, not simply a referee.

The objective of the disengage is to move on from a conversation while opening the door for a follow-up call with that person. It requires strategy and connectivity.

The power of a well-developed thesis can spring conversations forward when existing and prospective clients are buzzing about today's market memes and potential implications to their financial decision-making.

These questions allow for deeper discovery and can help you ensure their tax-planning strategies and financial goals are aligned.

This highlights a hallmark of successful teams—intergenerational or not—the consistent ability to enjoy someone else's success.

The combination of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunset and an upcoming election has tax laws hanging in the balance. Clients likely feel the uncertainty and wonder what they should do to prepare for different outcomes.

Mid-career advisors are now in the driver's seat with increasing numbers of older advisors looking for successors.

Now is a great time to discuss the potential changes resulting from the TCJA with your clients to identify how they can capitalize on the current opportunities and prepare for the possibility of a sunset.

Your job as a financial advisor is to help clients mitigate risk and preserve their capital. Diversifying concentrated positions can come at a steep tax cost if the concentration is highly appreciated.

A client exercising ISOs early in the year has 'options' (pun intended).