Inside the One Big, Beautiful Bill: Tax Changes and Planning Opportunities

President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act was officially signed into law over the Fourth of July weekend, signifying impactful changes for financial professionals and their clients — especially when it comes to taxation.

The bill makes permanent many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), raises SALT deduction limits, adjusts estate tax exemptions, and expands opportunities for tax-efficient retirement and business planning. Industry leaders are already poring over the bill’s impacts and implications, and for advisors, it marks a critical turning point in the planning process.

Translating Policy into Client Strategy

Many see this as not just a tax update, but a fundamental shift in long-term strategy, including America’s IRA expert, Ed Slott, CPA — a professor of practice at The College.
“This bill provides long-term certainty and opens up more tax and estate planning opportunities for advisors to share with clients,” Slott says, referring to the portion of the bill that makes tax provisions from the TCJA permanent. “Another big game-changer is the SALT deduction increase to $40,000 for those in high-tax states. The combined extensions of the TCJA cuts, plus several of the new tax deductions, will pave the way for more Roth conversions at lower tax rates — at least for the next few years. Advisors should be alerting clients to this opportunity to build more tax-free retirement savings!”

Leading financial publications echo Slott’s sentiment. A recent Vanguard article details the key opportunities within the bill for advisors aiming to help clients optimize their lifetime tax benefits.¹ Like Slott suggested, the passage of the bill offers a timely reason for advisors to proactively engage clients and reassess their financial plans for the years ahead. While the impact of the bill will vary by client, maintaining open communication about new options is crucial.

Vanguard specifically encourages advisors to discuss the advantages of donor-advised funds with high-net-worth clients, revisit income thresholds and entity structures to maximize deductions for business owners, and overall embrace tax policy changes in their planning approach.

Different Clients, Different Priorities

In addition, College thought leaders weighed in on the bill’s potential ramifications at this year’s AICPA Engage conference with speculation that has now become reality. Professor of practice in tax planning Jeffrey Levine, CFP®, CPA/PFS, ChFC®, RICP®, CWS, AIF, BFA™, MSA says it’s hard to pin down the new law’s most significant provision, but one thing is clear: we now live in a whole new world when it comes to tax planning.

“Everyone is focusing on the thing that is most impactful for their clients,” Levine says. “Those who work with high-net-worth clients are focused mostly on estate taxes and the fact that the exemption there is not just extended, but even higher now. Those who work with business owners are focused on things like qualified small business income deductions and bringing back bonus depreciation. And those who work with regular retirees are looking at the extension of the tax brackets and a large-scale extension of TCJA provisions, like a higher standard deduction.”

A recent article from BlackRock reinforces Levine’s point, emphasizing that different client profiles will require different approaches, and financial professionals who can navigate that complexity will be more essential than ever.² The impacts of the bill will demand proactive planning, particularly from advisors serving business owners and high-net-worth clients. BlackRock highlights an increasing demand for financial professionals with expertise in key areas, specifically those who can “skillfully navigate the intersection of income taxes, investing, estate planning, and charitable giving.”

Ultimately, Levine emphasizes the bill’s unique impact on each and every type of client: “It’s a very individual thing, but there’s a lot in this bill for advisors to learn about — and, no doubt, a lot of ways to help clients keep those lifetime taxes as low as possible.”

The Power of Staying the Course

Professor of wealth management Michael Finke, PhD, CFP® adds that to him, the real surprise is not what’s in the law, but rather what’s not in it.

“A lot of us were expecting some of the TCJA provisions would start to sunset, but it seems not,” he says. “Things aren’t going to change all that much for those who hold wealth from where we are now. But the expectation was we might have to do a lot of creative planning for those who are thinking of passing assets onto others or who are thinking about strategic types of investment decisions. It turns out holding steady is still the right way to do it.”

This unexpected stability gives advisors a rare planning window, one that allows them to prioritize tax strategies, manage long-term distributions, and revisit philanthropic and trust plans with greater confidence. As Finke sees it, this bill rewards disciplined planning and tax efficiency.

“You can’t do wealth management unless you consider the tax consequences of the investments you make,” he says. “Tax efficiency is a real advisor outcome.”

Whether working with retirees, business owners, or high-net-worth families, advisors now have an expanded toolkit to reduce lifetime taxes, support estate planning, and more. The real challenge — and opportunity — lies in the personalization of these strategies. As Slott, Levine, and Finke all emphasize, this is not a one-size-fits-all law.

The bill opens the door to a wealth of opportunity, but it’s up to advisors to turn policy into meaningful, real-world outcomes for their clients.

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