Our Process
We do not guess. We review the documents, propose, and implement.
Tax advisory only works when it starts with real numbers — your actual return, your actual statements. We review the documents first, build a picture of what may apply to your situation, and implement a plan on a proactive quarterly cadence. No guessing. No surprises in April.
Two Firms. One Relationship.
Why coordination between tax and investments matters
Most clients have a CPA and an investment advisor who never talk to each other. Tax decisions get made without investment context. Investment decisions get made without tax context. Both sides are doing their best with half the picture.
Total Wealth Tax Advisory
CPA / tax advisory
Our CPA firm. Full service — tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, CFO support — but the focus is proactive tax advisory throughout the year.
- Year-round tax planning and quarterly projections
- Federal and state return preparation
- Entity structure and compensation strategy
- Bookkeeping, payroll, and CFO support
- IRS and state notice response
Total Wealth Services, LLC
SEC-registered investment adviser
Our investment firm — a registered investment adviser, with client assets custodied at Schwab. Financial planning is the cornerstone of the practice.
- Financial planning as the cornerstone of the practice
- Portfolio management with client assets at Schwab
- Tax-aware investment positioning and account-type strategy
- Retirement distribution and withdrawal sequencing
- Equity compensation and concentrated-position analysis
Coordination is what makes it different.
When the tax team and the investment team see the same documents and meet together, decisions like account-type placement, Roth conversions, and tax-loss harvesting get made in context — not in a vacuum. Whether coordination across both firms is right for your situation depends on your specific facts. Many clients benefit from the CPA side alone; others benefit from the full picture.
The Process
Review. Propose. Implement.
Three steps, applied to every engagement. Simple in structure, deliberate in execution.
Step 01
Review the documents
We do not guess
Every proposal starts with the actual return and statements — not a questionnaire. We read the prior-year federal and state return to understand what elections were made, what was claimed, and where the opportunities may have been missed. We review W-2, 1099, and K-1 forms to understand the income stack. We look at investment statements to see account-type mix, cost basis, and asset location.
Documents do not lie. A conversation can. We start with the documents because that is the only way to give you an honest picture of what may apply to your situation — and what will not.
We do not guess. We review the documents, propose, and implement.
Step 02
Propose
Tax prep + advisory strategies that may apply
Once we have the documents, we build a proposal — not a pitch. The proposal identifies what we see in the return, describes the strategies that may apply to your specific situation, and explains what we would need to implement each one. Whether a strategy helps depends on your specific facts, timing, and documentation. We evaluate what applies honestly.
The proposal covers both the compliance side (accurate, defensible return preparation) and the advisory side (year-round tax planning, quarterly projections, and the strategy work that happens before the return is filed). We scope the engagement based on what we actually see — not on a generic package.
Step 03
Implement
Quarterly cadence, year-round
Proposals that sit in a drawer do nothing. We implement the plan on a quarterly cadence — structured check-ins at Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 — so the plan stays live and adjusts as your situation changes. Tax law changes. Your business changes. We revisit the plan as it evolves and make proactive moves before deadlines, not reactive ones after.
Compliance and strategy are executed by the same team. The advisor who built the plan prepares the return. That continuity is deliberate — it closes the gap between what was planned and what was filed.
The Quarterly Cadence
The goal is to change the outcome — not just report it
A tax return documents a year that's already over. Proactive planning happens in the months before it closes. That is the fundamental difference between a filing service and a tax advisory practice.
Prior-year close and projection reset
We finalize the prior-year return and reset the projection for the new year. Compensation decisions, retirement contributions, and any timing elections that carried over get resolved here.
Mid-year check and entity review
First estimated tax is behind us. We review income trajectory, check that the plan still fits, and address any mid-year transactions — a property sale, equity vesting, a new hire — before they create surprises.
Year-end strategy window opens
This is where proactive tax planning earns its keep. We model year-end projections, identify strategies that may still apply, and start executing the ones that require action before December 31.
Implementation and year-end decisions
Final acceleration. Retirement plan funding, Roth conversions, loss harvesting, last-minute entity actions. The goal is to enter the new year with nothing left on the table — not to discover in April what could have been done in November.
Worst case: we break the news in November. Best case: we change the outcome.
Most clients who come to us from other CPAs learned their tax liability in March or April — after the year was over and every deadline had passed. There was nothing left to do but pay.
Our quarterly cadence is designed to prevent that. By Q3 we know what the year looks like. By October we have identified the strategies that may still apply. By November and December we are executing — or, when the situation is what it is, at least giving you advance notice so you can plan your cash flow. No April surprises.
Whether the outcome can be improved depends on your specific facts and timing. That is precisely why we start early.
How We Charge
No hourly billing — call when decisions come up
The whole point of a tax advisor is to call when a decision has tax consequences. Hourly billing defeats that. If every conversation costs you something, you start to filter what you bring up.
We scope engagements as fixed arrangements after we review your documents. You know what you are paying before we start. And once we are engaged, you call when something comes up — a new hire, a real estate purchase, a business transaction, an equity vesting event — without watching the clock.
Pricing reflects your actual situation, not a generic package. A straightforward individual with a W-2 and a brokerage account is not the same engagement as an S-corp owner with real estate and a concentrated equity position. We scope accordingly after we see the documents.
No hourly billing
Fixed engagements scoped from your documents. No clock-watching. No filtered conversations.
Call when it matters
A decision that takes 15 minutes to discuss can save — or cost — far more than any hourly rate. Pick up the phone.
Document-first scoping
We review your return and statements before we propose an engagement. Pricing reflects what we actually see.
Proactive check-ins
Quarterly cadence built into the engagement. We reach out — you do not have to remember to call.
What We Review
The documents that drive the proposal
A proposal without documents is a guess. We ask for the same materials every time — because the answer to almost every tax question lives inside them.
Last filed federal and state return
We read the whole return — not just the bottom line. Prior-year choices, missed elections, and entity structure all show up here.
W-2, 1099, and K-1 forms
Compensation, investment income, and pass-through activity each carry their own planning levers. We need to see the actual forms.
Investment and brokerage statements
Cost basis, unrealized gains, and account-type mix inform both tax efficiency and investment positioning. The two sides see the same data.
Entity documents and operating agreements
Structure decisions — S-corp elections, ownership percentages, compensation arrangements — live in these documents. You cannot plan without them.
Payroll records and prior-year W-2s
Reasonable compensation, retirement plan contributions, and payroll-tax positions are all linked. We review what was actually paid.
Financials and prior bookkeeping
Clean books accelerate everything else. If yours need work, we can address that as part of the engagement.
Ready to start? Upload documents securely through the client portal.
Start a Document ReviewThe Team
Credentialed, coordinated, document-first
Every engagement is led by professionals who hold the credentials, carry the experience, and work from the same documents and plan — tax and investment, together.
Brandon Berman
CPA, CFP®
Founder & Principal Advisor
Brandon is a CPA and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional who leads the firm's tax advisory practice. He built Total Wealth Tax Advisory around a simple idea: tax decisions and investment decisions should not be made in a vacuum. His approach is document-first and proactive — review the actual return and statements, propose a plan, then implement it on a quarterly cadence so clients know where they stand well before year-end.
Joseph Gutierrez
CPA, PFS
CPA & Tax Advisor
Joseph is a CPA and Personal Financial Specialist who works alongside Brandon on tax preparation and advisory engagements. He focuses on accurate, defensible reporting for complex situations — brokerage and K-1 income, real estate, and multi-entity business owners — and on translating the plan into clean implementation.
Niko Giannakopoulos
MBA
Wealth Advisor
Niko coordinates the planning relationship on the wealth-management side, helping clients connect their tax strategy to broader financial decisions — cash flow, retirement, equity compensation, and major transactions. He keeps the client experience clear and the process moving from first conversation through proposal.
The Platform
Best-in-class infrastructure — purpose-built for advisory
We built the tech stack around the engagement model: secure document exchange, a professional-grade planning platform, and investment custody at Schwab — connected, not stitched together.
Where to Start
Four ways to engage — at any level of friction
There is no wrong starting point. Read the site, take the assessment, book a call, or upload documents. Each step gives us more to work with and gives you more clarity.
1 — Read
Learn the approach
Browse the site to understand how we think about tax — as a year-round planning problem, not a once-a-year filing obligation. Read the services pages and the blog.
See our services2 — Assess
Take the assessment
The five-minute discovery assessment helps us understand your situation before we ever talk. It covers your entity type, income profile, and where you feel the friction.
Start the assessment3 — Book
Book a discovery call
A 20-minute conversation with a credentialed advisor. We review what you shared, tell you what we'd evaluate, and are honest if there isn't enough complexity to justify a full engagement.
Book a discovery call4 — Review
Start a document review
Ready to get specific? Upload your last return, W-2/1099/K-1s, and investment statements through the secure portal. We review the actual documents and come back with a concrete proposal.
Start document reviewCommon Questions
What people ask before they engage
Answers to the questions that come up most often on a first call.
Tax preparation documents a year that's already over. Tax advisory is proactive — almost like financial planning for taxes. We meet throughout the year, build projections, and evaluate which strategies may apply, so you understand your position before year-end.
Yes. Our office is in Westlake Village, but we work with clients across the country. Document exchange happens through a secure portal, and meetings are by phone or video.
We do not bill hourly — you should call us when decisions come up, not avoid calls because the clock is running. Engagements are scoped after we review your documents.
Typically your last filed federal and state return, current-year tax forms (W-2/1099/K-1), and — if we're going to be holistic — investment statements so we can see cost basis and inefficiencies. We review the documents first, then propose.
No. We can often identify inefficiencies, but whether a strategy helps depends on your specific facts, timing, and documentation. We use can/may/depends language deliberately, and we'll tell you if there isn't enough value.
Not at all. We respect existing relationships and never try to infringe on them. To be holistic we like to see the full picture — and sometimes we can offer tidbits you can take back to your current advisor.
Let's start with the documents.
Book a 20-minute discovery call or upload your last return and we'll tell you exactly what we'd evaluate — and be honest if there isn't enough complexity to justify a full engagement.