Tax Strategy

The Westchester tax stack

Add it up: federal income tax, New York State income tax, property taxes that rank among the highest in the nation, and for some, New York City tax before the move out here. The federal deduction for state and local taxes is capped, which means high earners here feel the full weight of every layer.

None of this is a reason to despair. It is a reason to plan. Families in identical houses with identical incomes can have dramatically different tax outcomes depending on how their financial lives are arranged.

What advisors do, and what your CPA does

Your CPA files the return and records what happened. Your advisor shapes what happens before it does: which accounts hold which investments, when to realize gains, whether to convert to Roth, how to time deductions. The best outcomes come when the two coordinate, and the advisors in our network build that coordination into how they work.

Advisors do not give tax advice in the legal sense and neither do we. They give tax-aware planning, and they bring your CPA into the conversation when decisions warrant it.

The levers that matter

Asset location, placing tax-inefficient holdings in tax-sheltered accounts. Systematic loss harvesting in taxable accounts. Roth conversions in lower-income years. Charitable strategies like donor-advised funds that bunch deductions into the years they count. For those with equity compensation, the timing of option exercises and RSU sales against your bracket.

Each lever is modest alone. Pulled together, year after year, they compound into one of the largest sources of value an advisor provides.

How we match for tax strategy

We look for advisors who lead with planning rather than products, and who can show you the tax impact of their recommendations in dollars. As always: fiduciary, credentialed, verified. See our standard, or begin your inquiry.