Does Your Advisory Team Actually Know What Their Role Is?
Most business owners assume their CPA is handling their tax strategy. In reality, CPAs are primarily focused on execution — deadlines, filings, compliance. The proactive planning, the mid-year monitoring, the coordination across your advisory team? That role often goes unfilled.
And it is costing business owners real money, quietly, every year.
The Tax Corner — Episode 123 covers your team and knowing their roles. Episode 124 covers the right questions to ask them.
The Advisory Triangle: Who Is Actually on Your Team?
A well-built planning team for a business owner includes three pieces: an accounting and tax professional, a legal professional, and a financial advisory team. Each role is distinct. Each has a different function.
The confusion — and the missed opportunity — comes when business owners expect one role to cover another's territory. The most common version of this: expecting your CPA to be your tax strategist.
Event-Driven vs. Monitoring: The Gap Most Business Owners Miss
If you have had a strong year in December and you are asking your CPA what you can do to reduce your tax bill — that is the gap. By that point, most of the options are gone. The planning that would have mattered needed to happen in Q2 or Q3.
Business owners are trained to think about taxes after the year ends. But meaningful tax planning — benefit plan decisions, retirement contribution strategy, entity-level moves — happens before the fiscal year closes.
Who Is Driving the Strategy?
In this episode, Brian Hartstein explains how Bayntree positions itself as the quarterback of the advisory team — driving strategy, coordinating between the CPA and legal team, and making sure that planning decisions actually get executed before the clock runs out.
The CPA executes. The attorney structures. The financial advisor monitors, coordinates, and leads. When all three understand their role, business owners stop leaving money on the table.
For a broader look at how the Four Corners framework applies to your business, see our introduction to the Four Corners of Business Owner Planning .
What Business Owners Can Still Do Right Now
Even if 2025 planning is largely closed, there are still options available before you file your business return. Andrew Rafal walks through a few practical moves — including the SEP IRA opportunity for business owners with no employees — and previews what Episode 124 will cover: the exact questions to ask your advisory team to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
The 2026 Roth Catch-Up Rule: What Business Owners Need to Know
One of the most overlooked compliance updates affecting business owners with 401(k) plans right now: if any of your employees — including you — earned over $145,000 in the prior year and are age 50 or older, their catch-up contributions must go into the Roth portion of the plan, not pre-tax.
If your plan does not have a Roth provision, those employees cannot make catch-up contributions at all. This is not a planning strategy — it is a compliance requirement. And it is one that many plan sponsors are not aware of yet.
For a deeper look at how Roth planning fits into your overall retirement income strategy, see our complete guide to Roth conversions .
Frequently Asked Questions: The Tax Corner and Your Advisory Team
What is the Tax Corner of the Four Corners of Business Owner Planning?
The Tax Corner covers the accounting, tax, and legal structure of your business. It includes entity planning, tax strategy, compliance, and the coordination between your CPA, attorney, and financial advisor. It is one of the four pillars Andrew Rafal and Brian Hartstein use to evaluate where business owners are losing money and where planning opportunities exist.
What is the difference between tax strategy and tax execution?
Tax execution is the work your CPA does — filing returns, processing payroll, meeting deadlines, and staying compliant. Tax strategy is the proactive planning that happens earlier in the year: deciding which entity structure to use, how to time income events, how to maximize pre-tax retirement contributions, and how to coordinate across your advisory team. CPAs can provide input on strategy, but the monitoring and coordination role typically falls to the financial advisor.
Why do most business owners feel like their CPA is not giving them enough strategy?
CPAs are largely event-driven. They are responding to deadlines, filings, and compliance tasks throughout the year. They are not typically compensated or structured to proactively monitor your income picture and initiate planning conversations. That is not a failure on their part — it is a misalignment of expectations about who does what on the team.
Who is responsible for monitoring my tax plan throughout the year?
In a well-coordinated advisory team, the financial advisor takes the monitoring role. That means checking in mid-year on income projections, coordinating with the CPA before year-end, and making sure benefit plan decisions are made with enough time to implement them before the fiscal year closes.
What happens if no one is monitoring my plan?
The most common result is a December scramble — a strong business year, no proactive planning, and very few options left. Most meaningful tax planning decisions need to be made before the fiscal year ends. Waiting until Q4 or after year-end significantly limits what is available.
What can business owners still do for 2025 if they have not filed yet?
Business owners who have not yet filed their 2025 return may still have options. The most accessible is the SEP IRA, which allows eligible business owners to contribute up to approximately 25% of net income on a pre-tax basis. If you have employees, contribution rules become more complex and a profit sharing plan or defined benefit plan may be more appropriate. Talk to your advisor before the return is filed.
What is the 2026 Roth catch-up rule and who does it affect?
Under SECURE Act 2.0, employees who earned more than $145,000 in the prior year and are age 50 or older must direct their 401(k) catch-up contributions to the Roth portion of the plan — not pre-tax. If the plan does not have a Roth provision, those employees cannot make catch-up contributions at all. Business owners who sponsor 401(k) plans need to verify their plan document includes a Roth option and that payroll is set up correctly.
What does it mean for the financial advisor to be the quarterback?
It means the financial advisor takes responsibility for driving the planning process — not just attending meetings, but scheduling them, preparing the agenda, coordinating with the CPA and attorney, and following up to make sure decisions get implemented. Without someone in that role, planning conversations happen but execution often does not.
Not Sure If Your Advisory Team Has the Right Roles in Place?
Entrepreneurship comes with big financial questions — and the right team makes all the difference. Schedule a free 15-minute call with Andrew Rafal, host of Your Wealth and Beyond and founder of Bayntree Wealth Advisors. With 20+ years advising business owners, Andrew can help you identify where the gaps are and what to do about them.
Disclaimer:
These materials and links are provided strictly as a courtesy. We make no representations as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these websites. When you access one of these websites, you are leaving our website and assume total responsibility and risk for your use of the website to which you are linking. The information is not intended to provide you with any personalized financial, insurance, legal, accounting, tax, or other professional advice.
Master Your Retirement
With These Essential Resources
How Prepared Are You for Retirement?
Take a 1-minute assessment to get a high-level snapshot of where you stand and what may need attention.
Prefer to Start with a Checklist?
A more detailed guide to help you evaluate your retirement plan across income, taxes, healthcare, and key decisions.
Keep Listening
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
As Featured In
