What Financial Advisers Are Telling Rich Clients About Biden’s Tax Hike
Top earners are seeking guidance before their rates on capital gains rise—and they’re being told to buckle up.
President Joe Biden’s proposal to roughly double the capital-gains tax for the rich has put financial advisers in the unusual position of acting as part therapist and part fortune teller. Frantic calls are coming in from clients surprised to see that what they’d dismissed as rhetoric from the 2020 election campaign has come out this week as concrete White House proposals.
Advisers are telling them to keep calm, but they’re also counseling to prepare for action—bringing forward planned asset sales, shedding stock, reallocating investments, and even restructuring income. “Don’t do anything drastic just yet,” Ed Reitmeyer, a partner at accounting company Marcum LLP, is telling his clients. “The world isn’t over because of a higher capital-gains tax rate.”