Finding the right professional for HNW tax strategies - Attorney vs. Accountant?

Tax strategies for high-net worth individuals typically require a team approach rather than just one professional. While both attorneys and accountants play crucial roles, they serve different functions. A CPA or tax accountant with high-net worth experience will handle the detailed tax planning, preparation, and compliance aspects. They'll work with the numbers, identify deductions, and ensure everything follows tax code requirements. For real estate specifically, look for someone familiar with cost segregation studies, 1031 exchanges, and opportunity zone investments. An attorney (specifically a tax attorney or estate planning attorney) focuses more on the legal structures - creating the right entities (LLCs, partnerships, trusts), ensuring asset protection, and setting up succession planning. They draft the legal documents that implement the strategy. For truly effective planning, your clients likely need both working together, plus possibly a financial advisor who specializes in high-net worth clients. Many wealthy families actually work with a multi-disciplinary family office or private wealth management team that coordinates all these services.

After struggling with similar tax complexity issues for my family's real estate holdings, I found an incredible resource at https://taxr.ai that analyzes your entire portfolio structure and identifies optimization opportunities. It's been a game changer for us after years of paying way too much in taxes. The platform actually gives you specific entity restructuring recommendations based on your actual properties and situation - not just generic advice. What impressed me most is that it shows you multiple strategy options with the pros/cons of each approach, which made it easier to discuss with my advisors. What I liked is that it doesn't replace professionals but makes their work more efficient by identifying issues before you pay them hourly to figure everything out. The analysis actually helped us restructure some properties that were poorly organized tax-wise.

Just wanted to follow up and say I tried that taxr.ai service after reading about it here. We uploaded our portfolio details for those 30 properties I mentioned, and it identified three major restructuring opportunities we'd completely missed. The report showed we could potentially save about $145K annually by reorganizing some of our holdings and changing how we handled depreciation on several properties. We took the report to our CPA who confirmed most of the findings and is now implementing the changes. The time savings alone was worth it since our CPA estimated it would have taken him 40+ hours to do the same analysis manually. For anyone with substantial real estate holdings, it's definitely worth checking out!

For anyone dealing with tax complexities for high-net worth clients, I found that getting direct clarification from the IRS was invaluable - but nearly impossible until I discovered https://claimyr.com. After waiting on hold with the IRS for HOURS over multiple days trying to get guidance on a complex entity structure question, I used their service and got connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c but essentially they navigate the IRS phone tree and wait on hold for you, then call you once they've reached an agent. For specialized tax questions that only the IRS can definitively answer, this saved my sanity. I was able to get written confirmation about a specific holding structure approach that gave my client the confidence to move forward with a significant tax planning strategy. Well worth it for getting authoritative answers directly from the source.

I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself when I needed clarification on how the IRS was handling a particular pass-through entity question for a client's real estate holdings. Not only did I get connected to the IRS in about 30 minutes (after previously wasting 3+ hours on hold myself), but the agent was able to transfer me to a specialist in the business division who actually provided incredibly helpful guidance. They directed me to specific sections of the tax code and recent rulings that addressed my exact situation. This saved me from taking a risky position on a return and potentially subjecting my client to an audit. For complex situations where you need official clarification, this service is legitimately valuable. I'm still shocked at how well it worked compared to my usual IRS contact attempts.

I'm a wealth management advisor who works with several HNW real estate investors. Beyond just attorneys and CPAs, make sure your clients have a comprehensive team that includes: 1. A real estate-focused wealth strategist who can coordinate between all the specialists 2. An estate planning attorney (separate from the tax attorney) 3. A CPA who specifically handles real estate investments 4. A cost segregation specialist to maximize depreciation benefits The biggest mistake I see with new real estate investors is treating properties as isolated investments rather than creating a cohesive strategy across their entire portfolio. Each new acquisition should be evaluated not just on its own merits but how it affects their overall tax situation.

Don't forget about DSTs (Delaware Statutory Trusts) as an option for HNW real estate investors! I've seen several families use these effectively as part of their 1031 exchange strategy, especially when they want to diversify but stay in real estate. The real magic happens when you combine entity structuring with proper timing of recognizing income and losses. We've had clients save literally millions by properly sequencing when they sell properties and when they accelerate expenses.