Proactive Strategies for a Complex Regulatory Landscape
At Armbruster Capital Management, we believe that tax planning is not a year-end event; it is a year-round discipline. With tax laws and brackets continually shifting, taking a passive approach to tax planning can put your long-term wealth at risk.
By combining high-level investment management with professional tax experience, we help our clients navigate the complexities of the current tax code, striving to maximize their net-of-tax returns.
A Unified Approach to Managing and Growing Your Wealth
Investment firms often manage portfolios in a vacuum, leaving the tax implications to an outside accountant. At ACM, we don’t only focus on investment theory, we also evaluate our trades, distributions, and financial decisions through a tax-efficient lens.
Core Tax Mitigation Strategies
Our team implements a range of strategies designed to reduce “tax drag” and help you keep more of what you earn:
Asset Location
We strategically place tax-inefficient asset classes, such as bonds or alternative funds, in qualified retirement accounts while keeping tax-efficient assets, such as large-cap US ETFS, in taxable accounts, to minimize tax liability.
Systematic Tax-Loss Harvesting
We monitor portfolios for opportunities to realize capital losses. Realized losses can be used to offset current or future capital gains or up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year, a process that can add significant “Tax-Alpha” over time.
Roth Conversion Analysis
We perform the quantitative modeling necessary to determine if, and when, converting traditional IRA assets to a Roth IRA is beneficial, particularly in light of current “Rothification” trends for high earners.
Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA)
We educate our clients on how the Medicare surcharge works, break down how the complex rules apply to you, and help you plan ahead so you can make informed decisions that may reduce future Medicare Charges. For more information on how retirees can take steps to help reduce future surcharges, check out the following article.
Specialized Planning for High-Net-Worth Households
For families with more nuanced planning requirements, we offer support in the following areas:
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)
For clients over age 70½, we facilitate direct transfers from IRAs to charities, satisfying Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) without increasing taxable income.
Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)
We use this as a tax efficient tool to help clients simplify and enhance their charitable giving, aligning philanthropy with the firm’s evidence based, fiduciary approach.
Our Approach
Our goal is to ensure that creating tax efficiencies is a core part of the financial plan. As your advisor, we also work in tandem with your existing legal and accounting teams to provide a unified, tax-centric approach to wealth management.