DALLAS, May 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avantax®, a leader in tax-focused financial planning and wealth management, continued to have a robust recruiting pipeline during the first quarter as growth-minded Financial Professionals and accounting firms look to leverage Avantax’s value proposition of serving clients at the intersection of tax and wealth management.

“Financial Professionals are telling us they’ve plateaued where they are, they’re not getting the referrals they expected, and their growth has stalled out. They see Avantax’s deep network of CPAs and tax professionals as a significant growth opportunity,” said Tim Stewart, VP and Head of Business Development at Avantax. “Another industry reality is that M&A has created a lot of noise, disruption and uncertainty, so advisors are looking for a stable broker-dealer partner, and that’s helping fill our recruiting pipeline.”

Stewart added that succession planning is becoming a more frequent focus of advisors who are considering transferring to Avantax.

“Advisors work extremely hard to grow their firms into valuable businesses, and they want to know that there are solid succession plans in place for their planned retirement or if something unforeseen were to happen,” Stewart said. “Avantax helps Financial Professionals with every aspect of succession planning, whether they’re selling to a family member, a partner, another Financial Professional or to Avantax, succession planning means their life’s work can be properly valued, their families can be protected, and their clients will continue to receive the tax-focused financial planning they rely on, without interruption.”

During the first quarter, 54 independent Financial Professionals affiliated with Avantax, including Walter “Wally” Pardo, CWS®️, PPC™ and his New Jersey-based Wealth Financial Partners LLC team. Pardo transferred to Avantax after being affiliated with Independent Financial Group for nine years. He was referred by a current Avantax Financial Professional.

“From the beginning, the language I heard from Avantax was all about tax mitigation and proactive tax planning on behalf of clients, which is my world already, so that was incredibly important,” said Pardo, CEO of Wealth Financial Partners. “There aren’t many broker-dealers that embrace tax like Avantax does, and I like that they’re standing behind their tax strategy and that they proactively take that tax-focused approach to their advisors in a very positive way.”

Financial Professionals are transferring to Avantax from a variety of channels, including large broker-dealers, RIAs and regional firms.

Avantax also continued successfully recruiting accounting firms to its employee-based RIA model (which Avantax refers to as Avantax Planning Partners℠) with nine new affiliates across five new accounting firms. Avantax expects a continued strong pipeline of prospective accounting firm affiliates in 2023.

Tax and accounting professionals entering wealth management for the first time are also choosing Avantax because they continue to see the need to obtain the licensing and education so they can directly provide tax-advantaged financial planning and wealth management services instead of referring clients to a local banker or broker who might not view investments with tax implications in mind.

Tax and Financial Professionals can learn more about Avantax by clicking here.

About Avantax®
Avantax, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVTA) delivers tax-focused financial planning and wealth management solutions for Financial Professionals, tax professionals and CPA firms, supporting our goal of minimizing clients’ tax burdens through comprehensive tax-focused financial planning. We have two distinct, but related, models within our business: the independent Financial Professional model and the employee-based model. We refer to our independent Financial Professional model as Avantax Wealth Management®. Avantax Wealth Management offers services through its registered broker-dealer, registered investment advisor (RIA), and insurance agency subsidiaries and is a leading U.S. tax-focused independent broker-dealer that works with a nationwide network of Financial Professionals operating as independent contractors. We refer to our employee-based model as Avantax Planning Partners℠. Avantax Planning Partners offers services through its RIA and insurance agency by partnering with CPA firms to provide their consumer and small-business clients with holistic financial planning and advisory services. Collectively, we had $80.6 billion in total client assets as of March 31, 2023. For additional information, please visit us at www.avantax.com. You can also find us on LinkedIn.

Media Contacts:
Tony Katsulos
Avantax, Inc.
(972) 870-6654
tony.katsulos@avantax.com

Kendra Galante
StreetCred PR for Avantax, Inc.
(402) 740-2047
kendra@streetcredpr.com
avantax@streetcredpr.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Dee Littrell
Avantax, Inc.
(972) 870-6463
IR@avantax.com