In 1989, I left Price Waterhouse and started my own CPA practice. Over the next dozen years I built a nice little business providing tax preparation and accounting services.

In 2002, I earned the Certified Financial Planner^® designation, one of the most prestigious designations in the financial industry.  Confident that I had the best training, the best processes and the best strategies in the industry, I was excited to begin helping my tax clients with their financial decisions.

But over the years, as I gained more and more experience with the products and strategies, I began to become disillusioned. It seemed everyone – Wall Street, the big banks, the advisors – everyone was making lots of money, except those who put their hard-earned money into the pot.  Eventually I became so disillusioned I stopped offering financial services to new clients, and even began calling existing clients to encourage them to move their money elsewhere.  

You know what I’ve learned?  The world has changed.  It’s not your fault if traditional financial planning hasn’t been the experience you had hoped for. Forty years ago you could count on being in a lower tax bracket when you retired. Today, that advice and so much more of the accepted wisdom in the financial services industry can put you in harm’s way.

Now, I'm a member of The Breakaway League -- a nationwide group of CPAs, attorneys, CFP^®s and financial advisors breaking away from the dogma of traditional approaches,  We help clients understand the long-term implications of the financial decisions they’re making -- implications no industry-trained "fiduciary" is required to tell you.

The income tax laws offer a road map to building and protecting sources of tax-exempt cash flow.  The wealthy have been following this road map for more than a century to lower their income taxes, lower their financial risk, and create more spendable cash flow. 

One small example: The U.S. government promised for decades that our Social Security benefits would be tax-exempt. In 1983, the government broke its promise.  Congress declared that if you had other sources of reportable income besides Social Security, and your income exceeded a relatively low threshold, half your Social Security benefits would now be taxed.  In 1993, they raised the taxable portion of your Social Security benefits from 50% to 85%. 

How is it, then, that many of the wealthiest people in this country still pay little or no income taxes on their Social Security benefits?  If you think the truly wealthy might be following a different road map than Mom and Pop, you’re right.  And for an average couple, that road map might put hundreds of thousands of spendable dollars back in their pockets over the course of their retirement.

Isn’t it time you took a serious look at the road less traveled?

The Breakaway League is unaffiliated with HTK