bonus: sample letters to send clients.
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
in order to help clients work out their problems, we need to give them suggestions and we need to charge the clients an appropriate fee.
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no matter how you price or bill for your services you will be spending time helping them and during that period you will be drawing on your vast experience, knowledge and data base of the client’s affairs.
when discussing the need for the additional service, it is essential that you tell the client that this is an extra service that is not part of an existing service and that there will be an additional charge. this additional charge would be determined based on how you typically bill or the type of fee arrangement you presently have with that client.
one of the ways i do this is to try to have the client meet with me for an initial consultation to determine
- the scope of the situation,
- the possibility that the initial consultation would be all that is necessary with no further meetings or
- that there is much greater depth to the issue
and you will have a better understanding of what the client needs and thus you can present a proposal with either a fixed fee or a time-based arrangement.
if the fixed fee is determined, then the scope must be clearly laid out with the client with the understanding that if the scope is expanded, there will be additional fees, which you will discuss at that time.
you must be paid for the extra services – that is how you make your living.
following are four engagement letters, three with a fixed fee and one with an hourly rate. these can help you get the idea of how to price your proposals and can be adapted based on your practices and relationship with the client.
note that my “style” is to send a proposal in an email and to not have it signed or in any way acknowledged except by a reply email. i do not like to send engagement letters that need to be signed and returned. it makes it look too “official” and i like to keep the relationship low-key. i am not recommending you do this. i am sharing what i do so you can think about it.
this method cannot be used for audit, attestation services, valuation opinions or forensic investigations where there would be compliance, regulatory or legal issue. fyi our valuation and forensic services engagement letter is nine pages.
engagement proposal for year-end tax planning for a business
client’s first name,
i can advise you on year-end tax planning and can meet with you monday morning from 9:30 to 11:00. if monday is not convenient we can meet tuesday. i am not available after then. my fee will be $2,000 and includes my advance preparation. the consultation will be limited to discussing various year-end steps you can take to reduce your taxes for 20xx. this advice will consider what the corporation and the individual owners can do. note that because of the late date it is possible i will not be able to recommend anything that could be done by december 31st that would save you taxes, and it is possible that my review will indicate that the income would be greater than the amount indicated on your quickbooks. also be aware that many tax-saving maneuvers are temporary in that they accelerate deductions that would ordinarily be available at a later date. however, you can be assured that i will perform a thorough review of the transactions recorded in the quickbooks system and will consider available tax benefits that would be applicable for you.
for this meeting, i will be assuming that the trusts are grantor trusts and will not review anything relating to this. what i can do at a later time for a fee to be agreed upon:
- review the ownership structure of your corporation
- review the uses and purposes of the trusts as owners of your corporation and the other llcs
- an overall tax review and purpose of all of your entities
if interested in meeting monday (or tuesday) please respond to this email or call me to confirm.
thanks,
ed
engagement proposal for a “second opinion” of a client’s financial plan
client,
it was good talking to you. i understand you would like a consultation to review your financial situation, arrangement with investment manager, an evaluation of your portfolio and to have me present a suggested plan or course you could follow if significantly different from what you now have.
our engagement will consist of a single meeting for about 1½ to 2 hours, with some followup phone calls if necessary. i will not provide you with anything in writing.
in order for me to prepare properly and to save time at the meeting, i would need you to send me information in advance of the meeting. specifically i would need the following:
- your most current brokerage statements from all your accounts including retirement accounts at previous employers,
- all bank account information,
- last year’s tax return,
- a printout of your social security account record,
- the contract, agreement or basis for compensation of your advisor at investment manager,
- your mortgage balance and due date,
- life insurance policies you have (you can bring the policy to the meeting – do not make a copy to send me – i want to look at it for about two minutes),
- long-term care insurance policies (bring these, do not make copies) and
- anything else you think i might need or that you would like to discuss.
based upon our conversation of your situation, i believe we can cover your issues at our meeting, but if it is necessary to have additional meetings, i will discuss the plan and my charges at the end of our meeting.
our phone call gave me a pretty good idea of what issues we will address, but it would be helpful if you could write down as many of the questions and issues you have beforehand and bring them to the meeting so we do not overlook anything you are especially concerned with.
the fee for the meeting is $_______ payable at the meeting. you can bring a check made payable to withumsmith+brown, pc or you could provide your credit card information.
if you want to proceed, you can email or postal mail me information and after i receive it, i will call you to set up a meeting at my office at one spring street, 4th floor, new brunswick, nj 08901.
thank you for considering me for this important issue in your life.
ed
engagement proposal for a thorough review of a client’s business and personal tax situation
this was sent after i met with the client. usually i charge for the initial consultation, but this was more business-oriented and it seemed like he had substantial issues, so i asked for an initial meeting, at no charge or obligation, before i could quote a fee.
dear client,
it was good meeting with you friday. this email presents a proposal for our services and i look forward to a long and satisfying professional relationship with you.
from the review of the information you provided i believe we can assist you in many ways – in accounting and financial reporting, tax planning and minimization, key employee benefit planning, business valuation services and assistance in developing ways to maximize the company’s value, financial planning and business consulting services.
at this time it is unlikely that we could estimate the exact services we will perform as the range is quite extensive. considerable work would be needed before we were in a position to make any concrete recommendations. with regard to our services, we have a preliminary plan that would provide an analysis of your overall tax situation including the c corporation status and consideration and implications of converting to an s corporation (we understand that you are on the cash basis, but a review is still in order); individual and business tax planning for the current year; tax implications raised in the valuation report we reviewed; discussion of repaying the stockholder’s loan; investment alternatives from a tax standpoint for the company’s cash; estate planning for you and development of a plan in the event of your untimely death or disability; a discussion of how your company’s value can be maximized; and immediate steps you can implement that would start to increase the value of your business and other services to be discussed when we start.
i recommend that our fee be based on our time charges and we will bill you monthly. bills would be payable in the month received by you, and we would not require a retainer to get started. please note that our initial year’s charges will be substantially greater than for later years as there will be an extensive beginning process. our rates vary based on the level of person working on your company. i will be the lead partner and will oversee and be responsible for our work and will be available to meet with you whenever you want, but i will not be performing many of the technical services. our hourly rates vary from $___ to $___ for professionals and partners. a range of our fees for the first year could be from $_______ to $_______. as you will be receiving monthly bills you would be able to monitor the aggregate fees. initially i will be spending most of the time and my rate is at the higher level. we will bill you for direct disbursements, if any, such as out-of-town travel or obtaining industry or economic reports but these will not include any of the usual expenses we would have in connection with working for you.
to get started we will need copies of your last two years’ individual tax returns and the corporate return for september 30, 20__ and copies of any other returns filed on your behalf during the last two years. we also will need copies of all previously filed gift tax returns if any and copies of any trust instruments that you have executed. we would like to review a draft of your will when it is prepared and before you sign it. we would also like copies of any designation of beneficiary forms you executed, particularly for the ira account that you mentioned at our meeting, and a copy of the most recent ira investment statement. effective immediately upon our engagement we would like to review any new contracts you engage in except those in the normal course of your business. however, drafts of any such contracts for more than one year’s duration should also be provided for our review.
please review this email and, if it meets with your approval, reply stating that. also arrange for the information to be sent to us. i will then call to set up a meeting with you. thank you for considering engaging us and i look forward to a long and successful relationship! if you have any questions, please call me – 732 890-3344.
ed
engagement proposal to offer a plan for a specific tax purpose
dear client,
it was a pleasure meeting the two of you friday. we believe we can offer solutions that would accomplish your objective of __________ receiving this consideration upon a complete sale of the organization as a long-term capital gain. we have a number of ideas and would research and present at least two of the most reasonable, viable and workable methods to you in summary format indicating the benefits, pitfalls, tax advantages, business issues and approximate costs and disruption, if any, to your present operation. you gave us an indication of your tax structure and will reply upon that in performing our work. if we reach a point where we feel it is necessary to receive additional information we will let you know. our fee for this project will be fixed at $________ and our services will be limited to the issue presented in this paragraph.
should you desire to go forward with one of our plans, we will be available to assist you further and will discuss pricing at that time along with the scope of what we would do. based upon our brief conversation we believe we can also assist you substantially in other issues regarding your business as it is now constituted, as it is projected to grow and for an exit strategy in various arrangements.
fyi, we are a highly regarded accounting firm and have the full resources to assist you in any manner necessary. you can find out additional information about us from our web-site www.withum.com and from web searches for our firm and edward mendlowitz and brian t. lovett.
we look forward to working with you. please call if you have any questions about this proposal.
ed