Bonus Section: Financial Advisor Referrals From The 1st Two Pages Of A Tax Return (PT5)

LINE 17- this relates to real estate, and is particularly important. If there is not a number here, it means they are not incorporated. And as we said earlier, being incorporated is always a good protection strategy to be looked at with a financial advisor.

LINE 25 Health Savings account deduction. If there is nothing listed in this section, and the individual works for a corporation. The question needs to be asked if they should be using their corporations health plan? Ask your client if they have an HSA? And then ask “how is your relationship with your financial advisor who can help you review the options? With all the different health plans offered today, many clients need help deciphering all of their options.

LINE 28 Self employed SEP, SIMPLE, and qualified plans .We reviewed this earlier, but will touch on it again very quickly. This section will let you know if a business owner has a retirement plan set up. As I said earlier, there are so many financial planning strategies to help business owners. You can really make a difference.
Do they have a retirement plan set up, and are they funding it?
Is their spouse funding a retirement plan? Again, there are huge advantages to the self-employed and fully funding a spouses retirement is one opportunity that’s available. And as we've discussed all through this module, it creates a great opportunity to ask how their relationship is with their financial advisor. And if they don't have one it’s an easy introduction.

LINE 32 IRA deduction- if your client is not contributing to a 401 K for some valid reason. For example, maybe their company doesn’t offer one? It’s always makes sense to suggest opening an IRA?

LINE 33 This is regarding student loan interest deductions . This is an excellent way for an advisor to provide a huge benefit to a client. There are so many new ways to consolidate and lower the interest rates on student loans. This is a great way to free up cash flow to invest in other vehicles. It's just another way to introduce a financial advisor that can help a client analyze their options.
For example if your client has a high income, and is not able to take advantage of this deduction, there may be an opportunity to lower these payments and potentially create opportunities to invest the savings in other vehicles, pay down debt, or allocate those dollars to something more beneficial to that particular client.