Who's in Your Ecosystem?

In your life, you probably use a great number of experts for your personal affairs, the people with whom you make appointments. You have a doctor, certainly, and a dentist. Maybe you have some other medical professionals as well depending on your or your family’s health situation. You probably have a family lawyer, a hairdresser/barber, a veterinarian, a banker, an investment advisor, an ophthalmologist, a personal trainer, and an insurance agent. You might use a travel agent from time to time, and the occasional lab technician as well. And then there are the plumbers, electricians, landscapers, tree trimmers, builders, roofers, and other contractors in our lives. The one thing all of these people have in common is you.

You, or you and your life partner, are at the center of your personal or family ecosystem. You make the appointments, keep the wheel of life turning, all with one central goal – to provide you and your family with the best life that is available to you, however you define that life.

When we as CPAs meet with our clients, in particular our individual tax clients, we should keep in mind the fact that they too already have a collection of professionals with whom they make appointments, people who are helping to keep those clients’ lives in order. And while your client is ultimately at the center of that ecosystem, to the extent that there are financial ramifications to consider, you also should hold a central role.

You prepare the annual tax return and work with the client to make sure withholdings and estimated payments are appropriate, but what is your relationship with the client the rest of the year? Are you content to meet once a year and report on what happened last year, or do you want a more proactive role in your clients’ financial lives?

I believe it’s appropriate for the tax accountant to be at the center of the client’s financial ecosystem, to oversee and even collaborate with other professionals who are a part of your client’s lives. Helping your clients achieve their financial goals means being able to look at the big picture, the entire financial view of your clients’ lives.

In order to best help your clients meet their goals, you might need to be able to recommend other professionals who can provide expertise that you don’t possess. Having relationships with an attorney, an investment advisor, an insurance agent, and others means you can join forces as a group to work together toward the same end – the wellbeing of your clients. And meanwhile, you remain at the helm, overseeing all of the pieces and parts to ensure your clients’ needs are being met.

Your first reaction might be, “But what if I team with another financial professional and then they take my clients?” Obviously, you want to vet the professionals you work with and agree to not poach clients from each other. You also need to have confidence in your own skill set and your value to your client. When you provide value as a tax professional, and add to that the ability to help your clients see their complete financial picture so that they can achieve their personal life goals, you’re not going to need to worry about losing clients.

Firm Management