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More money, more problems? Yes and no.
Even with the criticism leveled at the 401(k) plan industry, it has helped Baby Boomers accumulate massive amounts of retirement wealth. Many spent years doing exactly what they were told: maximizing contributions and taking advantage of tax-deferred, compounded growth over decades. After years of strong (if volatile) market returns, affluent boomers’ account balances are skyrocketing. Similarly, the amount of risk they face in retirement also increases, increasing the demand for tax-savvy depreciation and longevity planning. Visionary consulting companies are paying attention to this.
“There’s a large group of baby boomers out there who have found themselves sitting on $3 million, $5 million or $10 million of net worth, the majority of it in retirement accounts,” said Debbie Taylor, chief tax strategist at Carson Group. “Even a decade ago, they couldn’t have dreamed of reaching this kind of balance. They don’t have the training on how to unlock these benefits and manage this money through their retirement.”
It turns out that many advisors are not even there, their attention is focused only on the question of accumulation. That’s why companies across the industry are investment in tax planning capabilities, including carson And its AI platform, affectionately named Steve. For Taylor, it’s an extremely exciting time to be a tax expert, and one thing is very clear: desirable clients are going to vote with their feet.
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Taylor’s own firm was formally acquired by Carson Group in 2024, and although it was not the biggest deal by any means, Taylor Financial’s specialized tax planning capabilities were expected to make a big difference for both advisors and clients.
“The most exciting thing about this moment is that technology has advanced so much that we have become more efficient,” Taylor said. “The old way required advisors to go between three or four different platforms to manually gather client data, and then you had a 15-column spreadsheet that you used to generate a thoughtful tax recommendation. That’s not completely scalable or profitable.”
What used to be manual and time-consuming is rapidly turning into a fluid, efficient planning process for both advisor and client across industries. Rather than simply deferring taxes, the goal is to consider both the accumulation phase and the distribution phase coordinated at the household level at all times.