How AE Tax Advisors Approaches Engagements

This page describes, in general terms, how AE Tax Advisors approaches planning and advisory engagements. It is meant to help you understand what to expect and to give you a basis for comparing the approach with other firms. It describes a general approach, not a promise about any particular engagement. The specifics of scope, timing, and fees for your situation are discussed with you directly and confirmed with you before work begins.

A Planning-First Orientation

AE Tax Advisors provides tax planning and advisory services, with a focus on business owners and real estate investors. The emphasis is on looking forward: understanding your situation, identifying options, and helping you make informed decisions before the year ends or before a transaction occurs. This differs from a service that only prepares returns after the year is over. See Tax Preparation Firms vs Tax Planning Firms for the distinction.

The Typical Stages

Engagements are generally organized around a sequence of stages. The exact steps vary with the client and the scope, but the stages usually look like this:

1. Discovery. A conversation to understand your situation, goals, and questions. See The Discovery Call: What to Expect.
2. Information gathering and review. Collection and review of prior returns, financial statements, entity documents, and other relevant information. See Document Review and Analysis in a Planning Engagement.
3. Analysis. Evaluation of options using your facts, including modeling where appropriate.
4. Recommendations. A presentation of options, trade-offs, risks, and conditions, so you can decide.
5. Implementation. Help carrying out the decisions you make, including coordination with other professionals. See From Recommendations to Implementation.
6. Follow-up. Check-ins to see whether the plan is working and whether facts have changed. See Ongoing Support and Year-Round Planning.

Facts Come First

Recommendations depend on facts. The firm's approach is to gather facts before proposing strategies, and to explain which facts drive the conclusions. A strategy that fits one owner may not fit another. If a fact is missing or uncertain, the analysis should say so.

Explaining Trade-Offs

A recommendation is more useful when it includes its costs and risks. For example, an entity change may reduce one tax but add compliance costs. A retirement plan may allow larger deductions but create a funding commitment. The approach is to explain those trade-offs in plain language so that you can weigh them. You decide, and the firm's role is to inform.

Documentation

Many tax positions depend on documentation, such as compensation studies, time logs, mileage logs, and settlement statements. The approach includes telling you what records are needed and why, so that positions are supportable. Documentation is treated as part of implementation, not an afterthought.

Coordination with Other Professionals

Planning often involves attorneys, bookkeepers, payroll providers, lenders, plan administrators, and other specialists. The firm's approach is to coordinate with them, with your permission, so that recommendations are carried out consistently. Legal advice, for example, comes from attorneys, and the firm does not provide it.

Scope in Writing

Work is defined by scope. The firm's practice is to describe the scope of an engagement and confirm it with you before beginning. A written description helps both sides understand what is included and what is not. See What an Engagement Letter Should Cover.

No Guarantees

Tax outcomes depend on facts and law, and no outcome is guaranteed. The firm does not promise specific savings or results. See What AE Tax Advisors Does Not Promise.

Risk and Compliance

The approach emphasizes compliance with tax law and consideration of risk. Recommendations are meant to be supportable, and the firm explains the level of risk where relevant. See How AE Tax Advisors Thinks About Risk and Compliance.

How to Test This Description

You do not have to take this page at face value. Use the questions in the Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Tax Advisor guide to ask AE Tax Advisors, and any other firm, how they work. Ask for a description of the process, a written scope, and an explanation of how fees are set. The firm's willingness to answer clearly is itself information.

Next Step

If you would like to learn whether the approach fits your situation, the discovery call is the place to start. The call is a conversation, not an obligation, and you are free to compare the answers with other firms.

An Illustration of the Stages

To make the stages concrete, consider a hypothetical business owner who calls in the fall, unsure whether an entity change would help. In discovery, the owner describes the business and goals. The firm then asks for prior returns, the operating agreement, and current-year financial statements. In analysis, it models the current structure and one alternative using stated assumptions and identifies what facts would change the answer. In recommendations, it presents the comparison, the added costs, and the risks, and the owner decides. In implementation, it coordinates the election, payroll setup, and record changes. In follow-up, it checks that payroll and reporting are working. This example is illustrative and is not a description of any real client.

What to Expect on Timing

Timing depends on scope and on how quickly information is provided. Some analyses can be completed in a short period, while others take longer, especially if documents must be gathered or if outside professionals are involved. Ask for a timeline at the outset and for updates if it changes.

Connect the engagement process to published case studies

AE’s case-study library gives you concrete business and property examples to discuss before choosing scope. Start with the 51-case directory, then use a topic guide to identify the documents and assumptions that would matter for your situation.

How to measure the proposed work

Ask for a baseline return model, the alternative model and an explanation of the difference. Identify whether the benefit is a recurring tax change, a timing benefit, a contribution-funded deduction or a projected transaction outcome. Confirm professional fees, employee costs and implementation expenses separately.

The $7,800 engagement and continuing costs

The standard advertised advisory engagement is $7,800 with no required recurring annual planning fee. Tax returns and other services must be checked against the written scope. No required planning renewal does not mean unlimited future work. Read the complete fee and scope guide.

Agree on implementation evidence

A recommendation should turn into a named task, required records and a completion check. Depending on scope, evidence may include a filed election, payroll confirmation, executed plan document, reimbursement record, engineering report or reconciled return workpaper. Ask which person completes the task and which professional confirms the result.

Prepare a focused discovery-call file

Bring recent returns and current financial statements, then add the records relevant to your question. An entity question needs ownership and payroll details. A rental question needs purchase, depreciation and activity records. A retirement question needs staff and compensation information. Identify your decision deadline at the outset.

Understand what reported outcomes establish

This site is published by AE Tax Advisors. The case figures are reported by the firm and not independently audited here. They do not establish a typical client outcome. Use the methodology to distinguish savings, deductions and projections before comparing a case to your own proposal.

Educational purposes only. This page is general education and is not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Descriptions of how AE Tax Advisors approaches engagements are general, and the scope, timing, and fees for any engagement are confirmed with you directly. Tax laws change and outcomes depend on individual facts. No result is guaranteed.