Our firm has developed "professional service groups" as a specialty practice area.  These clients, which include physicians, medical practices, attorneys, engineers, and other professional service industries, have unique accounting needs and yet share many common challenges and issues.   Regardless of the industry, tax planning, deferred compensation, retirement planning, tiered organization structure, and business succession planning are most important.   The choice of organizational structure, for example, can greatly impact the tax and operation of the business and its owners.  Many times multiple business entities with different organizational structures are used to obtain the optimum results and doing so is a balancing act requiring specialized knowledge and planning. 

Our diverse practice gives our tax and management professionals a broad base with which to advise clients on managing these ventures. 

Some of the issues common to the this practice area may include:

• Tax planning.  Individuals in professional service areas are often high income earners where the significantly higher tax rates warrant additional tax planning.  Whether it be planning around self-employment tax concerns or structuring multiple entities with different tax attributes, there are a multitude of options to minimize tax exposure.
  
• Retirement.  Typically, medicare, social security and common retirement plans are adequate to enable individuals to maintain their standard of living into retirement.  Those plans are not, however, sufficient to provide for lifestyle continuity for the higher income earnings of the professional services industries.  We can assist you in exploring alternatives and mechanisms to supplement your existing retirement planning while providing a suitable retirement plan for your employees.
  
• Health insurance.  How do you deal with the ever increasing cost of health care and its burden to all businesses, particularly self-employed individuals?  Do you provide a group plan and how does doing so impact the ability to deduct your own health insurance?  Should you implement a Section 125 "cafeteria plan"?  Should you use and fund a Health Savings Account (HSA)?  All of these are challenging questions with considerable impact on your individual tax planning.  How do these choices affect the special reporting required of an LLC, partnerhip, or S-Corporation?  We can assist you in identifying these issues and provide alternatives for you to consider.
  
• Multiple entities and risk managment.   Is your business organized as an LLC?  An S-Corporation?  A partnership?   Are you a sole owner or do you have partners for which you must consider the personal risk of professional liability issues?  Should you own the business real estate inside the corporation or let it be owned by another entity to which you pay rent?  Risk management coupled with tax minimization strategies is a key planning area in which we have diverse training and experiences.
  
• Buy-Sell agreements and succession plans.   Do you have operating agreements?  A buy-sell agreement?  What happens when your partner retires?  Should your business fund a partner retirement plan?  Should you use insurance products to mitigate these costs?  How will the business value be determined upon a retirement or separation event?  These are all important questions that should be considered when developing operating and buy-sell agreements.   We have experienced business consultants and certified business valuators to help you navigate this delicate and often times "tricky" area.
  
• Admission of new shareholders or partners.  How do you value the interest a new partner may acquire?   Should you have a set formula?  How are they going to acquire it; directly from the business or from individual owners?  If you are a partnership or LLC, should you make a section 754 election?  There are many issues that can affect the tax liability of both the buyer and the seller.  We can help you structure these transactions to minimize the tax burden for each party.

Professional service groups encounter many more challenges which are often intensified by robust professional schedules and insufficient available time to devote to them.  As professionals ourselves, our training and experiences make us well equiped to help you identify and resolve these issues.  Please contact us to arrange for a meeting to discuss your individual needs.