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A comment on The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares Banks. Parent comment

Re:The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares... by akavi on Sunday February 07, 2016 @10:45AM (#11053222)
While I understand (and agree with) the sentiment, I'm not sure it's 100% true. $50 million might be in the range where complicated tax minimization maneuvers start to become tenable, and you won't get help doing that from a $200 fee-only adviser.

Maybe call the upper limit ~$10 million?

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Re:The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares... by prostoalex on Monday February 08, 2016 @12:29AM (#11056497)
Most of the maneuvers at that level aren't that complicated. Harvested long-term capital gains on equities side, municipals on the income side, depreciation on the real estate side.

The crazy income optimization schemes you hear about mainly circle around windfall earnings in areas like finance and private equity. US already taxes investment proceeds at favorable rates, and there's no inherent tax on wealth, if the recipient doesn't start working, his income picture won't be too complicated.

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Re:The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares... by zeckalpha on Sunday February 07, 2016 @11:02AM (#11053280)
https://www.betterment.com/tax-loss-harvesting/
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Re:The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares... by lucisferre on Sunday February 07, 2016 @01:03PM (#11053887)
Tax loss harvesting doesn't have that big of an impact for most people, and has little to do with the detailed tax planning that high net worth individuals expect from the firms they work with.

It also only impacts non-tax advantaged accounts and investments and provides much less value than advertised. In fact iirc Betterment's own white paper on this demonstrated it's expected savings to be far less than what Wealthfront was marketing at the time.

http://www.etf.com/sections/blog/23212-inside-robo-advisor-t...

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Re:The Rich Are Already Using Robo-Advisers, and That Scares... by delazeur on Sunday February 07, 2016 @11:47AM (#11053490)
Sure, but that's the low-hanging fruit of tax avoidance.
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