Engineered Tax Advice

10/23/2026

Are there still great mobile home park deals out there? Leo Young of Cornell Communities says the secret’s out and the market has changed a lot in the last five years. Here’s how his team still finds deals: going direct to sellers, building broker relationships, and staying in touch with owners for years until the timing is right. Full episode, link in bio.

10/22/2026

How do you triple a mobile home park’s value in about 18 months? Leo Young of Cornell Communities walks through a distressed, mismanaged park in the Southeast: repaving, new signage and lighting, and bringing in 10 new homes so it felt like a community again. Full episode, link in bio.

10/21/2026

We asked Leo Young of Cornell Communities: has the easy money already been made in manufactured housing? His answer is in our new episode, Real Estate’s Blind Spot. Press play on YouTube or wherever you listen. Link in bio.

10/21/2026

Real Estate's Blind Spot podcast episode is live. Leo Young of Cornell Communities on why investors are looking at mobile home parks. Press play on YouTube or wherever you listen. Link in bio.

08/21/2026

Meet Sarah Herndon Our CFO at ETS! We’re so lucky to have a rockstar team!

08/07/2026

Check out our recent video diving into the Material Participation rules for Investors.

Most people think cost segregation is the deduction. It’s just the ...

07/12/2026

There's no direct deduction for paying your kid's college tuition, but with the right strategy, you can create benefits that achieve a similar result while building their financial foundation at the same time.

STRATEGY 1 - EMPLOY YOUR CHILD:
If your child works in your business and earns wages for legitimate work, those wages are deductible to you and taxable (at their much lower rate) to them. With their standard deduction, up to $14,600 in wages could be earned tax-free. Pair that with a Roth IRA funded up to their earned income, and you've created tax-free compounding that could grow for 50+ years.

STRATEGY 2 - 529 PLAN:
529 contributions are made with after-tax dollars federally, but most states offer a state income tax deduction for contributions. Growth is tax-free and withdrawals for qualified education expenses are tax-free.

THE MAJOR 2026 UPDATE: Unused 529 funds (after 15 years) can now be rolled into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary, up to $35,000 lifetime. This eliminates the old penalty risk of over-funding a 529.

These strategies aren't just about education. They're about building the next generation's financial foundation while legally reducing your own tax burden today.

07/11/2026

The SALT cap increase is one of the most talked-about provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and for good reason. For high earners in states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, the old $10,000 cap was essentially a tax on living in a high-tax state.

Here's what changed:

For 2026, the SALT deduction cap increased to $40,000. That's an additional $30,000 of deductible state and local taxes for qualifying filers. At a 32% marginal rate, that's nearly $10,000 in real federal tax savings, on top of everything else.

Who benefits most:

→ Homeowners in high-tax states with large property tax bills
→ High W-2 earners paying substantial state income taxes
→ Real estate investors with multiple properties in high-tax jurisdictions

The advanced layer: many states allow businesses to elect Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) treatment, where state taxes are paid at the entity level and fully deducted federally, bypassing the SALT cap entirely. Combined with the new $40K personal cap, a well-structured plan can capture both benefits.

PTET elections have deadlines that vary by state. Some require election by a specific date mid-year. If you haven't reviewed your state's PTET rules this year, do it now.

07/10/2026

W-2 earners often feel like the tax code works against them; and to some degree, that's true. You can't take self-employment deductions. You can't accelerate depreciation from real estate unless you qualify as a professional. Every dollar of salary gets taxed at full ordinary income rates.

But there are still meaningful strategies available, and most W-2 earners aren't using all of them.

THE 401(K) STACK:
→ Max your pre-tax or Roth 401(k): $23,500 in 2026 ($31,000 if 50+)
→ If your plan allows after-tax contributions + in-plan Roth conversions: you can access the Mega Backdoor Roth, potentially adding up to $46,500 MORE in Roth savings annually

THE HSA:
→ If you're on a high-deductible plan, max your HSA: $4,300 individual, $8,550 family
→ Invest the funds, don't treat it like a debit card
→ After 65, it converts to a secondary retirement account

DEFERRED COMPENSATION:
→ If your employer offers a 457(b) or non-qualified deferred comp plan, it may allow you to defer additional income above the 401(k) limit

You may not have as many tools as a business owner. But the tools you do have are powerful, and they're worth maximizing fully.

07/09/2026

One of the most expensive inefficiencies in wealth management isn't a bad investment. It's a coordination failure between the professionals who are supposed to be on your team.

Your financial advisor makes recommendations based on risk tolerance, time horizon, and return objectives. Your CPA or tax strategist looks at income, deductions, and tax exposure. When these two people never speak to each other, or when you're the only one connecting the dots, you end up with:

→ Investment portfolios that generate unnecessary tax drag (wrong account placements, premature sales)
→ Tax strategies that miss the best timing because financial plans weren't coordinated
→ Retirement distributions that create massive tax spikes because no one modeled the full picture
→ Estate plans built around assumptions that have since changed

The solution is integrated planning; not just coordination, but advisors who are actively building a strategy together and communicating regularly. For high-net-worth individuals, this is not optional; it's the foundation.

A few questions to ask yourself:

→ Have your financial advisor and tax advisor ever spoken directly?
→ Does your CPA know your investment portfolio structure?
→ Does your financial advisor know your marginal tax rate and entity type?

If the answer is mostly no, you're leaving money in the gap between them.