Tax season is a stressful time, so when you interview a client for financial information related to doing their tax return, you don't want to appear like a salesman, hawking your additional wares when they are only concerned about their taxes and what they can deduct. However, there is a way to seamlessly bring up additional services you offer during this initial tax interview. For instance, many of the questions you will be asking have to do with saving money, while you are getting information to ascertain what tax breaks the client can take advantage of. This is the perfect time to bring up financial planning and how the client can save on taxes with investment alternatives.

Why Sell to Existing Clients?

First and foremost, it is easier to sell to existing clients. To a certain extent, they are presold as they already have an investment in their relationship with you, their accountant. Who knows their financial situation better? Imagine all the personal documents that must be reviewed to prepare a tax return. They provide insight into not only tax matters but family, investment, and business matters as well. The condition of the records alone may provide an opportunity to add value for the client by offering bookkeeping or organizational services.

Secondly, a level of trust has already been established with the client. One of the biggest barriers to selling any type of personal service, especially those involving finances, is developing a solid level of trust. This is also why obtaining a new client through a referral is much more valuable than by a cold approach. Existing clients transfer some level of their trust via the referral so that the accountant does not have to start at ground level.

A client's experience with his or her accountant is a good basis for a relationship, but even better is when the accountant knows the client. Increasingly, tax professionals are learning the value of vetting potential new clients and ensuring a solid onboarding process before accepting them. When determining which clients should be offered additional services, you can look to previous behaviors, including treatment of staff, condition of records, level of participation, and payment history to determine if this is a client he or she would serve again.

The No. 1 reason to sell additional services to existing clients is that clients want them. Too frequently clients seek new providers because they complain that their accountant is not proactive enough. Clients say that they want someone who comes to them with updates, ideas, and recommendations throughout the year, rather than just preparing their tax return once a year. Clients assume that in addition to preparing tax returns, an accountant will identify opportunities and help them reach their goals. Cross-selling may generate revenue for the firm, but it is really about adding value for the client.

During the interview, be interested in the client, ask what they are concerned about, and really listen. With this perspective, you are offering not only your tax services but yourself, and the conversation will often naturally turn to other topics of interest other than taxes.

Of course, you don't want to stray too far from the tax issue in your initial interview. The art of good marketing is creating a relaxed environment where the client feels they are showing interest rather than being bullied to sign up or buy. Take notes during your interview about any additional services the client showed interest in, then later, weeks or a month say, send them a follow-up email regarding the services they seemed interested in. Give them ample time to become relaxed after their tax issues are taken care of. In your email, just remind them of the things you two talked about, whether it be financial planning, investment suggestions, budgeting concerns, etc. Be cordial and professional and you will find that you often end up with a client for a whole other product you handle. Who knows? If your new client is a small business owner, you could end up taking care of their finances all-around or coming on board as a consultant.

Here at MoneyThumb, we love the saying, "If you don't ask the answer is always no." Don't be afraid to ask. You never know what new service a client could need and they will thank you later down the road for mentioning it in the initial tax interview if you handle it like a boss.

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The fact is, nothing makes Americans happier than having their finances organized. That is what 92% of U.S. adults said in Northwestern Mutual’s 2019 Planning & Progress Study said, "they are happiest and most confident when their financial house is in order.”

Do you feel that your financial house is in order? If not, what financial changes are you considering making in 2020? Is 2020 the year you hire a financial advisor? To help you decide if hiring a financial advisor is in the cards for you in 2020, we have listed below the major considerations and questions to ask a potential financial advisor:

What Kind of Financial Advisor Do You Need?

If your financial situation needs assistance, you could choose to work with Robo-advisors, which typically manage your money for you. These platforms are generally less expensive than working with a human financial advisor, but they may not provide the same level of customized advice and solutions.

Maybe you have a more complex financial situation, such as stock options or perhaps you help out with family financial obligations. That may require a face-to-face conversation with a human financial advisor or planner. And these professionals usually go beyond just building portfolios. They offer a wide range of services to help achieve your goals, such as helping create a budget and plan to save for a home or selecting the right college savings plan for your family or even creating tax efficiencies with your investments.

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Go Over Long-Term Financial Planning with Family

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Here is a description of the guide from Accounting Principles website, "This valuable tool provides you with the most up-to-date accounting and finance salaries for your local job market and around the country. It also features the latest job descriptions and industry insights from the experts in accounting and finance staffing. It’s everything you need to successfully hire and retain the very best number-crunching professionals."

Accountants Predicted to Make More Money in 2017

The guide, released on Sept. 6, also indicates that several types of finance positions, including accounting and auditing, are expected to outpace overall occupations in job growth and pay by 2024. Citing job numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the guide indicates that financial analysts, financial examiners, accountants and auditors, and financial planners (described as personal financial advisers by the BLS) show the strongest growth.

The guide breaks down the jobs numbers by several categories from the bureau’s 2016-17 occupational outlook. The category of business and financial professionals is the first. The BLS indicates that while jobs within this category are expected to keep pace with the 8 percent expected growth of all occupations by 2024, the median annual wage in May 2015 of $65,710 far exceeded the median $36,200 for all occupations.

And within that big category are several subsets of finance positions that are expected to do quite well. Here’s a closer look:

Accountants and Auditors

“A stronger regulatory environment is driving the demand for more accountants and auditors,” the BLS states.The 1.33 million accountants and auditors in 2014 are expected to grow 11 percent by 2024, to 1.47 million. The median pay in 2015 was $67,190.

Financial Examiners

An expected 10 percent growth by 2024 will add 3,700 jobs to the 38,200 as of 2014. Median pay in 2015 was $78,010.

Financial Analyst

The 277,600 in 2014 are expected to see 32,300 (12 percent growth) additional colleagues by 2024. Median pay in 2015 was $80,310.

Financial Planners/Personal Financial Advisers

The BLS describes this group as those advising on investments, insurance, mortgages, college savings, estate planning, taxes, and retirement. With 249,400 in 2014, the group is expected to grow 30 percent by 2024. Median pay in 2015 was $89,160.

The growth in these categories means that competition for jobs will become more fierce. “Candidates, especially those with specialized skills, can pick and choose their jobs,” Accounting Principals President David Alexander said in a foreword to the guide. “Because of this, it’s now more important than ever for employers to offer quite a bit in order to hire and retain top talent.”

You can get your free copy of Reality Check here.

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Whether you are an accountant with clients who need estate planning and a will, or you found this post while  you were searching for information to help you create your own will and last testament, the following article should help you answer any questions you might have about estate planning and the importance of a will.

The Importance of Estate Planning and Having a Will

As the old saying goes, 'Nothing is certain but death and taxes." That is why it is imperative that everyone have a last will and testament at the very least. Those who are fortune enough to have amassed any wealth truly must use estate planning in conjunction with their will.

What is Estate Planning?

An estate plan is a set of documents that help you plan what happens to your money upon your death. The phrase “estate plan” sounds like a complicated set of material that only very wealthy people need, but in fact it refers to the documents that almost everyone needs, whether their financial and familial affairs are simple or complex.

All of the documents that comprise an estate plan help people avoid problems that often arise upon death. Many of these are problems that people never think about during life, or which, feeling overwhelmed by the problems, push out of their minds. However, in the absence of an estate plan, these issues will be resolved by the courts and state law. Therefore, a properly-prepared estate plan will let each person decide for himself or herself the best choices for their own families, such as who should care for their minor children, who should receive their property, which charitable organizations should receive a share of their assets, and who should wind up one’s affairs.

A major benefit to properly planning an estate is the naming of the guardian. Many people who have minor children do not think about who would take care of their kids in the event that both parents pass away. However, if such a terrible event were to occur the law requires that the court appoint someone to care for the children. A court’s decision regarding these matters can never be as good as a parent’s own choice. We have all heard stories of “wards of the state”. A Will allows a couple to make this fundamental decision themselves without interference from a judge who can never know your children and their needs as you do.

Creating a Will

A Will provides the best means to ensure that one passes their hard-earned wealth to their descendants with a minimum of cost, both emotional and fiscal. A Will appoints a guardian for one’s minor children if both parents die, it can specify how to divide up property, and it can help avoid any taxes that may be due upon death. An advanced directive and durable power of attorney effectuate many of these same goals during a person’s life. No one wants build a beautiful family only to see that family fight over their possessions when they are gone. To prevent this, you need a Will.

Estate planning also means planning for your last illness. An advanced directive on health care explains the sort of healthcare treatment that you would like to receive before your death. There is a great deal of variation in how we choose to make decisions at the end of our lives, and an advance directive on healthcare can give voice to our own preferences.

Finally, a proper estate plan includes a document that authorizes a family member or a trusted friend to care for you and oversee your finances if you are no longer able to care for yourself. A person should always have the ability to determine what type of care they receive. Without these documents, a person runs the risk of having these decisions made for him or her, and not necessarily in accordance with his or her wishes.

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First of all, welcome to the Rule of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb. If you have come here looking for advice on a career in either accounting or financial planning, you have come to the right place. Hopefully the following blog post will help you understand the difference between an accountant's job and the job of a financial planner so you chose the career path that is right for you.

Accountant or Financial Planner?

Even though both careers, accountant and financial planner, involve a lot of math, the jobs are actually quite different. An accountant records, summarizes, analyzes and reports a business's financial transactions. Public accountants work for third-party firms and audit clients' financial records, a legal requirement for any publicly traded company. Internal accountants work for private companies and perform duties such as internal auditing, inventory accounting and financial forecasting. Sales is not a part of the career, other than the process of selling yourself and your services to potential clients.

On the other hand, a financial planner specializes in areas like tax planning, portfolio management and retirement planning. Financial planners often hold specific licenses and designations, the most common being that of a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). A CFP must pass rigorous exams in multiple areas of financial planning. While a financial planner must be good with numbers and possess a keen understanding of how the markets work, it is important to have strong sales and networking skills.

REQUIRED EDUCATION

Most accountants and financial planners have at least a bachelor's degree. For accountants, the only time a licensing board requires you to complete a certain level of education is when you sit for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. Becoming a CPA requires 150 hours of post-secondary education, which is more than a bachelor's degree but does not necessarily entail completing a master's degree. Otherwise, individual firms doing the hiring, not state or federal boards, set education requirements for accountants.

You can become a financial planner without a bachelor's degree, as long as you pass the securities exams for your specialties. Gaining the CFP designation requires completion of a bachelor's degree from an accredited school. This designation is almost a necessity to be taken seriously in the field.

NECESSARY SKILLS

As an accountant, you have to be focused, detail-oriented, great with numbers and driven. For public accountants, the work hours are long for the first few years of your career. Accountants refer to the period from January until April as the busy season, when 60-hour weeks and beyond become the norm. The hours lessen as you work your way up the ranks, but this is unquestionably a field where rookies must pay their dues.

Financial planners are first and foremost salespeople. Networking and selling yourself is an around-the-clock job. Along with sales skills, a financial planner must love the markets to succeed. If you do not enjoy waking up and immediately turning on a finance channel or accessing a mobile app that tracks the markets, this career might not be for you.

PAY INFORMATION

Pay structure marks a huge difference between accounting and financial planning. Accountants receive a straight salary; bonuses, when applicable, are usually determined by the performance of the firm as a whole. Financial planners, by contrast, receive either straight commission, or commissions and bonuses on top of a small base. It is very much a pay-for-performance career. Build a large client base, and you can become lavishly wealthy; struggle to generate business, and your financial planning career will likely be short-lived.

IN CONCLUSION: Accountant or Financial Planner?

The choice between accounting and financial planning depends more on your personality than anything else. Both careers require mathematical proficiency and a great work ethic. Beyond that, if you hate sales, financial planning is not the career for you. Similarly, if you are not keen on crunching numbers and prefer big-picture analysis, accounting is likely not your dream career.

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Most of the blog posts we write here at MoneyThumb are geared toward accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers, but even those of you are in this field must take care of your own personal finances, and often the personal finances of clients. So today our post is all about personal finance and tips from around the web to help you better handle and manage personal finances.

But first, if you have been searching for a way to keep track of your personal finance portfolio, you should check out MoneyThumb's Portfolio Tracker Pro. Portfolio Tracker Pro helps you manage your financial picture with sophisticated performance management tools, true ROI calculation and an asset allocation re-balancing calculator while also letting you create multiple portfolios, calculate yearly ROI and compare their performance.

Now, on to what we consider the most helpful and relevant links from across the web that will help you with personal finances.

Daily Finance has this great article, 7 Things Financially Successful People Refuse to Do. Of the seven tips my favorite is this one: They refuse to let their current knowledge be enough. This is so true, especially in our modern world where things change so quickly. We must keep up with current trends and keep learning, always.

Forbes Investing section has this helpful article from Fidelity Voice about saving for retirement. Some really awesome tips to help make your retirement much more stable.

Investopedia offers some very helpful tips for personal finance success. One tip that truly stands out for me is this one: Create a Retirement Roadmap. Good stuff there.

Huffington Post Business has this article, 3 Bluntly Simple Personal Finance Tips that Work Miracles. A tall order, and you may be surprised at what it contains. Be sure to read this one.

If you only read one of the article offered in this post, read this one, 26 Personal Finance Tips from Famous People, offered by Life Hack. It is all about quotes concerning personal finance and I am sure you will find a jewel you can apply to your own personal finances. This one is my favorite: “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” -Eleanor Roosevelt.

This great article from Quicken, Conquer Your Fear of Investing, has some very helpful tips for young investors, or those who have always been afraid of investing. It is in a question and answer format, with the most pertinent questions and the answers to follow. Good stuff.

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“Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” -Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

Wise Accounting Advice for Small Business Owners

When you have a little time to devote to reading, we highly suggest you check out the following articles. You will find that the following 10 articles from across the web offer the best accounting advice for small business owners. MoneyThumb's Rule of Thumb blog has compiled this list from across the internet to help you be more successful with your small business finances and accounting practices.

• The Top 4 Tax Strategies To Save Your Business Money---This post from Entrepreneur.com has some great advice on tax strategies.

• 5 Simple Tips To Keep Your Small-Business Finances In Order--This article at Forbes.com is written by Kirk Simpson, who is the co-founder and CEO of Wave Accounting.

• 5 Useful Accounting Tips for Small Businesses---This is a great post from Business Bee. Well worth a read. 

• 20 Tax Tips for Small Businesses---This article comes from writers DONALD WILLIAMSON AND DAVID KAUTTER of Accounting Today. 

• Basic Accounting Principles Every Small Business Should Know--This is a great article from SMB Compass that will help you with your small business accounting.  

• 5 Accounting Mistakes that put Your Business at Risk---This post is gold! From the FreshBooks blog, 5 accountants give their answer to the question of what they believe to be the biggest accounting mistakes that could jeopardize your small business. 

• 4 Tax Deductions Small Businesses Often Overlook--Business News Daily offers this article to small business owners, 4 Tax Deductions Small Businesses Often Overlook.

• 5 Finance Tips All Business Owners Should Follow---Another great piece from Entrepreneur.com. 

• How to Categorize Business Transactions--from Bench Accounting, an article that breaks down the process of categorizing business transactions.

If you read all of the articles in the list above you should have no problem understanding the ins and outs of small business accounting. If you have any questions that you didn't find the answer to in the articles above, don't hesitate to leave a comment and we will help you find the answer!

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Research done by APQC shows that only 40% of the surveyed 130 finance executives of big businesses believed that their FP&A was effective. As a business owner, how do you learn from big business to create a solid financial strategy?

Too Much Data

Many big businesses often spend too much time on periodic forecasting. They compare their trending performance versus annual budget targets to a fault. This takes away time from pinpointing individual cost drivers or researching probable outcomes of bundling and pricing options. Instead of focusing on compiling a monolithic amount of raw numbers for your business, financial analysis should incorporate more human judgment. They key is to integrate qualitative and quantitative data into financial reports.

Don't attempt to invest in overly fancy financial systems and data models when the real problem is the lack of talent in the financial analysis. FP&A should be more a business decision-driver than mere data collection.

Rolling Forecasts

Unlike traditional forecasts, rolling forecasts make businesses adaptable and don't adhere to static fiscal years. With a rolling forecast, the number of periods (months) in the forecast remain constant. This type of forecasting gives business managers a moving window into the future. Having a constantly updated forecast allows companies to have an accurate grasp on future cash flow. 94% of corporations that use rolling forecasts see their financial analysis as effective.

Automation

Automating any manual-based financial processes drastically streamlines workflow and reduces errors. Automating routine tasks also gives managers timely and quality business insights. Stepping away from outdated technologies in favor of dynamic technologies can minimize the risk of important business decisions. For example, an automation system can make cash flow more visible and produce key reports quickly for short-term business decisions.

Embracing new technologies, staying on top of new financial trends, and relying on strong predictive analysis can lead to big changes in your company. Don't fear the transition.

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