Three engagement levels.
One transparent
fee philosophy
The right engagement scope depends on the household's complexity, the depth of integration needed, and how much of the architecture is being built versus maintained. This page describes the three levels qualitatively, without dollar figures, so you can identify which fits your situation before booking the discovery call.
Posting a fixed price table would either overstate the engagement for simple situations or understate it for complex ones. Neither is honest. The qualitative description does the work that a price tag would do badly.
What is committed: fees are calibrated to engagement scope, quoted in writing before any work begins, and structured so the year-one savings recovered are typically a multiple of the year-one fee. The complimentary 30-minute Strategy Session and the opportunity report that follows are both free. Pricing for the formal engagement is only quoted after both sides have agreed on scope.
Calibrated to the work, not to the assets
Most advisory fees fall into one of two structures, a percentage of assets under management (the wealth-manager model) or a flat hourly rate (the legal model). Neither is the right structure for what MicroTax does.
The AUM fee structure scales with what the client owns, not with what the advisor does. A $5M household pays roughly twice what a $2M household pays for substantially identical coordination work. The structural problem with this → is that the fee is uncorrelated with the value being created, and the work that's most economically supported is the work that retains AUM, not the work that maximizes after-tax outcomes.
The flat hourly structure has the opposite problem. It bills time, not outcomes, and creates a disincentive to do the deep planning work that produces the largest dollar impact. Hours spent designing a §7702 architecture are billable; hours spent thinking quietly about whether that's the right architecture are harder to bill.
The MicroTax fee structure is calibrated to engagement scope, what's being built, what's being maintained, how much specialist coordination is involved, and how much of the architecture is integrated work versus periodic review. The fee reflects the work performed, not the assets under management.
What this produces, in practice: a $2M household with high complexity (multi-state, business interests, equity exposure) pays more than a $5M household with simple W-2 income and a single brokerage account. Both pay less than they would for an equivalent AUM-fee engagement on the same scope. The fee follows the work.
What is committed: fees are quoted in writing before any work begins, the year-one savings target is articulated up front, and engagement scope is reviewed annually against the architecture's evolution.
The year-one fee is typically a small fraction of the year-one tax recovery. By design. An engagement structure that costs more than what it produces would not survive a thoughtful client conversation, and shouldn't.
Each level, in detail
The three engagement levels are described qualitatively here, what's included, what cadence the work happens at, and which level fits which situation. Pricing is quoted once scope is agreed.
Proactive Tax Strategy
The entry-level engagement. Year-round proactive tax planning, projection, quarterly review, year-end planning sweep, filing coordination. Most clients begin here and stay for several years before migrating to deeper levels. The work that pays for everything that follows.
See Foundational detail ↓
Tax + Retirement + Wealth Coordination
Foundational layer plus full retirement architecture (including §7702 where applicable), wealth coordination across accounts, and annual estate document review. The integration discipline begins here. Suits households ready to operate as one architecture rather than several separate engagements.
See Comprehensive detail ↓
The Complete Virtual Family Office
Comprehensive plus fractional CFO (for business owners), full specialist network coordination, estate architecture ownership, continuous integration, and the complete VFO operating model. The VFO model → in active use.
See VFO-Full detail ↓
Three engagement levels, one model
Before the per-level detail below, here's the full ladder in one view. Most clients begin at Foundational and migrate up as the architecture builds.
Foundational
Proactive tax strategy
Year-round tax planning. Projection, quarterly review, year-end sweep. The entry point that anchors most engagements.
Comprehensive
Tax + retirement + wealth
Foundational plus integrated retirement architecture, asset-location optimization, and the §7702 TFRA layer where it fits.
VFO-Full
Complete coordination
The full Virtual Family Office: tax, retirement, wealth, estate, insurance, fractional CFO, all coordinated under one relationship.
Proactive Tax Strategy, in detail
The entry-level engagement is built around proactive year-round tax planning, the work most clients begin with and the foundation for everything else.
What's included
- Year-start tax projection (built in January, updated each quarter)
- Quarterly estimated-payment sizing against actual marginal rate
- Entity review (S-Corp election analysis for qualifying self-employed)
- Retirement contribution maximization across all available accounts
- Equity-event planning (RSU, ISO, ESPP timing, where applicable)
- November year-end planning sweep, full opportunity inventory before December 31
- Filing coordination (MicroTax-prepared or coordinated with your existing CPA)
- Email and 24-hour-response support throughout the year
- Annual scope review against the F.A.S.T. progression
Who this fits
Households at $300K–$600K income with single-source W-2, modest complexity, and a clear desire to move from compliance-only to proactive planning. Most engagements start here.
Cadence
Quarterly structured calls plus continuous email engagement. November planning sweep is the deepest cadence point in the year. Year-one work front-loaded; year-two onward stabilizes into maintenance plus event-driven work.
Year-one outcome target
Typical Foundational engagements identify $20K–$50K of year-one tax recovery across the available foundational strategies. The fee is structured so this recovery exceeds the engagement cost by a meaningful multiple.
Natural progression
Most Foundational clients move to Comprehensive in year two or three, typically when the §7702 layer becomes worth designing or when wealth coordination becomes necessary as net worth grows.
Tax + Retirement + Wealth Coordination, in detail
The mid-tier engagement adds the §7702 retirement layer, wealth coordination, and annual estate review to the Foundational tax work, and begins to operate as one integrated architecture.
What's included (in addition to Foundational)
- §7702 TFRA design and implementation (where applicable)
- Defined benefit / cash balance plan analysis (for qualifying business owners and partners)
- Wealth coordination architecture document (the integrated picture)
- Asset-location optimization across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth
- Roth conversion sequencing strategy
- Tax-loss harvesting against actual annual tax position
- Annual estate document review (with partner-attorney drafting as needed)
- Beneficiary designation and titling audit
- Charitable structure design (DAF, CRT, direct asset gifting)
- Quarterly integration review across all domains
Who this fits
Households at $500K–$1M+ income, multi-source income (W-2 plus equity, or W-2 plus business, or multiple equity sources), net worth approaching or exceeding $2M, and at least one source of structural complexity beyond simple W-2.
Cadence
Quarterly structured calls covering all domains together, not separate calls for tax, retirement, and wealth. Annual deep-dive in November covering year-end planning and architecture review. Event-driven work as life circumstances change.
Year-one outcome target
Typical Comprehensive engagements identify $40K–$80K of year-one tax recovery plus meaningful structural improvements (asset location optimization, §7702 implementation, defined benefit setup where applicable). Multi-year compounding impact is typically a multiple of year-one.
When to move up
Comprehensive clients move to VFO-Full when business ownership reaches $1M+ revenue (triggering Fractional CFO needs), when specialist coordination across multiple network partners is in active use, or when estate architecture moves from periodic review to continuous ownership.
The Complete VFO, in detail
The deepest engagement runs the full Virtual Family Office model, continuous integration across tax, retirement, wealth, estate, fractional CFO (where applicable), and the curated specialist partner network.
What's included (in addition to Comprehensive)
- Fractional CFO services (for business owners at $1M–$10M revenue)
- 13-week rolling cash forecast (for business owners)
- Monthly board-ready financial package (for business owners)
- Continuous estate architecture ownership (not periodic review)
- Active specialist network coordination (estate attorneys, insurance designers, investment specialists)
- Pre-event planning windows actively managed (liquidity events, exits, generational transfers)
- Architecture document continuously updated as life events occur
- Monthly check-ins minimum; weekly during pre-event windows
- Dedicated senior advisor as primary point of contact
Who this fits
Households at $1M+ income or $2M+ net worth with growth trajectory, business owners at $1M+ revenue, families with multi-generational planning horizons, and households approaching meaningful liquidity events. The VFO service page → covers the full eligibility framing.
Cadence
Monthly structured calls covering the full integrated picture. Weekly check-ins during pre-event windows. Continuous email and Slack-equivalent engagement. Specialist coordination handled by the MicroTax team, not the client.
What changes from Comprehensive
The shift is from "integrated quarterly engagement" to "continuous ownership." The architecture document is alive, not periodically refreshed. The specialist network is actively coordinated, not engaged as needed. The relationship operates more like an in-house family-office director than a quarterly advisor.
When this isn't the right fit
If the integration discipline isn't being actively used, if the household isn't yet in a stage where monthly engagement produces meaningfully different outcomes than quarterly, VFO-Full is over-engineered for the situation. Comprehensive is a better fit. We're honest about this when scoping; over-selling the level produces a worse client outcome than rightsizing.
What's free, what isn't
The path from initial conversation to formal engagement is structured so both sides see the math before any commitment.
| Stage | What it includes | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery call | 30-minute structured conversation. Review of your full picture, identification of top opportunities, F.A.S.T. stage assessment. | Free |
| Opportunity report | Written summary delivered within a week. Ranked list of applicable strategies with dollar-impact ranges. Yours to keep whether or not you engage. | Free |
| Engagement scoping | Recommendation of the right engagement level, what the year-one work would include, and the year-one outcome target. | Free |
| Engagement quote | Written fee proposal for the recommended scope. Reviewed and agreed before any commitment. | Free to receive |
| Formal engagement | The work begins. Year-one fee structured against year-one savings target. | Quoted scope |
The first four stages cost nothing. The fifth stage, formal engagement, is the point at which a fee is owed. We try to make the decision easy by ensuring you see all four free stages before being asked to commit.
What we don't include
Most engagement-model pages list inclusions. The exclusions matter just as much, possibly more, because they prevent misaligned expectations after signing.
Excluded from all levels
- Daily bookkeeping or payroll processing. The bookkeeper's domain, not ours.
- Legal drafting. Trust and estate documents go through partner attorneys, not MicroTax directly.
- Insurance product sales. §7702 design happens through licensed insurance specialists in the network; we don't carry the product license ourselves.
- Investment custody. Where MicroTax manages assets directly, custody happens through partner fiduciary platforms.
Conditional exclusions
- Tax return preparation is included in some engagements and routed to partner CPAs in others. The right answer depends on the existing CPA relationship and the client's preference.
- Direct investment management is included in some VFO-Full engagements where the client doesn't have an existing wealth-manager relationship; coordinated with the existing advisor where they do.
- Fractional CFO services are only offered to existing MicroTax clients with $1M–$10M revenue businesses, not as a standalone service.