Why Legal, Financial, and Tax Coordination Is the Foundation of Financial Security

Most Michigan families work with three types of financial professionals: an estate planning attorney, a financial advisor, and a tax professional (CPA or enrolled agent). In theory, these three advisors should work together to create a comprehensive, coordinated plan. In practice, they almost never do.

Your estate attorney drafts your trust and will — but may not know what accounts you have, how they're titled, or what your tax situation looks like. Your financial advisor manages your investments — but may not have read your trust document or know whether your beneficiary designations are aligned with your estate plan. Your CPA prepares your tax return — but may not know about the trust your attorney drafted or the investment strategy your financial advisor is implementing.

The result is a set of plans that look complete in isolation but are full of gaps and conflicts when viewed together.

These gaps are not theoretical. They have real, costly consequences for Michigan families:

The Beneficiary Designation Problem: A Michigan retiree creates a revocable living trust to avoid probate and control how assets are distributed to her children. But her IRA — her largest asset — still names her children as direct beneficiaries, bypassing the trust entirely. At her death, the IRA passes directly to her children, triggering immediate income taxes and bypassing the trust's protective provisions.

The Roth Conversion Problem: A retiree's CPA recommends a large Roth conversion to reduce future RMDs. But the conversion pushes the retiree's MAGI above the IRMAA threshold, adding $4,200 per year to Medicare costs — for two years. The financial advisor wasn't consulted before the conversion was executed.

The Business Sale Problem: A Michigan business owner sells his company for $3.2 million. His CPA focuses on minimizing current-year taxes. His estate attorney focuses on the estate plan. Neither knows that the sale proceeds, if invested in a taxable account, will dramatically increase future RMDs and IRMAA exposure. A coordinated plan could have structured the sale differently.

Coordinated planning doesn't necessarily mean your attorney, financial advisor, and CPA are all in the same firm — though that can help. It means that these professionals communicate with each other, share relevant information, and make decisions with full awareness of how their recommendations interact with the other disciplines.

At a minimum, coordinated planning means:

- Your financial advisor has read your trust document and knows how your accounts should be titled - Your estate attorney knows the value and titling of your major assets - Your CPA knows about your estate plan and your investment strategy before recommending tax moves - All three advisors are consulted before major financial decisions — business sales, large Roth conversions, real estate transactions

The Michigan Society for Financial Education was founded specifically to educate Michigan families about why this coordination matters — and how to evaluate whether their own advisors are working together.

Our educational programs are unique because they bring together attorneys, financial advisors, and CPAs to teach jointly — so you can see, in real time, how these disciplines interact. Our webinars, workshops, and courses are designed to give you the knowledge to ask the right questions of your own advisors and to recognize when coordination is missing.

We believe that every Michigan family — regardless of wealth — deserves access to this education. The financial knowledge gap is real, and it costs Michigan families millions of dollars every year in unnecessary taxes, probate costs, and missed planning opportunities. Closing that gap, one person at a time, is our mission.