For CPAs and tax professionals
You have the history.
We have the year in between.
Baldwin Financial is a fee-only fiduciary adviser in Oklahoma City. On a shared client we sit inside the accounts through the year, model decisions while they can still move, and send you a written record of every one before you open the file. We do not prepare returns, we do not file, and no money changes hands in either direction.
We never touch the returnBaldwin Financial does not prepare or file tax returns and does not practice law. There is no version of this where we end up doing your work.
No referral fees, either directionWe do not pay for an introduction and we do not accept payment for one. Nothing you send us, or we send you, carries a cheque behind it.
Fiduciary and fee-onlyOklahoma registered investment adviser, CRD #324725. Paid one way, an advisory fee from the client, never a commission.
It runs both waysEvery client has a village of advisers, and you are already in it. Our clients who need a CPA are introduced to firms we trust, on the same terms: no fee, no expectation, no strings.
How does a fee-only adviser work alongside a CPA on tax planning?
By splitting the year from the return. Baldwin Financial does the forward work between January and December, when a conversion, a distribution, a sale or a gift can still be moved, then delivers a written summary of those decisions to the CPA before filing season. Baldwin Financial does not prepare or file returns and receives no compensation for referrals in either direction.
Source: IRS, Retirement Plans · SEC, Investor.gov
The window
Most of the number is settled before the file is ever opened.
A return is a faithful record. By the time it is accurate, the year that produced it has closed, and most of what could have moved the number was decided months earlier, inside transactions nobody was asked about at the time.
That is a calendar problem, not an expertise problem. You know exactly what to do with a conversion window. We happen to be sitting in the accounts in October, close enough to raise it while it is still a decision. Neither seat covers that stretch alone, which is the entire reason to know each other.
Still live in October
- How much to convert, and whether this year beats the next three
- Which account a distribution comes from
- Which lots get sold, and in which tax year
- Whether realized gains meet harvested losses
- Charitable timing, and whether it is cash or appreciated stock
- Owner compensation, entity elections and plan funding
Settled once the year closes
- Last year’s bracket, and any room in it that went unused
- A conversion not made by December 31
- A gain realized in the wrong year
- A distribution taken from the wrong account
- A gift made in cash when stock carried a decade of basis
- A plan contribution the deadline already closed
The work
What that means, specifically.
Withdrawal sequencing
Across taxable, tax-deferred and Roth, planned against the bracket rather than improvised in the month the cash is needed.
Multi-year conversion analysis
Modeled forward instead of decided in December, so the client sees what filling a bracket this year costs or saves across the horizon.
Gain and loss timing
Including concentrated positions and which year is the right one to unwind them.
Charitable strategy
Bunching, donor-advised funds and appreciated stock, where the client’s giving and the tax year actually line up.
Owner compensation and entity coordination
Salary against distributions, entity choice and retirement plan design, looked at as one decision rather than three.
The January handoff
Everything above, written down and sent to you before the season starts.
How the work holds up
Every figure we send you can be traced back.
We run AI-assisted tax software across the documents a situation actually turns on: returns, statements, paystubs, live custodial data, the notes from the meetings. It models years forward, re-models when an input moves, and keeps the household picture current instead of rebuilding it every January.
What should matter to you is not the software. It is that the output carries its sources. Every number in what we send has a line back to the document it came from, so you are checking our work rather than taking it.
And none of it decides anything. A person reads every finding, discards most of them, and signs their name to what is left. Your client gets the benefit of all that without you adding a platform to your stack or a seat to your team.
What it reads
- 1040s
- Paystubs
- Account statements
- Custodial data, live
- Meeting notes and correspondence
What it produces
- Multi-year projections
- What-if scenarios, updated as the inputs move
- An exportable written summary
- A traceable line back to every figure
Where the data goes
The platforms we use hold zero-data-retention agreements with their model providers. Client information is not kept by them and is not used to train anything.
In January
What lands on your desk.
One document, in your hands before the season starts, so the file is complete the first time you open it.
Every planning decision, with its date
What was done, when it was done, and the reasoning behind it, in the order it happened.
Conversions, with amounts and rationale
What was converted, into what, and the bracket logic it was sized against.
Realized gains and losses, by strategy
Which sales were harvesting, which were rebalancing, and which were a client decision we did not drive.
Charitable gifts, including basis
Appreciated stock identified with its cost basis and holding period, rather than left for you to chase.
Plan contributions and owner compensation
Retirement plan funding and any change to how an owner was paid, with the entity it ran through.
What we considered and chose not to do
The strategies we looked at and rejected, and why. Silence in a file is worse than a rejected idea with a reason next to it.
Questions we get
Asked often enough to answer here.
Will you end up preparing our clients’ returns?
No. Baldwin Financial does not prepare or file tax returns, does not sign them, and does not take positions on them. That is not a policy we could quietly change either: it is what we tell every client and what our Form ADV describes. The return, the positions taken on it, and your relationship with that client stay yours.
Is there a referral fee, in either direction?
No. We do not pay for introductions and we do not accept payment for ours. If that ever changed we would put it in writing and disclose it to the client at the point of introduction, because that is what the rules require. Today there is nothing to disclose.
What stops you from taking the client?
Structure, not a promise. You hold the filing history and the judgment behind every position on the return. We hold the accounts and the planning calendar. A client with both of us is harder to move, not easier, and the fastest way for us to lose a CPA relationship is to be caught reaching for work that is yours.
The client already has an advisor. Is this a conversation?
Only if the client wants it to be. We are happy to be a second read on a specific question and leave it there. We would rather be useful once than push a relationship nobody asked for.
Are you giving my client tax advice?
We model what a decision would do across several years and put the options in front of the client. Anything that turns on a filing position, an interpretation, or the return itself goes to you, because that call is yours to make and not ours. The platforms themselves do not provide tax advice either, and their output stays informational until a person has worked through it.
Is an AI touching my client’s information?
The platform reads documents and models scenarios, and Altruist holds zero-data-retention agreements with the model providers behind it, so nothing is kept by them or used to train a model. Every finding is reviewed by a person before it reaches the client or you.
What do you need from us to start?
Usually nothing. We work from the client’s own documents and the last two returns they give us. If you would rather send a projection or flag something you are watching, that shortens the work, but there is no intake packet coming your way.
Where are the assets held?
With an unaffiliated qualified custodian, in the client’s own name. Our primary custodian is Altruist Financial, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Baldwin Financial never takes custody.
Two ways to start
Take the checklist. Or send us one client.
The checklist is the year-end coordination list we work from, written so you can use it with your own clients whether or not we ever speak. No form, no email required.
If you would rather test us on a real situation, send one client and watch what comes back in January. That is the only pitch we have.
Or write to hello@baldwin.financial. Jeremy answers CPA notes himself, usually the same day.
An invitation
Send one client.
Judge us on what arrives in January.
A complimentary conversation, about thirty minutes, by video, phone, or in person in downtown Oklahoma City. Nothing to prepare and nothing to bring.
What the thirty minutes look like
- 01
You talk. What you own, what you owe, who depends on you, and whatever is coming up that you have not solved yet.
- 02
We tell you what we see. The two or three things we would look at first, and why those and not the rest.
- 03
You decide, on your own time. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you toward someone who is.
Or reach us directly
- Phone
- (405) 266-7856
- Serving
- Oklahoma City, Edmond, and clients who have moved away
Baldwin Financial, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the State of Oklahoma. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Baldwin Financial, LLC does not prepare or file tax returns, does not practice law, and does not draft legal documents; tax compliance and legal work remain with the client’s own CPA and attorney. Baldwin Financial, LLC neither pays nor receives compensation for client referrals. Altruist Financial, LLC and Hazel are unaffiliated with Baldwin Financial, LLC, and naming them is not an endorsement or a testimonial; their capabilities are theirs, are evolving, and may change. Neither Altruist nor Hazel provides tax, legal or investment advice, and platform output is informational and reviewed by a person before it is issued. Descriptions of the planning process are not a guarantee that every opportunity, deadline or risk will be identified, and nothing on this page is a guarantee of any tax outcome. Advisory services are provided only after a written agreement is executed.