Digital tax return review and planning tool Holistiplan is officially supporting 2019 tax return uploads, it said in an emailed announcement. The firm also announced support for organizing client tax returns by household, as of Feb. 29, a change that will result in a number of expected improvements in the coming months.
For advisors unfamiliar with the Holistiplan, the tool can be thought of as a digital, more automated version of the comprehensive tax return review checklists that some advisors offer their clients. It can help advisors find situations like Medicare adjustments and Roth conversions that add value for clients. The tool is also able to model hypothetical scenarios for clients, so they can plan for certain tax situations in the coming year.
The revamp to focus on households should allow the software developer to more quickly integrate with CRM systems, particularly those that already organize client information by household, according to Holistiplan's announcement. Additionally, the enhancement facilitates enterprise use-cases where advisors in particular groups may only be permitted to see certain households assigned to them, as well as supporting advisors making “tax observations” using data not listed on tax returns. Examples of the latter could include financial advice around client age or client location for determining Affordable Care Act subsidy availability. Household support will allow for side-by-side comparisons of 2018 and 2019 returns in the Scenario Analysis pane, according to the firm.
Going forward, Holistiplan is working on a tool that will project the marginal impact of incremental ordinary income and capital gains income. “It’s a graphical way of seeing, what do I need to do to drop myself down a [tax bracket] level,” said Roger Pine, co-founder of the firm. “It’s really going to be a game changer for your tax planning, because now, instead of hunting and pecking to try to find that number, boom, [Holistiplan] is going to give it to [advisors].”
With the new development, which did not include a development timeline, advisor decision-making around moving income in or out of a particular year will be visually apparent and projected, said Pine. It is designed to replace advisors using inefficient trial-and-error to find the income or capital gains tax-planning sweet spot.
Holistiplan was the XYPN FinTech competition winner for 2019.