CPA Tax Planning Specialist - Wealth Management

Three Bridges Wealth Management; Alpharetta (GA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Three Bridges Wealth Management seeks an experienced CPA Tax Planning Strategist to join our wealth management team. This role focuses on proactive tax planning, not tax-prep work, collaborating with lead advisors to optimize client outcomes beyond the current year.

You will develop multi-year planning strategies, model Roth conversions, and coordinate with outside CPAs and attorneys to implement recommended actions while maintaining ongoing planning calendars for clients.

Qualifications

• Active CPA license.
• Significant professional experience with individual taxation and tax planning.
• Strong knowledge of retirement-related taxation and investment taxation.
• Demonstrated ability to review individual tax returns and identify forward-looking planning opportunities.
• Experience working with affluent or high-net-worth individuals and families.
• Strong analytical and scenario-modeling skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to explain complex tax concepts in plain English.
• Strong judgment, organization, and follow-through.

Responsibilities

• Develop tax-planning recommendations for clients and qualified prospects in partnership with Lead Advisors, using relevant tax returns, income projections, investment and retirement account information, client goals, and known constraints.
• Model multi-year Roth conversion strategies and compare reasonable scenarios, including potential effects on future RMDs, Medicare/IRMAA premiums, capital gains, charitable giving, and estate intentions when relevant.
• Identify practical planning opportunities involving QCDs, donor-advised funds, tax-loss harvesting, strategic gain realization, asset location, withholding adjustments, charitable strategies, and beneficiary-related tax considerations.
• Evaluate the interaction between taxable investment accounts, IRAs, Roth IRAs, employer retirement plans, Social Security, retirement distributions, and other sources of income.
• Prepare concise written plans that clearly identify the recommendation, assumptions, estimated impact or range, deadlines, decision owner, implementation steps, and next review date.
• Participate in planning meetings with our Lead Advisors and, when appropriate, meet directly with clients to explain options, answer questions, and help them understand the tradeoffs involved.
• Coordinate approved strategies through implementation with our advisors, service team, custodians and investment platforms, and clients' outside CPAs and attorneys.
• Maintain an ongoing client tax-planning calendar and identify opportunities created by changes in tax law, markets, income, retirement, family circumstances, or other material events.
• Equip our advisors with clear talking points and practical tax knowledge they can use in client reviews, prospect conversations, and educational events.

Skills

CPA license

Individual tax planning

Retirement tax planning

Investment taxation

Review tax returns

Wealthy/HNW clients

Analytical skills

Scenario modeling

Communication skills

Explain complex tax concepts

Organization

Follow-through

Job description

Love tax planning, but ready to leave tax season behind?

Three Bridges is looking for an experienced CPA Tax Planning Strategist to join our wealth management team.

This is not a tax preparation position.

We do not prepare tax returns. There are no tax-season production requirements and no billable-hour expectations.

Instead, you'll use your tax expertise throughout the year to help clients make better decisions about their retirement, investments, charitable giving, and wealth.

We're looking for a seasoned CPA who understands that the most valuable tax work often happens before the return is prepared.

You'll work alongside our Lead Advisors to identify opportunities, model alternatives, recommend practical strategies, explain the tradeoffs, and make sure approved recommendations actually get implemented.

If you've spent years working with successful individuals and families and find yourself enjoying the planning and strategy more than the compliance work, this may be a very different way to use your experience.

The Role

Your mission is to make proactive tax planning a visible and reliable part of the Three Bridges client experience.

You'll partner with our Lead Advisors to review each client's financial picture and identify decisions that could improve what clients and their families ultimately keep.

That means looking beyond this year's tax return.

You'll consider how today's decisions interact with retirement distributions, investments, future RMDs, Medicare premiums, capital gains, charitable giving, and longer-term family and estate goals.

Most importantly, you'll turn that analysis into a clear recommendation and help carry it through to completion.

What You'll Do

• Develop tax-planning recommendations for clients and qualified prospects in partnership with Lead Advisors, using relevant tax returns, income projections, investment and retirement account information, client goals, and known constraints.
• Model multi-year Roth conversion strategies and compare reasonable scenarios, including potential effects on future RMDs, Medicare/IRMAA premiums, capital gains, charitable giving, and estate intentions when relevant.
• Identify practical planning opportunities involving QCDs, donor-advised funds, tax-loss harvesting, strategic gain realization, asset location, withholding adjustments, charitable strategies, and beneficiary-related tax considerations.
• Evaluate the interaction between taxable investment accounts, IRAs, Roth IRAs, employer retirement plans, Social Security, retirement distributions, and other sources of income.
• Prepare concise written plans that clearly identify the recommendation, assumptions, estimated impact or range, deadlines, decision owner, implementation steps, and next review date.
• Participate in planning meetings with our Lead Advisors and, when appropriate, meet directly with clients to explain options, answer questions, and help them understand the tradeoffs involved.
• Coordinate approved strategies through implementation with our advisors, service team, custodians and investment platforms, and clients' outside CPAs and attorneys.
• Maintain an ongoing client tax-planning calendar and identify opportunities created by changes in tax law, markets, income, retirement, family circumstances, or other material events.
• Equip our advisors with clear talking points and practical tax knowledge they can use in client reviews, prospect conversations, and educational events.

Who We're Looking For

We're looking for a CPA with significant individual tax experience and a strong understanding of retirement and investment planning.

You may currently work in public accounting, a wealth management firm, a family office, or another environment serving successful individuals and families.

You do not need to come from an RIA.

What matters is that you understand individual taxation deeply and can apply that knowledge to real-world financial decisions.

You should be comfortable looking at a client's situation and answering questions such as:

• Should this client consider a Roth conversion this year? How much?
• Should we realize gains now or defer them?
• How could today's decision affect future RMDs or Medicare premiums?
• Is there a better way to accomplish the client's charitable goals?
• How should different account types factor into the client's tax strategy?
• What should happen this year versus three or five years from now?
• What are the tradeoffs—and how do we explain them clearly to the client?

We're less interested in someone who can simply identify a tax issue than someone who can recommend what to do about it.

Qualifications

Required:

• Active CPA license
• Significant professional experience with individual taxation and tax planning
• Strong knowledge of retirement-related taxation and investment taxation
• Demonstrated ability to review individual tax returns and identify forward-looking planning opportunities
• Experience working with affluent or high-net-worth individuals and families
• Strong analytical and scenario-modeling skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to explain complex tax concepts in plain English
• Strong judgment, organization, and follow-through

Especially Valuable:

• Experience serving retirees or clients approaching retirement
• Experience with Roth conversion analysis and multi-year tax planning
• Familiarity with investment portfolios and taxable brokerage accounts
• Experience working alongside financial advisors, investment professionals, estate attorneys, or other members of a client's advisory team
• RIA, wealth management, or family office experience
• CFP® designation or meaningful financial-planning experience

What You Won't Be Doing

We want to be very clear about this part.

You will not prepare tax returns.

Three Bridges does not offer tax-return preparation, and we aren't building a tax-preparation practice.

Our clients will continue working with their outside CPAs for tax preparation and filing. You'll collaborate with those professionals when appropriate, but your role is focused on what comes before and between tax returns:

planning, strategy, recommendations, coordination, and implementation.

A Different Way to Use Your Tax Expertise

For the right CPA, this role offers the opportunity to take years of technical tax knowledge and use it in a different way.

Rather than spending much of the year focused on compliance and deadlines, you'll have the time to look forward.

You'll know the clients. You'll understand their retirement plans and investments. You'll work alongside the advisors helping them make decisions. And you'll be able to see whether the strategies you recommend actually get implemented.

Our goal is to make thoughtful tax planning a consistent part of the advice every Three Bridges client receives.

If you're an experienced CPA who enjoys strategy more than production, planning more than compliance, and helping people make good decisions more than preparing the return that documents those decisions afterward, we'd like to talk.