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Tax Planning

Tax Planning Integrated with Your Financial Life

At Capital Investment Advisors (“CIA”), your tax strategy and your financial strategy should be part of the same conversation. Your CIA advisor leads tax planning conversations where applicable, using tax planning software to model key decisions and coordinate with our in-house tax team on more complex strategic planning needs. Through our integrated relationship with a preferred tax preparation provider, your tax preparation can be brought together with your tax planning picture, so decisions are made from a coordinated view.

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Why Integrated Tax Planning Matters

Investment decisions and tax decisions are typically inseparable. When to do a Roth conversion, which account to withdraw from first, when to harvest losses, how to handle a concentrated stock position, where to hold which assets: each one of these is both an investment question and a tax question. Treating them separately could leave money on the table.

By bringing tax planning, tax preparation, and financial advice together through a coordinated relationship, CIA helps families identify opportunities that could otherwise fall through the cracks. This coordination is designed to surface tax issues early, while there’s still time to plan for them.

$9B+AUM
6,100+Families
30Years
Fee-OnlyFiduciary

As of June 4, 2026

How Tax Planning Works at CIA

Your CIA advisor uses tax planning software to model how decisions should move through your tax picture, bringing those insights into your financial plan.

  • In-house

    In-House Support for Strategic Needs

    For more complex, multi-step tax questions, your CIA advisor works directly with our in-house tax team for planning purposes. This support happens mostly behind the scenes as part of your advisory relationship, though you might meet directly with a tax professional should the need arise based upon complex needs.

    Examples of strategic tax planning needs include:
    • Multi-year Roth conversion strategy and modeling
    • Charitable strategies, including how much to contribute to a donor-advised fund to help maximize tax savings
    • Real estate and trust planning, such as evaluating which property to sell to offset gains based on cost basis
    • Large purchase planning, including the most tax-efficient approach to help a child buy a home
    • Specialized credits and incentives, such as evaluating film credits or other tax-advantaged structures
    • Pre-sale planning for business owners and executives facing a liquidity event
    • Tax impact of stock options
    • Setting up a Solo 401(k)
  • Preferred provider

    Our Preferred Tax Preparation Provider

    For tax preparation, our preferred CPA firm provides a dedicated team, with day-to-day support from an accountant and oversight from an experienced Tax Manager or Partner.

    This work is engaged and billed separately, through direct engagement and fee arrangement between you and the provider.

  • Between the two

    Streamlined Collaboration

    Upon your approval, your CIA Advisor and CIA Client Service Manager will provide relevant CIA managed account documents and important context about your CIA-managed accounts directly to our tax preparation provider, helping to promote consistency, clarity, and alignment. You don’t manage the handoffs between your financial advisor and CPA. We do.

How We Help Families Year-Round

Generally no additional cost

Tax planning

An adviser pointing a pen at a laptop showing financial charts while a client looks on

As part of our financial planning services, CIA may identify and evaluate tax-planning considerations relevant to your broader financial plan, including but not limited to Roth conversions, charitable giving strategies, real estate transactions, and retirement account withdrawals. This planning is advisor-led and may incorporate tax projection software to help model potential tax implications for illustrative purposes.

For typical planning scenarios, this service is generally provided at no additional cost as part of your advisory relationship. For more complex tax planning strategies that require additional analysis from CIA’s internal tax planning team, CIA may charge a separate engagement fee, which will be disclosed and agreed in advance.

Through our preferred provider

Tax preparation

Two professionals talking across a desk with a tablet between them

Through our preferred provider, our families can receive professional preparation of federal and state tax returns for individuals, families, and businesses, with close coordination back to your CIA advisor.

This work is engaged and billed separately, through a direct engagement and fee arrangement between you and the provider.

Common Tax Strategies in Our Planning Process

  • Roth conversion strategy

    A multi-year Roth conversion plan may help reduce lifetime taxes, lower future required minimum distributions, ease the tax burden on a surviving spouse, and help build a more efficient legacy. How much to convert each year depends on your income, your expected tax bracket, and the rest of your plan. This is an example of a tax decision where you may benefit from having your CPA or tax preparer and your CIA advisor at the table together.

  • Tax loss harvesting

    Systematic, year-round tax-loss harvesting looks for opportunities to offset capital gains and may help reduce taxes over time. Done at the security level through direct indexing, the impact could compound meaningfully over time.

  • Asset location

    The same investments held in the same proportions can produce very different after-tax outcomes depending on which account types they sit in. Asset location aligns investment types with account types based on their tax characteristics: typically, tax-inefficient assets in tax-deferred or Roth accounts, and tax-efficient assets in taxable accounts.

  • Charitable giving strategy

    Donor-advised funds, qualified charitable distributions, in-kind gifts of appreciated stock, and bunching multiple years of giving into a single tax year may each help increase the tax efficiency and impact of charitable contributions. In working with your CPA, we help coordinate these strategies with your full plan.

  • Withdrawal sequencing

    The order in which you withdraw from taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts in retirement can have a substantial impact on lifetime taxes and the sustainability of your retirement income plan.

  • Pre-sale planning for business owners

    For business owners approaching a liquidity event, the most significant tax planning often happens in the years before the sale. Your CIA advisor, along with our in-house tax team, can work closely with your personal CPA on pre-sale tax positioning, charitable strategy, and structuring decisions that may meaningfully affect the after-tax outcome.

CIA incorporates tax planning considerations into your financial plan, including strategies related to the investments we manage. We can also coordinate with your CPA to help keep your financial and tax planning aligned. Your CPA remains responsible for tax advice, preparation, and filing. If you don’t have a CPA, we can connect you with a preferred provider for additional tax support.

Questions We Help Families Consider

  • Should I do a Roth conversion this year, and how much?
  • Which account should I draw from first in retirement?
  • How do I reduce taxes when selling a concentrated stock position?
  • Is my charitable giving structured as efficiently as it could be?
  • Should I take a qualified charitable distribution from my IRA?
  • How do I plan for the tax impact of selling my business?
  • Are there tax strategies I’m missing now that the SALT cap, standard deduction, or my tax bracket has changed?

Tax Planning FAQs

How does CIA’s integrated tax model work?
CIA brings tax planning, tax preparation, and financial advice together under a coordinated relationship. Your CIA advisor uses tax software to model tax decisions and brings our in-house tax team into more strategic tax-planning discussions. Our preferred tax provider handles tax preparation. Your CIA advisor coordinates across both, providing the financial context that makes the tax work meaningful and helping implement tax insights inside your overall plan.
Who prepares my tax return?
Tax preparation is handled by our preferred tax preparation provider, working in close coordination with your CIA advisor, who supplies the relevant context from your CIA-managed accounts so the return reflects your full picture.
What is the difference between tax planning and tax preparation?
Tax preparation reports what already happened, filing accurate, complete tax returns. Tax planning shapes what will happen, proactively positioning income, withdrawals, gains, losses, and gifts to help improve tax efficiency over time. Both matter; planning is often where the greatest opportunities for tax savings may be found.
What is a Roth conversion strategy?
A Roth conversion strategy is a multi-year plan for converting traditional retirement assets into a Roth account, where future growth and qualified withdrawals are tax-free. The strategy looks at your current and future tax brackets, your other income sources, the impact on Medicare premiums, and your legacy goals to help plan for how much to convert each year.
What kinds of tax questions are included in my advisory relationship?
Many typical tax scenarios visualized through our tax planning software are part of your CIA relationship. Your advisor is also available for general tax questions throughout the year. CIA assists with general tax planning, considering your CIA-managed investment accounts, to help align discussions with your outside CPA. Any final tax decisions specific to your situation should be coordinated with your personal CPA. CIA does not provide tax advice, tax preparation, or tax compliance work — that’s completed by an outside CPA. If you’d like, we can introduce you to a preferred provider for tax advice and preparation assistance.
When should I start tax planning for retirement?
Tax planning becomes especially valuable in the years just before and during the early phase of retirement, when income drops and Roth conversion opportunities may become available. That said, the earlier the better. Decisions about asset location, account types, and Roth contributions made decades earlier can have a significant impact over time.
Why does CIA work with an outside firm for tax preparation?
As CIA has grown to serve more than 6,000 families, we have made an intentional decision to invest in a long-term solution that will allow us to continue delivering high-quality, personalized service. Our preferred tax provider brings the depth, scale, and expertise to help support the families we serve, while our in-house tax team focuses on strategic, advisor-coordinated planning where tax and investment decisions intersect.

Coordinated With the Rest of Your Plan

Investment Management

Tax-aware portfolio decisions including direct indexing and tax-loss harvesting.

Retirement Planning

Withdrawal sequencing and Roth conversion strategy.

Estate Planning

Tax-efficient transfer of wealth across generations.

Charitable Giving

Tax strategies that may enhance the impact of every gift.

Business Planning

Pre-sale tax positioning and equity compensation strategy.
Two people reviewing and signing documents at a coffee table

Bring Your Tax Strategy and Your Investment Strategy Under One Roof

When your advisor and CPA are aligned throughout the year, it can create opportunities for more thoughtful, coordinated planning. We’d welcome the conversation.

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Capital Investment Advisors, LLC (“CIA”) is an investment advisory firm registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. CIA is not a law or accounting firm and does not provide legal or tax advice. All tax preparation is provided through select third parties unaffiliated with CIA. Tax strategies discussed are for informational purposes only. Tax planning software is intended to assist in evaluating potential planning opportunities and is designed to provide estimates based on information provided by the client, assumptions incorporated into the software, and applicable tax laws at the time of the analysis. Their applicability and effectiveness depend on each client’s individual circumstances, and no tax outcome or savings is guaranteed. Clients are encouraged to speak with their personal CPA or tax accountant before making any tax planning decisions.