In today’s challenging and modern financial landscape, clients are increasingly seeking sophisticated solutions to navigate the complexities of tax and estate planning. They’re looking for clarity, control, and tangible results in managing their wealth and securing their financial futures. As a forward-thinking financial advisor or CPA, you understand the importance of meeting these evolving needs. But what if you could offer your clients cutting-edge tax planning strategies without needing to become a specialist yourself or incurring the overhead of in-house experts?

At Valur, we provide a powerful platform and partnership model designed to empower you. We bring clarity and control to the often-daunting world of advanced tax and estate planning, not just for your clients, but for your practice as well. Imagine being able to seamlessly integrate sophisticated tax planning into your service offerings, identify optimal strategies for your clients, and guide them through implementation and ongoing management – all while strengthening client relationships and unlocking new revenue streams.

The Valur Partnership: Guidance, Evaluation, and Action for Your Practice

What truly distinguishes Valur as a partner is our unwavering commitment to equipping you with more than just a referral network. We provide you with the knowledge, the technology, and the collaborative framework to deeply understand, rigorously evaluate, and confidently offer advanced tax planning solutions tailored to your clients’ unique circumstances, ultimately driving growth and enhancing your value proposition.

• Your Central Hub for Advanced Tax Planning Expertise. Forget the limitations of your in-house expertise or the complexities of vetting and managing external specialists for every client with advanced tax needs. Valur serves as your central hub, integrating expert guidance across the spectrum of sophisticated tax and estate planning. Whether your clients are navigating capital gains after a significant liquidity event, seeking to optimize their Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) benefits, or require intricate estate planning to preserve their legacy, Valur brings the specialized knowledge and robust platform directly to your fingertips. You’ll have a single, coordinated point of access to the expertise and tools required to offer comprehensive financial well-being to your clients. For instance, if you have a client who recently sold their business for a substantial gain and is facing significant capital gains taxes, Valur can help you explore strategies like 1031 exchanges or installment sales, providing the framework and tools to analyze the best approach without requiring you to be a tax law expert.
• Empowering You to Evaluate Strategies with Cutting-Edge Technology. Understanding that a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRUT) is a potential solution is different from knowing if it’s the optimal tool for your client’s specific financial situation, philanthropic goals, and liquidity needs. Valur’s powerful platform allows you to move beyond simple recommendations. Our “guided planning” tool – a sophisticated decision engine that intelligently analyzes your client’s unique financial profile – and our deep comparison calculators enable you to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate various strategies against each other. For example, you can illustrate the projected tax benefits and income streams of a CRUT versus a Donor-Advised Fund for a client considering charitable giving, or demonstrate how different Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) durations could impact estate tax savings for your high-net-worth clients looking to transfer wealth efficiently. Crucially, you can also show your clients how these advanced strategies compare to their current situation (the baseline of doing nothing), allowing them to make truly informed decisions based on projected outcomes and a clear understanding of the trade-offs – all facilitated by your guidance and Valur’s technology.
• Efficiency Redefined for Your Practice and Your Clients. We understand that your time, and your clients’ time, is invaluable. Traditional advanced tax and estate planning can often be a slow and cumbersome process, potentially delaying implementation and even frustrating clients. Valur operates differently. We’ve meticulously streamlined every step, leveraging technology to expedite everything from initial client data gathering to document generation. In many cases, you can begin the planning process and see initial strategy recommendations for your clients in as little as a day, and the entire process moves at the client’s pace, respecting their schedule and priorities. No more waiting weeks for external specialists to produce deliverables; Valur brings efficiency to the forefront of complex financial planning, enhancing client satisfaction and freeing up your time to focus on building deeper relationships and growing your core business. Imagine being able to generate initial trust documents for a client within hours, rather than waiting weeks for a legal team to draft them from scratch.
• A Cost-Effective Way to Expand Your Service Offering and Enhance Client Value. The traditional model of building in-house advanced tax planning expertise can involve significant overhead and specialized hiring. Valur offers a cost-effective alternative, allowing you to seamlessly integrate sophisticated tax planning into your service offerings without the burden of significant upfront investment or ongoing specialized staffing costs. Our transparent and predictable fixed fee structure for annual administration (for implemented strategies), coupled with no upfront setup fees for the planning itself, provides a clear and manageable cost structure. This allows you to enhance the value you provide to your clients, potentially attract new clients seeking these advanced solutions, and strengthen your client relationships without negatively impacting your bottom line. For instance, you can now confidently approach clients with complex tax situations, knowing you have a powerful platform to support your recommendations without needing to hire a full-time tax specialist.

The Benefits of Partnering With Valur

Choosing Valur as your advanced tax planning partner unlocks a comprehensive suite of benefits meticulously designed to empower your practice, enhance your client relationships, and drive significant growth:

• Expanded Service Offerings. Seamlessly integrate sophisticated tax and estate planning into your existing suite of financial services without needing to become an expert yourself or hire specialized in-house staff. Offer your clients access to cutting-edge strategies they might not otherwise be aware of or able to easily implement.
• Enhanced Client Value Proposition. By partnering with Valur, you can provide your clients with access to a level of advanced tax planning that truly differentiates your practice. This allows you to cater to the complex needs of high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and those with unique financial circumstances, strengthening client loyalty and retention.
• Streamlined Collaboration on a Unified Platform. Our tech-forward platform provides a central hub for you and your clients to engage in the planning process. You can easily invite clients to the platform, securely share calculations, guided planning outputs, and other substantive reports, and collaborate efficiently on developing and implementing their chosen strategies.
• Unlimited Access to Expert Consultations. You gain unlimited access to our team of experienced professionals with deep knowledge of tax optimization and seasoned financial planning expertise. This allows you to consult with specialists on complex client scenarios, ensuring you can confidently guide your clients and answer their questions, even on intricate topics.
• Full Visibility into Your Clients’ Activities. Our advisor portal provides you with complete transparency into the progress of your clients’ planning on the Valur platform. You can track their engagement, review key documents, and stay informed every step of the way, ensuring you remain an integral part of the client relationship.
• Retain and Grow Your Assets Under Management (AUM). Valur focuses exclusively on the planning and implementation of advanced tax strategies. We do not manage investment assets. This ensures that your existing AUM relationships remain secure, and by offering these value-added tax planning services, you can often strengthen client relationships and attract new clients who are seeking comprehensive wealth management, including sophisticated tax optimization.
• Potential for Revenue Sharing. Depending on the specific strategies your clients choose to implement through Valur, you may be eligible for a revenue share, providing an additional income stream for your practice. This can include a portion of recurring revenue for ongoing trust administration or a one-time referral fee for certain tax-advantaged projects, typically ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 per converted client vehicle. (Subject to your firm’s compliance policies).
• Client-Friendly Deliverables. Valur’s platform generates clear, concise, and client-friendly reports, including calculator outputs, guided planning summaries, and annotated legal documents. These deliverables help your clients understand the complexities of advanced tax planning, reinforcing your role as a trusted advisor.
• Seamless Integration with Your Existing Workflow. Valur offers flexible integration options. You can either utilize our dedicated advisor-oriented toolset within our platform or, in many cases, we can integrate with your existing CRM and financial planning software (such as Orion, Black Diamond, eMoney, or even via secure data exchange from Excel). This allows you to access Valur’s capabilities within the tools you already use and are familiar with, minimizing disruption to your practice. We can even proactively identify clients in your existing book of business who might benefit from specific advanced tax strategies based on their financial profile.
• Flexible Partnership Models. We understand that every advisor and firm operates differently. Valur offers flexible partnership models, ranging from simple education and warm introductions to full platform utilization where you actively guide your clients through the process. We can adapt to your preferred level of involvement and client interaction.

Addressing Clients’ Key Financial Needs

At Valur, we focus our expertise on providing highly effective strategies to address the most significant personal tax and wealth transfer circumstances our clients typically encounter:

• Ordinary Income. This encompasses the income your clients earn from their day-to-day work and endeavors, including annual salary as a software engineer, the vesting of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) they receive as part of your compensation, their share of profits as a partner in a successful law firm, or the net earnings from their thriving small business. Because this type of income is often taxed at the highest rates, strategic planning is crucial. Read more >
• Capital Gains. These are the profits clients realize when they sell appreciated assets. This could include the significant gains from selling publicly traded stock they’ve held for several years, the profit from selling their vested startup equity after a successful acquisition, the gains from trading cryptocurrency, the appreciation on real estate they’ve owned, or the proceeds from selling their small business. The tax rates on capital gains can be substantial, especially for short-term holdings. Read more >
• QSBS Stacking. For founders who’ve built a qualified small business, early employees who received stock options, and investors who’ve backed promising startups, Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) offers a potentially game-changing opportunity to exclude up to $10 million in capital gains tax upon the sale of those shares and, with proper planning, to multiply that exemption several times over, protecting $20 million, $30 million, or more from taxation. However, the rules surrounding QSBS eligibility and maximizing its benefits can be intricate. Valur provides in-depth guidance on QSBS “stacking” strategies. ****This involves leveraging sophisticated gifting techniques and strategically utilizing various trust structures to potentially multiply the individual $10 million exemption across multiple family members and over time. We help you and your clients understand the holding period requirements, ensure your business qualifies, and implement a comprehensive plan to potentially eliminate millions in capital gains tax when your clients eventually sell their QSBS. Read more >
• Estate Tax. This is a tax levied on the transfer of assets to heirs after your client’s passing. While the federal estate tax exemption is currently high, it still impacts many high-net-worth individuals and families, and state estate taxes can have lower thresholds. Proactive and thoughtful estate planning is crucial to minimize this potential tax burden and ensure a smooth and efficient transfer of clients’ wealth to the next generation according to their wishes. Our comprehensive estate tax planning strategies encompass the creation and expert management of various sophisticated trust structures, such as Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) to potentially transfer appreciating assets tax-free, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs) to keep life insurance proceeds outside of the client’s taxable estate, and Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs) to reduce estate tax while providing for family. We also guide you and your clients on strategic gifting strategies (for example, via Crummey Trusts) to reduce the taxable estate during your lifetime and help understand the implications of valuation discounts for certain assets. Our goal is to develop an estate plan that aligns with the client’s goals and minimizes potential estate and gift tax liabilities, ensuring your legacy is preserved and passed on efficiently. Read more >

Because we possess this deep and specialized expertise across these critical financial areas, Valur is uniquely positioned to create comprehensive, integrated, and highly effective financial plans tailored to the diverse and complex needs of all the individuals we serve – from ambitious founders and sophisticated investors to established professionals and multi-generational high-net-worth families.

The Advisor Portal: Your Command Center for Client Success

Our dedicated advisor portal is your central hub for efficiently managing your clients’ advanced tax planning journeys with Valur. Through this intuitive interface, you can:

• Invite Clients to the Valur Platform: Seamlessly onboard your clients to our secure environment.
• Share Powerful Insights: Easily share the results of Guided Planning sessions, comparison calculator outputs, and individual strategy reports to illustrate the potential benefits of different strategies.
• Collaborate on Planning: Work together with your clients on the platform to gather necessary information and refine their chosen strategies.
• Initiate Vehicle Setup: Guide your clients through the initial setup of their chosen tax planning vehicles or even manage the setup process on their behalf, streamlining the implementation.
• Maintain Comprehensive Visibility: Gain a clear and real-time view of the status of all your clients’ activities on the Valur platform, ensuring you are always informed.
• Access Expert Resources: Find helpful educational materials, FAQs, and support documentation to enhance your understanding of advanced tax planning strategies and the Valur platform.

Empowering Your Clients’ Journey with Valur (and Your Integral Role)

Just as we guide individual clients toward greater financial clarity, we empower you, the trusted advisor, to guide your clients through a structured and transparent process, leveraging Valur’s cutting-edge tools and your invaluable client relationships:

• Step 1: Identifying Optimal Strategies – Your Insight, Powered by Valur’s Guided Planner. The journey begins with identifying the most promising tax and estate planning strategies tailored to your client’s unique circumstances. Here’s where your deep understanding of their overall financial picture, long-term goals, and personal values becomes paramount. You can initiate this process within the Valur platform by inviting your client to complete the Guided Planner, or by inputting key information on their behalf. Imagine a scenario: You have a long-standing client, a successful tech executive who recently received a significant grant of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). You know their desire to minimize their future tax burden and potentially establish a charitable giving strategy. By guiding them through Valur’s Guided Planner, inputting details about their income, equity holdings, and philanthropic interests, the platform intelligently surfaces potential strategies like Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRUTs) to address their capital gains from future stock sales. Your expertise ensures the right context for the Planner’s output.
• Step 2: Collaborative Evaluation – Your Expertise, Amplified by Valur’s Calculators. Once the Guided Planner highlights potential strategies, the Valur platform equips you with powerful comparison and individual strategy calculators. Through the advisor portal, you can seamlessly share the outputs of these tools with your clients during review meetings. Consider the tech executive again: You can present clear, visual charts generated by Valur’s calculators, illustrating the projected tax savings of a CRUT under different scenarios, the potential income streams it could generate, and a side-by-side comparison with the tax benefits of a Donor Advised Fund. Your ability to interpret these results, explain the underlying assumptions in the context of your client’s overall financial plan, and address their specific questions becomes invaluable in facilitating truly informed decisions. This collaborative evaluation strengthens your role as their trusted advisor, backed by Valur’s analytical rigor.
• Step 3: Streamlined Implementation – Your Guidance, Facilitated by Valur’s Efficiency. Once your client has made a confident decision on a strategy, Valur’s platform streamlines the often-complex implementation process, minimizing the administrative burden on both you and your client. For instance, if the executive chooses to establish a CRUT, you can guide them through Valur’s intuitive online onboarding process to provide the necessary information. Behind the scenes, Valur generates the required legal documents with precision, provides clear, annotated versions for your client’s understanding, and facilitates secure online notarization where available. You maintain full visibility into the progress of the trust creation, ensuring it aligns with their overall financial strategy and keeping them informed without getting bogged down in the intricate details. Your oversight ensures the process remains aligned with their broader wealth management plan.
• Step 4: Ongoing Management and Visibility – Supporting Your Long-Term Advice with Valur’s Infrastructure. Valur’s platform provides ongoing administration and reporting for implemented strategies, ensuring compliance and simplifying management. For strategies like trusts, the platform tracks key dates, facilitates distributions, and provides clear reporting for both you and your client. Imagine the CRUT established for the tech executive: Valur handles the annual accounting, tax filings, and distribution calculations, providing you with comprehensive reports that you can then use to inform your ongoing investment management and financial planning advice. This continuous flow of information empowers you to provide proactive guidance and manage their investment assets within the context of their comprehensive tax plan, strengthening your long-term client relationship.

Flexible Partnership Models to Suit Your Practice

We recognize that your practice has its own unique way of serving clients and integrating new solutions. Valur offers flexible partnership models designed to seamlessly align with your preferred level of involvement and client interaction:

• Education and Referral: Empowering Your Knowledge, Expanding Client Options. In this model, you leverage Valur as a powerful educational resource to deepen your understanding of advanced tax planning strategies and identify clients who could significantly benefit from them. For example, you might attend a Valur-hosted webinar on QSBS stacking or utilize our library of explainer content to educate yourself on the nuances of estate tax planning. When you identify a client who could benefit – perhaps a founder nearing a liquidity event or a high-net-worth individual with significant estate tax concerns – you make a warm introduction to Valur. Our team then works directly with the client, keeping you informed of their progress and ensuring that any implemented strategies align with their overall financial plan, which you continue to manage. This model allows you to expand your service awareness without requiring you to become a tax planning expert yourself.
• Collaborative Engagement: Your Guidance, Valur’s Engine. This model involves a more active partnership where you leverage the Valur platform directly with your clients. You utilize the advisor portal to invite clients, guide them through the Guided Planner, and collaboratively review the calculator outputs. For instance, you might sit alongside your client during a virtual meeting, walking them through the potential benefits of a GRAT for transferring appreciating assets or a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) for estate tax mitigation, using Valur’s clear visualizations and your expert explanations. While you remain the primary point of contact and guide the strategic conversations, Valur handles the complexities of document generation, implementation, and ongoing administration behind the scenes. This allows you to offer sophisticated tax planning as a core part of your service offering, enhancing your value proposition and strengthening client relationships.
• Full Platform Utilization: Your Expertise, Valur’s Infrastructure. For advisors and firms seeking a more integrated and hands-on approach, this model allows you to fully utilize the capabilities of the Valur platform on behalf of your clients. You manage the entire planning process within the platform – inputting client data, running scenarios in the Guided Planner and calculators, and initiating the implementation of chosen strategies – all while having access to Valur’s expert support team for guidance and complex questions. Imagine a CPA firm using Valur to proactively identify clients who could benefit from tax-advantaged structures like Conservation Easements or Cost Segregation studies. The firm’s tax professionals can then use the Valur platform to model the potential benefits, manage the implementation process, and handle the ongoing compliance, offering a comprehensive suite of tax planning services directly to their clients. This model empowers you to offer advanced tax planning as a core competency of your practice, driving deeper client engagement and potentially increasing your service fees.

Unlock New Revenue Streams and Deepen Client Relationships

Partnering with Valur not only enhances the value you provide to your clients but also opens up new avenues for revenue generation through our transparent revenue-sharing model (where permissible by your firm’s compliance policies). By offering sophisticated tax planning services, you can attract new high-net-worth clients and strengthen your relationships with existing ones, ultimately leading to increased client retention and growth in your assets under management.

Ready to Elevate Your Practice?

Take the first step towards empowering your practice and providing your clients with unparalleled advanced tax planning solutions. Schedule a call with our partnership team today to explore how Valur can seamlessly integrate into your service offerings, enhance your client value proposition, and drive significant growth for your business. We’re ready to help you elevate your practice and unlock new levels of success.