Every season is tax season
Top resources and action items for adding after-tax value all year long.
Prepare for Tax Day
Assess Tax Impact
Grow Your Business
Review Distributions
Lead up to tax day
Focus on the familiar. With 1099 Forms arriving, it’s a good time to review these with your clients. It’s important to know the different tax rates that may impact clients and investors. And it’s a good time to demonstrate for investors the impact taxes are having on their investment savings, and what can be done to minimize them.
Tax Season Essentials Guide
Tips and tactics that may help investors discover how they can maximize their after-tax wealth.
1099 Guide: A Tale of Two Investors
This simple guide walks investors through what to look for in a Form 1099-DIV.
Resources for all seasons
- Tax Impact Comparison Tool
- Value of Tax Management Tool
- After-Tax Wealth Handbook
- Tax Facts & Figures
- Tax Talk blogs
Resources with the "lock" icon are for financial professional use only. You will need to login to access these materials. If you do not have a login, you can request access.
Post-tax day review
Review, identify, take action. Too often, people tend to put taxes in their rear-view after April 15th. Use this season as an opportunity to review the Tax Day experience, starting with Form 1040. Together, identify any problems that need addressing, and create a plan of action. Achieving a better after-tax outcome doesn’t happen on its own.
After-Tax Wealth Checkup
A review of Form 1040 can help determine what might be done to improve an investor’s after-tax outcome.
Investment Proposal Tool
Create a custom proposal for your client.
(Formerly known as MAP Builder)
Resources for all seasons
- Tax Impact Comparison Tool
- Value of Tax Management Tool
- After-Tax Wealth Handbook
- Tax Facts & Figures
- Tax Talk blogs
Resources with the "lock" icon are for financial professional use only. You will need to login to access these materials. If you do not have a login, you can request access.
The season of opportunity – build a tax-smart practice
Now is the time to consider taxable growth opportunities. Focus time and efforts on specific opportunities. The sources of taxable assets are diverse; whether they are sources of liquidity like real estate or business sales, estate planning opportunities such as trusts, inheritances, and insurance benefits, or pre-retirement preparations for items such as deferred compensation and restricted equity—they all need advice on next steps. Create a plan, focus your opportunity set, and take action.
7 Sources of Taxable Assets
Identify the types of clients and assets where tax management really matters.
Value of an Advisor Study
A comprehensive study of the tangible benefits investors receive when they work with a tax-smart advisor.
CPA Relationship Guide
Turnkey tools and best practices to help you develop CPA relationships.
Resources for all seasons
- Tax Impact Comparison Tool
- Value of Tax Management Tool
- After-Tax Wealth Handbook
- Tax Facts & Figures
- Tax Talk blogs
Resources with the "lock" icon are for financial professional use only. You will need to login to access these materials. If you do not have a login, you can request access.
Review taxable distributions
Avoid the negative tax surprises. Most capital gains are distributed during December, which could cause both a sizable tax bill for clients and have an impact on their long-term investment planning. This impact also applies to gains on individual security transactions. Use this as an opportunity to review distributions (including dividends and interest) as well as capital gains realized throughout the year. Taxes are a cost; but it’s a cost that can be controlled.
Avoid the negative tax surprises. Most capital gains are distributed during December, which could cause both a sizable tax bill for clients and have an impact on their long-term investment planning. This impact also applies to gains on individual security transactions. Use this as an opportunity to review distributions (including dividends and interest) as well as capital gains realized throughout the year. Taxes are a cost; but it’s a cost that can be controlled.
4 A's of Preparing for Capital Gains Season
Actionable steps advisors should consider to improve client engagement during this season.
Tax Information
Access information on the dividends and capital gains distributed by our mutual funds.
Resources for all seasons
- Tax Impact Comparison Tool
- Value of Tax Management Tool
- After-Tax Wealth Handbook
- Tax Facts & Figures
- Tax Talk blogs
Resources with the "lock" icon are for financial professional use only. You will need to login to access these materials. If you do not have a login, you can request access.
Our approach to tax management
We’ve been actively saving money for investors for over three decades through a highly refined process.
Tax-managed solutionsTax-managed investing: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Too many taxable investors don't think taxes are a problem. They don't know how much taxes are really costing them and they don't know how to transition to a tax-managed approach.
You have to start somewhere. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Think about it this way: if you have a million dollar portfolio with a 10% capital gain distribution, that's $100,000 in taxable money. If you apply a 20% tax rate, that's a $20,000 tax hit every year. But with a tax-managed portfolio from Russell Investments, the same size portfolio could have a low capital gain distribution. Maybe even zero. That could mean the IRS getting nothing and you getting to keep your money.
So take that first step. Stop reinvesting your gain distributions back into the portfolio creating your tax problems. Instead consider using that income stream to fund a Russell Investments tax-managed portfolio. Because it's not what you earn, it's what you get to keep.
When that much money is at stake, you better pay attention to taxes. Nice work buddy!
Tax drag can hold you back in up and down markets
Every year in February investors receive their 1099 tax forms in the mail. Congrats! You have taxes due.
When markets are up we tend to be okay with having to pay the tax man something. But when markets are down, "Oh no. Why should I pay taxes when I'm losing money?" is what most of us would say.
Let's see what actually happens. This chart shows you U.S. Equity Market return for each year going back to 2001. This chart also shows you the average mutual fund capital gain distribution for each year. My question to you: How many times do you see the numbers represented with the red line hit zero? Never.
Whether the market is up or the market is down, capital gains are reality for investors. Just like individual portfolios when stocks with gains are sold, mutual funds are required to pay out to shareholders their net realized gains each fiscal year. Even in flat or down years. For most investors this distribution is automatically reinvested back into the fund, but in the eyes of our friends at the IRS a distribution is a distribution is a distribution. Taxes are due.
You can do better. Investors don't have to accept this level of tax costs. Russell Investments actively manages taxes throughout the year to reduce the impact of taxes. It's not what you make. It's what you get to keep that matters.
Let us help you keep more of what you make. Visit our website to learn how tax managed investing may help investors keep more of what they make.