
Ask HN: How to find good financial/tax advice person after liquidity event - anonthrowaway84
Hey, posting this under a throwaway for obvious reasons. Had a liquidity event happen recently which netted me a few hundred K. I&#x27;m excited about it but have no idea what to do with it! I mean, I have some ideas, but don&#x27;t want to mess this up either from a tax&#x2F;future standpoint.<p>I&#x27;m fairly young and have literally no friends that this has happened to, so I don&#x27;t even know who to ask for advice or recommendations.<p>If you had to find a financial adviser, tax adviser, or basically someone to give advice on all of this from scratch, what would you do? Also what kind of questions would you ask candidates?<p>If it helps, I&#x27;m based out of New York.
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dsacco
Congratulations. I'm surprised this question has sat for seven hours without
an answer.

I'm based in New York and found myself in a similar situation some time ago.
Note that an accountant (taxes) and a financial advisor (investments) are very
different.

Personally, I have an accountant for navigating tax returns, but I do not have
a financial advisor, as I prefer to manage my own investments and holdings. I
used to have one, but found it unnecessary after I taught myself more about
investing and trading.

If you are in the NYC area and don't mind a ~40 minute drive on the Taconic
once or twice a year, I can recommend a good accountant for you. You can stay
fully anonymous with me personally if you want, just email me anonymously.

For more general advice - you usually want to find such services through a
referral. Even if none of your friends have had this happen to them, you will
probably have folks tied to your company who can help. Try the founders of
your company, or the investors. They'll likely have good direction for you.

I do recommend that you find someone who is willing to be educational and
welcomes a collaborative partnership instead of someone who will just tell you
what to do without explaining the benefits of various courses of action. If
you decide to get a financial advisor, try to find one who will charge a flat
fee.

As far as questions go - ask your accountant what experience they have with
liquidity events and varying streams of income. You want an accountant who is
comfortable helping folks that aren't just filing traditional tax returns with
one source of full-time income.

For financial advisors, the single best question I have is about returns. Ask
potential advisors what returns you can expect through them. If they guarantee
a specific return, don't work with them. If they guarantee a return that beats
the S&P 500, also don't work with them.

Good luck.

~~~
kspaans
> For financial advisors, the single best question I have is about returns.
> Ask potential advisors what returns you can expect through them. If they
> guarantee a specific return, don't work with them. If they guarantee a
> return that beats the S&P 500, also don't work with them.

Good advice! But small nitpick: when asking about returns remember to say
"after fees". A fund that tracks the S&P500 will cost you about 0.05% of
assets per year. Some other funds that try to be fancy, or advisors who manage
your portfolio may charge you 1% of assets per year. A fund will often have a
"benchmark index" that it is trying to match or beat (such as the S&P500). Ask
about performance relative to this benchmarket.

