Episode 4: Accounting, Elevated with Guest Owen Pryor

In this episode, Owen Pryor of Evans May Advisory shares his journey in the financial services industry, the innovative structure of his CPA firm, and the importance of client service. Owen emphasizes leveraging technology to enhance client engagement and the evolving needs of clients in today's market. The discussion also covers the significance of quarterly planning in light of recent tax law changes, the value of partnering with Align Tax for specialty tax services, and strategies for talent acquisition and firm growth. Owen shares insights on community engagement and the future plans for Evans May Advisory, highlighting their commitment to providing exceptional service.

Takeaways

• Owen has been in the financial services industry since 2006.
• Owens May Advisory aims to provide a unique approach to CPA services.
• They do not track billable hours, focusing instead on value-added services.
• Leveraging technology is key to enhancing client communication.
• Quarterly planning is essential for effective tax strategy.
• Clients prefer a seamless transition between CPA and wealth management services.
• The firm is focused on community engagement and providing affordable space for not-for-profits.
• Talent acquisition is a priority, with a focus on work-life harmony.
• The firm is excited about their new office and growth opportunities.

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Transcript

Craig Fouts 0:21

You're listening to Tax Savvy, the art and science of keeping more money in your pocket. Each episode, we uncover specialty tax strategies, share expert advice, and talk through practical insights businesses use to stay ahead. Whether you're here to learn more about specialty tax or just want to make smarter money moves, you're in the right place. Welcome to Tax Savvy. I'm Craig Fouts, and today we're joined by Owen Pryor, who leads a tax and accounting practice within Evans May Advisory, a firm with a legacy of serving families, business owners, and entrepreneurs with a true family office approach. Evans May has built a reputational white glove service with proactive planning, integrating tax and accounting all under one roof. We're excited to talk about how Evans May continues to evolve, the work Owen is leading inside the firm, and how we collaborate with them. Owen, thanks for being on the podcast. you're certainly welcome. Thanks for having me on. Of course, man. We always just love to have interesting guests on, love to hear their stories about their businesses, you know, and in some way show value of, you know, maybe the different approach that we you guys do treating clients. And we'll get into that in a little bit. But you know, glad we can meet up and get this done today.

Owen Pryor 1:28

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Craig Fouts 1:29

Yeah. So, you know, start things off. If you can, you know, tell us a little bit about your journey, how you ended up maybe at Evans May, and you know, go we'll go from there.

Owen Pryor 1:36

Sure. Um, so I've been in the financial services industry since about 2006. Got my start in banking through college, and then switched over into public accounting in 2008, um, and have seen um a lot of different ways to uh run a firm, how the processes should go from anywhere from small mom and pop CPA firms all the way to the a top 10 uh firm as far as uh a local firm here. Um and I've really tried to take that uh experience uh and along with my partner Steve Blake pull apart what a traditional CPA firm is and put it back together in a more unique way. We often like to think about you know, these CPA firms nowadays are like the Titanic. They can see the iceberg, and now we're a little speedboat, kind of run circles around them based on our flexibility and our the agile way in which we're leveraging you know, hires, we're leveraging technology. Uh that's really uh where we are right now. Uh we've had a really good response in the market here recently.

Craig Fouts 2:42

Yeah, absolutely. So when we met, you know, I both of our firms were in a similar position, I guess you could say, you know, we're we're both getting our feet wet, uh really building the foundations of our businesses. And I'm really glad we have the same approach to client service of the white glove approach, so to speak. It's amazing to hear that you guys are having a really positive reception from your client base. Oh, if you can, you know, how tell me about a little bit how you guys have structured your firm to basically be able to have you and Steve go out and provide that advisory type role in wet glove service to your guys' clients. Yeah.

Owen Pryor 3:16

So we we've done, you know, through that process of pulling apart what a CPA firm does, we've identified um what we call just a barrier to communication with our clients. Uh and providing the white glove service, you know, really sets our clients up to feel like we want them to communicate. So we do this in a number of ways. We do have collaborative hires that help take things off of our plate. And then we also leverage technology, and then we also don't track our time. So a traditional CPA firm, you know, you call them and they're penciling in you know, 0.25 and then sending a client a bill. Uh traditional firm, like a partner, a director, they're gonna spend a calendar week every single month doing what I would consider not a value add service, which is spending time billing, tracking budgets, and that's not at all a value add in in the client's perspective. Sure. So the way we do it is we uh approach each client within a unique uh a la carte service offering. We identify a couple different tiers to allow them some flexibility, and then they can pick from a menu of our services that best fits their needs if there's a business or if they're a family. Um and the way that we've really understood is we're harvesting our time with some of the steps we're saving and then pouring that back into our clients.

Craig Fouts 4:34

Nice. Yeah, with the technology and process standpoint, you know, how has been the investment there? Have you guys been able to streamline a lot of the standard things that might be called time wasters? Um, you know, what have you guys been able to do to invest there? Like what's been some significant things you've been able to handle? The no billable hour thing is amazing. Our firm doesn't do it either. And you know, what I've always found is number one, people will just create billable hours because they have these minimum goals to hit and maybe not always be correct. No, we've never done that, right? Never, not in our firm. Never, never. And uh, you know, number two is you know, I've always loved a more task approach. Right. Um, you know, doing what needs to get done for the client to ensure they have that fantastic level of service. Um, so is that how you guys are approaching, just maybe with your staff and your team of, hey, you have this a la carte service or you know, array of services. Here's what needs to get done for each of these. Let's go get it done and make sure we're communicating throughout the year. Is that kind of the approach what you guys are thinking? Yeah.

Owen Pryor 5:30

So essentially what we use, we we have a uh a software that we found out in the market. We we spent months researching, interviewing, going through all of the nuts and bolts and service lines, and we've picked one and we've rolled that out to our client base and had just a great uh response. It's easy to use, there's a mobile app that's been key. So I've I've had clients go to charity events and they win a silent auction and they're taking a picture and uploading that so they don't have to worry about it yet.

Speaker 3 5:59

Nice.

Owen Pryor 6:00

So the ease of use leveraging technology, and then again, some of our collaborative hires they can actually run point if they have a question about a process, a deliverable, or the mobile app, we have point of contacts for people, and it's not just bottlenecked with one advisor or one professional. So that's really the key there is to make sure that there's not a bottleneck happening and then understanding that true value is getting to know the clients. So we've had so many countless wins here when you know we're having a conversation and just catching up, and we come to find out that there was a family uh member that was about to sell a property and they were in their 90s, and we said, hang on, hang on, let's let's let's chat through this. Do you guys have an estate planning attorney? And then we actually walked them through a better way to handle this transaction and save them multiple six figures and taxes because there was no reason to sell before you know that person you know needed to give his his um uh decedents um a step up and basis through an estate.

Craig Fouts 7:05

Right, yeah. So well, cool. That's exactly the type of advisory and things that are huge wins. Um, if you're bogged down just by the compliance work, trying with the bottlenecks, would that have been found? Probably not, right?

Owen Pryor 7:19

No, and and you know, I've brought you on several cases. You know, we picked up a new client that uh they were doing their own taxes, and this is like so traditional for someone, you know, that the turbo tax warrior, um, and they were running some rental properties, and they didn't realize that they could depreciate your property. So brought you in. We had a quick call, and you had a very quick turnaround on this, these are their best options moving forward. Same thing with the research and development, where we put you into contact with several of our other clients. And the reason I bring this up is kind of pigeonholing back to you know to you guys, you know, you've been such a great resource for our firm to not have to slow down and try to wear all the hats of the specialties like the RD, the research and development. So, and especially with the changes with the new tax law, I'm sure that's opened up a ton of doors for you. And I know you've been impactful with our clients as well.

Craig Fouts 8:14

Well, I appreciate that. And it's been really great to get to know them. And you know, we've had a lot of great opportunity too, just where the people had no idea the credits or the you know, accelerated depreciation reductions could even exist or help them. Right. And uh you nailed it, you know, it's a lot of people who never like either haven't filed their returns or tried to file the returns themselves, and it is missed out on those opportunities. So the investment in a great advisor is there. You just gotta get people to understand it. You know, and I guess we can take that and maybe pivot to a conversation. Someone I've been asking you so you know, as your evolution starting a baking, going through public accounting, working for big and small firms, what have you been noticing from clients that have maybe shifted over the last few years in terms of needs and wants from an advisor? So it's you know, I can maybe go back to like you know, Evans May is such a unique model with you know you have the advisory side with the CPA services and tax group, right? But then you also have the wealth management on the other side, and it's almost like a one-stop shop. Is that what you guys are starting to see more with like what with clients once or just have a great one big team to handle everything? Or you know, tell us a little bit what you're thinking.

Owen Pryor 9:16

Yeah, so I think it the best way to explain it would be an example, real world example. So when we were brought on uh with Evans May Wealth, um we co-branded for a reason. Um, we really once we got to know the team at Evans May, you know, it just resounded with what we want to bring to the market and we want to do it in a unique way. Uh and their clients, you know, from what I've seen at the wealth office, they truly care about those clients, and the clients truly care about the team at Evans May Wealth. So we wanted to mirror that and to have a seamless transition. When they go to the wealth office, they get that same high level of service. And we've been able to kind of copy and paste that deliverable to not only Evans May Wealth clients, but to clients, you know, that are that are even not related. Sure. Um we have other referral partners that you know have their own firms and and you know, we stay in our lane and make sure they look like rock stars for the referrals. Um, but one of the clients uh that we've onboarded through Evans May Wealth, they were working with a national firm. And that national firm was charging a very high fee, delivering that return at the last second, right before due date, no communication, and it was absolutely debilitating to this client, you know, that this person likes to travel. They're not thinking about you know, a tax brain like we do, you know, we're always thinking about things. So it was just such an inconvenience. So when we were introduced, we said, not only can we do X, Y, and Z, we're gonna we're gonna align those payments to be made electronically with the wealth office. And the person actually took a picture of her last payment ever having to, and she was still going to the post office.

Craig Fouts 11:01

Oh, wow.

Owen Pryor 11:02

So it was such a fun win and getting to know, you know, that people want people, they want to be able to connect if it's possible over teams and best in person, and it really drives the narrative of a lot of firms are so compliance driven, yeah, it's almost volume-based. We want to be quality-based and relationship-based in our approach.

Craig Fouts 11:24

And it's you know, people think of accounting firms and the accountants as number crunchers, and we're in the spreadsheets, which we are. Correct. But, you know, it's it's it's a people business, it truly is. And the developing those strong relationships is such an overlooked and maybe uh we'll call it like a misconception of the accounting world. Um, you know, when they only talk to their client once a year, right before they file a return, it creates so much unnecessary stress on the client. They don't know if it's actually gonna get done, they need to worry about finding a new another person and do it last second.

Speaker 3 11:57

Right.

Craig Fouts 11:57

And then all of a sudden, you know, it's done last second work and things get missed.

Speaker 3 12:02

Right.

Craig Fouts 12:03

how often do you guys talk to your clients throughout the year? How often are you checking in with your clients, maybe either from the smallest, maybe it was a single taxpayer, all the way up to some of the larger businesses you'd work with.

Owen Pryor 12:12

Yeah, I mean, so the range, our bread and butter is quarterly. Um, but because we have broken down that barriers to interest with our with our model, if a client calls, and I I joke it's you can send a signal flare, a text message, a phone, you know, a phone call, or a carrier pigeon. You know, like we don't really care how you communicate, but we'll help you get that answer in an expeditious way. But as far as the plan meetings, we like to do it at least quarterly. Now we do we can meet semi-annually or annually, um, but our bread and butter is at quarterly. That gets us in front because those tax plans and strategies they don't happen without intention. And I'm not anticipating that my clients walk around thinking about taxes the way that we do.

Speaker 3 12:54

Yeah.

Owen Pryor 12:55

So I try to take that away from them, and then we can make sure, hey, did you make those 529 plan contributions? Hey, did you make sure to update your benefits for your employees if it's a small business? Did you pay your estimated taxes? Oh, okay, well, let me walk you through how to pay them electronically so it doesn't slow you down. So those, yeah, the the touch points I think are key and what the the actual clients, majority of them really want and need.

Craig Fouts 13:22

Yeah, and those touch points create opportunities too. They talk about maybe what they're struggling with in their business or what's been time consuming, or they have no idea that there's an opportunity or incentive available for their investments. Right. So those also are a great way to continue to help grow your business on that aspect.

Owen Pryor 13:40

Well, and to your point too, is you know, as we've prospect, you know, clients, we've we've talked to them and it's slowed down and asking them like what are the, especially for small business clients, what are the nuts and bolts of your business? If it's an individual, what are your goals, both short-term and long term? And in those conversations, that's where the true value add. And I remember the first time that you did a proposal with me, you showed how your fee was going to be a multiple of the actual cash return. So you were a profit center, and that's really what we'd strive to be as well.

Craig Fouts 14:16

Yeah. We love being on the side of the fence where we're saving people money. It's an easy sell. It always is.

Owen Pryor 14:20

Well, and it makes me look like a rock star for introducing you and saying, hey, I got a guy. Come on, let's bring Craig in.

Craig Fouts 14:26

Exactly. And um being able to tag team and support clients in that way and save them money is just it's always so satisfying to see how they're able to, you're able to help businesses and grow their businesses. Um, you know, as you guys are meeting with your clients quarterly, you know, 2025 we'll call it is a strange year. We had a lot happen this year.

Owen Pryor 14:44

Say the least. Yeah.

Craig Fouts 14:46

And uh, you know,I quarterly planning was so important this year just because with the upcoming or the tax law that happened that no one knew was when it was gonna happen. Right. There were so many rumors that was gonna be beginning of the year, then the middle of the middle of the year, then or is it gonna be the end of the year? Luckily ended up being in July. But, you know, if you weren't able to have those planning meetings say, hey, here's what's on the horizon, here's what you should start thinking about, it'd be a real mess right now. So just because in 25, there's just a lot of stuff phasing out and/or continuing on that you need to plan for. Right. Um, you know, maybe we're what are a couple of things that you clients should be aware of with the new tax bill? They should really just be thinking about or planning for.

Owen Pryor 15:25

So on the individual side, um, there was a sprint for estate planning just from a high level because the cliff was about to you know revert back to lower exemptions. That's back up, stabilized. So that has created a little bit more of a runway, um, which is great. Uh, the other part for more individual focused is don't rely on safe harbor this year. It's a good tool depending on the situation. But we had a number of new clients that were on safe harbor from their prior CPA that we said, hold on, you don't even have to pay in September because of the tax law changes. So they were about to give an interest-free loan to the government for no reason. Yeah, so we want to pay the bare minimum as required by law and no more, no less. We don't want to be subject to penalties and interest, we don't want to give a tax-free loan to the government. So understanding the changes to and not only what's changed but what didn't change. Um, the new salt limitations that was gonna play a huge impact on a lot of our families, just because it was taking, depending on your AGI, 10,000 all the way up to 40,000. Right. So that increase the deduction could be huge. Um, we've also talked to a lot of um of our families about charitable giving and stacking donations this year using um what we call the dry powder approach, which is taking appreciated stock and gifting those into a donor advice fund and then using the cash you would have to reinvest in those positions and you get a step up in basis and it's tax-free. And you get a deduction. So it's a triple net.

Craig Fouts 17:01

It's a win-win-win.

Owen Pryor 17:02

Oh, right. So, and those are always fun conversations. Like that, that really is one of the more exciting things is when I can encourage and watch someone that you know has earned their money, they've worked hard, and then they get to be charitably inclined because they're so blessed. That is a really cool feeling.

Craig Fouts 17:20

Yeah, 100%. And then on the business side, is there anything particular you guys have been having a lot of conversations around or advising a lot on?

Owen Pryor 17:28

Yeah, so and I I do go back to a lot of our prospect calls because you know, we're we're in growth mode. Um, and a lot of the small business owners, you know, as I've talked to them, if they're new, they didn't even know that the new tax bill had been passed. So their prior CPA has not communicated anything. Well, maybe they don't haven't even done the research to see the the impacts. So in your wheelhouse, we like to talk about depreciation uh and then the RD side. So those are two items that are paramount because as you know, the 100% bonus depreciation is back on the table. So when it makes sense for a business to invest in fixed assets, especially towards the tail end of the year, you know, if they can connect that, if there is a financing availability to where they're not coming cash out of pocket, they can save a substantial amount of tax dollars, especially in that last part of the year. And then the RD, there's planning around, depending on the size of the business, when they can accelerate um those prior capitalized uh RD costs. And then the other part is, and this is something that's low-hanging fruit, but pass-through entity tax, you know, for flow throw, excuse me, with flow through entities. Hopefully that gets edited out. Um, but so a little tongue-tied. But so what we've noticed is a lot of people get put on autopilot. And you know, we had a company that year over year has been growing. And we did the math. Last year, they didn't pay until January on their fourth quarter, right? And we did the math, they kicked a $10,000 tax savings, a full calendar year for no reason. Their prior CPA could have picked up the phone and said, hey, make your PTE tax payment in this calendar year to get the federal deduction, and it would have prevented that 12-month delay for that benefit.

Craig Fouts 19:23

Yeah, and it goes exactly back to the conversation we're having about being compliance driven and not thinking about the advisory aspect that there's just no time for it. Right. Right.

Speaker 3 19:32

Yeah.U I guess tell me a little bit about what you guys are doing to make sure that doesn't happen. You know, how are you guys able to go find and retain top talent? You know, so it's so important right now, right? It's such a hard aspect in our industry.

Owen Pryor 19:45

Yeah. Well, this is again, like, this is what like again, I people. That's what I tell them all the time. Not you, the chief people officer, right? So, one of my things that I love to do, and Steve and I have have really um done a good job of getting in the community, um, getting in our network. So we've almost doubled our size in this past calendar year. Uh, and and it's it is a testament to what we're trying to not trying, we are bringing to the market. Um, we're getting involved with local universities. Uh, we had 65 applicants for five spots for our emerging. advisor which is our internship program uh and then we've also gone back out into you know into our network of people that may have left public counting for for random reasons obvious reasons because they're burned out they didn't like the hours there's no work life balance and we've reimagined it we call it life work harmony instead of life or work life balance is what came first uh and our entire goal is to be so intentional about these touch points with clients that we can push work out throughout the year to where the traditional busy season that's not near near as stressful because we already know what the results are right you know so that's putting pen to paper and getting the returns file yeah so that's not the stressful part we're not you know we're we're doing it uh be piece by piece throughout the year um and then getting out and talking to people that you know are in the you know major firms and say hey would you like a better lifestyle we can bring this really high caliber level of talent into a very tight ship and aim it directly at a client to where they get this absolute world class service and product and our team feels like they're actually making an impact and they're not just a cog and a wheel.

Craig Fouts 21:39

Right. You know it's clearly working I've met some of the new members you guys have brought on board and just fantastic people very technical but also very personable and they care. They care a lot about what's being brought to the client. It's it's amazing to see and uh excited for your guys' new office to be the get open so we're actually in the lobby we're building right now getting this done welcome right so that's in January right when you guys have the grand opening so it'll be January 22nd is going to be a grand opening we're gonna be hosting quite a few people throughout the day super excited.

Owen Pryor 22:13

It's gonna allow us to triple our capacity and and that's that is just going to be monumental in our growth plan and understanding that you know we're gonna have access to this atrium that you're you know we're filming in now we've talked to a lot of our partners and these are business partners these are not for profits and we've we've noticed that a lot of folks they don't have affordable opportunities for space so we're gonna be partnering with a lot of not-for-profits and and other organizations to provide them some you know access to very affordable you know hosting opportunities. I love it.

Craig Fouts 22:49

Yeah the HRM is fantastic it's very peaceful you have the fountains everywhere and the nice music going but then we just walk through your guys' space with it's the open concept which I love the social hub looks fantastic and then the area just right outside of the host so I'm really excited for you guys. It's cool just been really see your growth on your firm's growth and how you guys have been able to serve clients been really exciting to work with you. So you know for all of our clients out there if you guys are looking for some white glove service uh the people who are really going to care about you and and grow with you and and make sure you keep that hard work or hard earned money for your hard work check out Evans May. So oh and thanks for coming on today I really appreciate it.

Speaker 3 23:28

Thanks Craig thanks for having me. Yeah of course