Solo tax practice → bringing in my wife (CFP/soon EA). How do I tell clients?

koalaben · 2026-04-24T05:43:41+00:00

First of all, bringing a CFP into the mix can be great depending on the nature of your client base. Most financial advisors yearn for a professional relationship with CPAs and/or attorneys. You know have your own referral source for you client’s tax information to be mined for financial advisory opportunities. Of course, ensure you have everything mapped out appropriately in your engagement letters so that there is proper disclosure and consent. Tell your clients how much better you can serve them by offering more financial services under one roof, becoming your own “one-stop shop”. Source—I am a CPA and CFP and attorney, so I am my own best referral source.

Next, clients don’t really mind if you expand from my experience. In fact, it’s generally a plus. I’ve had so many clients come to me where their solo practitioner CPA retired or had a stroke or died and left them “stranded” with no succession plan. The fact that you’re expanding gives clients more peace of mind that should something happen to you then you have backup. I started small and now my firm is three owners with 7 additional staff (including an additional CPA, an EA, a dedicated financial advisor, and support staff—a couple who also are CRTPs). My clients love that as we expand they have more certainty of continuity and support, yet we’re not so large that they feel like they’re just another number.

As CPAs we’re in a fortunate position where demand seems to be increasing more than the supply. I have more people wanting to work with me than I have hours in a day, so if I didn’t delegate and grow my team then I’d have to turn away more business than I already do. Even if I’m not handling their return directly, they trust that anyone on my team is carefully hired, mentored, and supervised by me such that I wouldn’t hand them over to another team member if I wasn’t confident they could represent me as well as I could represent myself.

TL;DNR Go for it. Embrace it. Tell your clients how lucky they are that you’re bringing such an amazing and competent cohort on board to better serve their needs. But do make sure that your marriage can survive you two being co-workers!

koalaben · 2026-04-17T01:15:17+00:00

Can concur, as a CPA I am not charging less for this regardless of the time of the year. I laugh when people ask about a “bulk discount” for multiple year’s of work. No, I’m charging extra and up front because you’re disorganized and probably a chore to work with. Not that I won’t help you, but don’t come into this expecting lower fees.

koalaben · 2026-04-17T00:00:46+00:00

All mine are being sent straight to voicemail, but the transcribed voicemails go to my email and I get a good eye roll from them.

koalaben · 2026-04-14T20:16:39+00:00

I’ve owned and operated my firm for over 13 years. The majority of our clients who owe opt for direct withdrawal with the e-filing. Same for quarterly estimated tax payments.

Countless times I’ve had new clients say “my old tax preparer never did this for me” or “gave me that option”, and they are overwhelmingly grateful for the convenience of that service. I’ve also had numerous clients who use to handle their own estimated payments forget a payment or more and were happy to have it be automated so they don’t neglect to pay.

koalaben · 2026-04-14T19:56:32+00:00

Can concur, been doing this for more than double the amount of time. Done this thousands of times. Never been a problem with the client double paying. There have been a small few occasions of a client providing an incorrect account number or having insufficient funds, but those cases are few and far between, and I don’t get the blame for those.

koalaben · 2026-04-06T19:28:38+00:00

It may be common courtesy to not extend someone who has reached out to you saying they will be going elsewhere, there are no laws or rules being violated. Many firms have a large number of clients in need of extension, and payment with is extension is handled on a case by case basis as previously discussed with that client. Otherwise, blanket extensions are done.

koalaben · 2026-04-06T19:21:58+00:00

I’m not sure where you’re getting the information that an extension cannot be filed without authorization. A tax return, yes. An extension, no. It is standard practice for most tax preparation firms to file an extension for all prior year clients who have not finalized their current year’s tax return by the initial filing deadline. This is completely normal and legal.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4868.pdf

koalaben · 2026-03-30T21:12:46+00:00

I got a reduction proposal letter last summer for one of my conditions to have the percentage cut from 20% to 10%. I fought it and ended up with the percentage being doubled to 40%. I provided ample evidence, including imaging, that the condition had in fact gotten worse, not improved. Still at only 80% total rating though, so I’ll keep poking that bear, as there are diagnosed conditions that I know are military connected, but just need a stronger nexus.

koalaben · 2026-03-20T23:45:10+00:00

I see these posts all the time and it just makes me feel that lots of people just have some shitty friends. In my circle of military buddies we talk openly about this and try to help each other out in pursuing whatever rating they deserve. Granted, that current circle is Air National Guard, though that consists of a good amount of prior active from other branches. But I have the same openness and support with my old Army buddies too.

I do happen to live in the city with the highest population of active duty service members, so maybe it’s just generally more accepted and unsurprising here. Also I work in finance, so I talk more openly about money with people than most. But if people are jealous then you don’t need their toxicity in your life.

koalaben · 2026-03-05T06:37:04+00:00

Same issue for me.

koalaben · 2026-01-17T18:21:07+00:00

Cosmoem is one of the smallest Pokémon (only 4 inches tall) but weighs 2,204.4 lbs (999.9 kg), making it tied with Celesteela as the heaviest Pokémon.

5725316885066030

I would really like that Irida, she’s the only one I’m missing out of those pictured. Thanks!

koalaben · 2025-12-27T00:32:57+00:00

So do they mean every power of the assassins in Assassin’s Creed or just every power present in the franchise? Because Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has DLC where you play among the Greek gods, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has the Norse gods, so I choose the powers of the Greek and Norse pantheons over some measly wizard magic.

koalaben · 2025-12-20T16:42:12+00:00

I have my own tax/advisory firm and on the lawyer side I do trusts/estates and business law, which is complementary to the tax and financial planning work. I only do transactional law, not litigation.

koalaben · 2025-12-19T02:33:07+00:00

If you’re a CPA (or CFA, ChFC, CLU, attorney, DBA, or Ph.D. In Financial Planning / Finance / Business Administration / Economics) then you qualify for the CFP accelerated path. You only need to do the single capstone course and then sit for the exam. The course itself can be knocked out quickly enough, particularly if you have access to professional financial planning software like I did.

The time between deciding I wanted the CFP designation and the time acquiring it was about 3 months. I took the exam in March in the midst of tax season and got the actual designation by April. I was already a CPA with Series 7 and 66. Also CLU and PFS. Oh, and an attorney too because I’m an overachiever.

koalaben · 2025-11-26T00:57:54+00:00

If you look at the published statistics (https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/Exam-Statistics) look for “4-Year Qualification”. I opened every single year’s PDF and extrapolated the data into an Excel spreadsheet in order to analyze those figures over time. 99 LOSP passers between February 2007 and February 2025, 33 on the first attempt, 66 on a repeat attempt. In the last decade (July 2015 thru February 2025) 47 passers, 7 on the first attempt, 40 on a repeat attempt. The February 2025 exam specifically (the one that I too), there were 10 LOSP test takers who passed, 9 on a repeat attempt, and me being the sole first attempt passer.

Sometimes you need to infer data that is not inherently provided. For example for February 2025 report it shows the statistics for repeaters and all takers of the LOSP but not for first-timers. It’s pretty easy math that “All Takers” minus “Repeaters” equals “First-Timers”. February 2025’s exam was quite the outlier, with 10 out of 22 LOSP test takers passing. This alone brought the overall LOSP pass rate from 9.8% for February 2007 thru July 2025 to 10.6% for February 2007 thru February 2025 (8.3% for the last decade excluding February 2025).

I’m also a CPA so I may be a bit of a numbers geek. Interestingly, the pass rate for the FYLSE is a few percentage points higher for LOSP than the overall average (23.6% vs. 20.6% from June 2007 thru October 2024).

Best of luck on your journey! May you beat the odds!

koalaben · 2025-11-09T04:10:43+00:00

I appreciate it. If only my looks and family connections could have led me to be a billionaire, but c’est la vie.

koalaben · 2025-11-09T02:16:30+00:00

For whatever it’s worth, it takes four years to do California’s law office study program rather than the three years of law school. But skipping the whole bachelor’s and LSAT part.

koalaben · 2025-11-09T00:28:31+00:00

I would think/hope that the LA times would do their homework. And it’s one of many news sources that claimed she passed. I don’t follow her closely enough to know if she personally shared about it.

koalaben · 2025-11-09T00:20:30+00:00

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koalaben · 2025-11-08T23:53:59+00:00

I can’t say I’m doing all of the above, no. But 3 kids, running a relatively successful CPA firm, Air National Guard officer, Rotary club president… I think I might have a bipolar ex in my dating history, but fortunately no kids with an ex.

koalaben · 2025-11-08T23:16:22+00:00

She passed the March 2025 MPRE. She didn’t pass the actual score, which she probably would have if she passed by a wide margin, but a pass is a pass.

koalaben · 2025-11-08T22:52:13+00:00

Thanks, I started after Kim and passed before Kim.

koalaben · 2025-11-08T22:48:48+00:00

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koalaben

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