Senior Family Office Tax Advisor

George William Consulting; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); Remote; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance bonus

Partner track potential

Job summary

George William Consulting seeks an experienced CPA to lead tax advisory and planning for high-net-worth families. The role blends personal and business tax work, with deep dives into owners’ wealth, real estate, partnerships, and investments.

You will review compliance, coordinate with external firms, and focus on strategic planning beyond returns, working with a small number of families to build long-term adviser relationships.

Qualifications

• Broad tax skill set across private client and business taxation.
• Strong client relationship skills and ability to explain complex tax concepts.

Responsibilities

• Advise across personal and business tax matters for high-net-worth families.
• Review returns and calculations and coordinate with external providers.
• Identify planning opportunities and ensure tax compliance aligns with family strategy.
• Engage in tax planning, advisory work, and long-term relationship management.
• Communicate sophisticated tax issues directly with families and advisers.

Skills

Tax advisory

Private client taxation

Business taxation

Client relationship skills

Education

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

Job description

How much of your time in tax is spent advising clients rather than managing the compliance process?

I’m working with a rapidly growing, independent multi-family office looking to hire an experienced CPA who wants to make tax advisory and planning the centre of their role.

Their clients are predominantly first-generation wealth creators and successful business owners, with a typical family relationship representing approximately $500m of wealth.

These are complex families whose wealth often spans operating businesses, real estate, partnerships, investments and other closely held assets.

As a result, this isn't a narrowly defined private client tax position.

You’ll advise across both the personal and business sides of a family's affairs, including:

• Individual and private client tax planning
• Closely held and family-owned businesses
• Partnerships and pass-through entities
• Corporate tax
• M&A and transactional matters
• Ownership and deal structuring
• Investments and family office matters
• Tax compliance review and oversight

Around 90-95% of the underlying compliance preparation is outsourced to external accounting firms.

That doesn't mean compliance disappears from the role.

Instead, you’ll sit on the other side of the process: reviewing returns and calculations, coordinating with external providers, identifying planning opportunities and ensuring the compliance work reflects the family's wider tax strategy.

The majority of your value, however, comes from what happens beyond the return.

You’ll typically work with only 6–10 families, allowing you to understand their businesses, investments, family dynamics and long-term objectives in considerable depth.

The aim is to become one of the trusted advisers they turn to when making important financial and business decisions.

Who am I looking for?

I’m particularly interested in experienced CPAs who have developed a broad tax skill set across both private client and business taxation.

You might currently be a Senior Manager, Director or Partner within a regional or national accounting firm, or already working within a family office or sophisticated private client environment.

The strongest candidates will probably have around 10+ years of experience and exposure to successful entrepreneurs, HNW/UHNW individuals and closely held businesses.

You don’t need to be an expert in every area of tax.

In fact, breadth is more important than being a narrow specialist.

You’ll need to understand how an entrepreneur’s personal tax position interacts with their businesses, investments and transactions, while knowing when to bring in external specialists for particularly complex issues.

Strong client relationship skills are equally important.

This isn’t a behind-the-scenes technical position. You’ll be having sophisticated conversations directly with families and their other advisers, explaining complex issues and helping clients make decisions.

Why consider the opportunity?

For someone coming from public accounting, this offers a different way to build a long-term career in tax without walking away from technically interesting work.

You’ll spend more of your time on tax planning, advisory and client relationships, while remaining involved in the review and oversight of compliance.

The family office is:

• Employee-owned
• Completely independent
• Not backed by private equity
• Debt-free
• Growing approximately 30-40% annually, largely organically
• Currently advising on approximately $12bn of family wealth

The longer-term ambition is significant, creating opportunities for the next generation of senior advisers to grow alongside the business.

For the right senior hire, there is also a genuine route towards partnership and ownership.

Compensation is highly competitive, with significant performance-related bonus potential and longer-term compensation opportunities.

There is considerable flexibility around location within the US, although some domestic and occasional international travel should be expected as part of developing close relationships with families.

If you’ve built a strong career in tax but want the balance to shift towards planning, advisory and becoming genuinely involved in your clients’ wider financial lives, I’d be interested in speaking with you.