(Remote) Tax Senior Associate

Firm Description:
Geometric provides comprehensive financial planning for executives and partners in management consulting, finance, and other demanding careers .  We specialize in serving partners at top-tier management consulting firms (Bain, BCG, and McKinsey).

Launched in 2015, Geometric is a fast-growing, independent firm with 32 people on our team (including seven Wealth Advisors) and with clients nationwide.  Unlike most firms that cater to those in or near retirement, Geometric was designed specifically for (very) high-earners who are accumulating wealth at an accelerated pace and whose financial pictures are becoming increasingly complex.  Our clients have rare analytical abilities and high professional expectations.  Most are between 32- and 45-years-old, and many have young children.

Our offering includes three main services, all of which are bundled into a single wealth management fee and provided to essentially all clients:

 

• Financial Planning.  We help our clients define their financial goals and we build comprehensive net worth projections to ensure that they are on track to achieve them, along with scenario analyses to understand the implications of career and lifestyle choices.  This process also includes proactively optimizing the client’s insurance coverage, estate planning, debt management, employee benefits, college savings, charitable giving, and any other material financial decision. 
• Portfolio Management. Our firm’s investment philosophy is central to our identity: we believe that markets are efficient, and therefore we don’t attempt to pick individual securities or time the market.  Instead, we invest in low-cost, broadly-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of passively-managed mutual funds and ETFs (such as those offered by Dimensional Fund Advisors or Vanguard), and we continuously manage portfolios in an effort to squeeze out every possible basis point from tax location, tax loss harvesting, rebalancing, etc.
• Tax Services.  Our in-house, fully-integrated tax team prepares and files our clients’ tax returns and provides ongoing tax planning and consultation.

To learn more, please visit our website at

Job Description:
We seek a Tax Senior Associate to join the Tax team at Geometric.  The Tax Senior Associate will work alongside our current Tax team (two Tax Advisors and two Tax Senior Associates) and collaborate with our Wealth Advisors and Financial Planning team to serve our approximately 250 (and growing quickly) client families.  Tax services are a critical part of our client value proposition (tax services are bundled into our core offering and provided to essentially all clients) and this role presents an opportunity to help build the Tax team and advance quickly within a high growth environment.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the Tax team and Wealth Advisors to meet our clients’ holistic financial planning needs by contributing to the tax services that we provide , as described below.
• Tax compliance:
  • Prepare and review federal and state returns (as well as any associated gift tax returns, trust returns, etc.) for our clients.  Note that we have clients all over the country, and many of our clients work in multiple states throughout the year, so a basic understanding of differing state tax law will be necessary. 
  • Periodically assess the need for quarterly estimated tax payments and ensure that all necessary payments are made by our clients
  • Assist clients with any tax letters, notices, and audits, which includes drafting responses and communicating with the IRS and various state Departments of Revenue.
  • Assess implications of US international tax reporting (including forms FinCEN 114, 8938, and 1116) for our foreign clients living in the US who have foreign bank accounts, assets, and income.
• Tax planning/consulting:
  • Collaborate with Tax Advisors to produce and review tax projections and tax planning for a subset of our clients (e.g., clients with stock-based compensation, self-employed clients with fluctuating cashflows, and clients with multiple sources of income). 
  • Perform and review wage and withholding analyses to help clients achieve their preferred level of tax withholding, and help them to periodically re-calibrate as circumstances change (new jobs, etc.).
  • Provide year-round assistance in consulting on tax matters/questions that come up, researching relevant topics as needed.
• Help evaluate and demo any alternatives to current software being used by the Tax team.
• Continually search for ways to improve the Tax team’s and the firm’s processes and client experience, and to speak up when they are found.
• Help to recruit, hire, train, and manage others on the Tax team as the firm continues to grow.

Hourly work expectations:
Our tax services are bundled with our core offering and our Tax team members do not track hours.  There are no billable hour requirements and the below represents total work hour expectations.

We value flexibility and balance (as you can see in our Benefits and Culture sections, below), but the constraints of tax season will inevitably lead to hours that exceed our standard working hours.  For our Tax team, we target an average of 55 hours per week during the busy seasons leading up to the 4/15 and 10/15 deadlines, with hours ranging from 50 to 60 hours per week.

Career Path:
Based on our current needs and growth rate, we would expect that a successful Tax Senior Associate would progress to Tax Manager within one to two years.  This progression would be dependent on obtaining (or maintaining) an active CPA license or EA credential.

This role will report to Jen Knight, who leads our Tax team, and will support this person in their continued growth and development.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Active CPA licens e or EA credential strongly preferred.  If not currently certified, must meet educational requirements to obtain license or credential in state of employment upon hire.
• 3-5 years of relevant work experience in tax services (particularly tax return preparation and compliance) for high-net-worth individuals
• Clear and confident communication, both in writing and orally.  The ability to succinctly distill complex topics into understandable form when conversing with clients and educating our internal team.
• Experience in and comfort with the tax topics relevant to Geometric’s niche client audience, and the curiosity to gain further expertise in those matters.
• A “planning mindset.”  The ability to view tax planning in the broader context of a client’s financial goals.
• Knowledge of the basics of estate planning or willingness and aptitude to learn. 
• Exceptional organizational skills.  You should be the type of person who develops processes to ensure that everything remains organized and that nothing ever falls through the cracks.
• Airtight reliability.  Always doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it.  When you take ownership of a task or project, everyone else on the team should feel comfortable knowing that it is taken care of.
• Aptitude for and comfort with technology.  Both the ability to effectively use existing technology and the willingness to think strategically about how new technology could be used to improve our internal processes.
• Knowledge of (or at least willingness and aptitude to learn) the technology relevant to our tax practice: CCH Axcess, CCH AnswerConnect, BNA Income Tax Planner, and Sureprep.
• Comfort with receiving feedback with the goal of continuous professional growth.
• Service-minded, both in providing excellent service to our clients and to the rest of our team.
• Fun to work with and enjoyable to be around.

Location:
Anywhere within the continental U.S.  We strive to find the best people, and we use technology (Slack, Zoom, screen-sharing, etc.) that allows us to operate as a team regardless of location.  (See ‘Flexible work schedule’ below for our typical working hours.)

Compensation:
The compensation range for this role is $90,000 to $125,000. Placement within this range depends on experience and qualifications.

Our firm’s philosophy is to pay above-market rates in order to attract and retain the best people.  We use industry benchmarking surveys to measure the compensation range for a given role, then seek to be at or near the top of that range.

This is a full-time W-2 position.

Benefits:

• Flexible work schedule . We work hard and trust that all team members will do the same, so we operate with a flexible work environment – when family or important life obligations call, we expect you to answer!  That said, we expect that everyone will typically be available during working hours (roughly 8:30 CT – 5:00 CT), which is necessary for us to operate as a team, and that everyone will have a private, quiet workspace during those hours.  We have no defined vacation or sick policy and trust that everyone will take what they need.
• Health insurance . At the beginning of the month following your start date, you will have the option to participate in our company-sponsored medical plan, with Geometric paying for at least 2/3 of the premiums.  Geometric also offers dental, vision, and long-term disability benefits.
• 401(k) . Including 5% company match with immediate vesting.
• Family leave . Paid parental leave (either (a) 12 weeks full-time or (b) 8 weeks full-time + 8 weeks half-time) after welcoming biological or adopted children.  This applies to both mothers and fathers.
• Professional Development Sponsorship. The firm values life-long learning and provides an annual stipend to full-time employees to pursue relevant professional development opportunities including obtaining credentials, attending conferences and taking continuing education classes.
• Portfolio Management. For those who want it, Geometric will manage your investment portfolio at no charge using the same platform that we use for clients. (Note that this does not include broader, comprehensive financial planning or tax services.)
• Tech/home office needs . Geometric will supply work-related technology (hardware and software) as well as a stipend for furnishings or other items needed to make your home office comfortable and productive and secure.
• Wellness Wednesdays .  Our team chooses not to work for a portion of every Wednesday afternoon.  Instead, we each do something fun - ideally something outdoors and physical.  We believe this makes us healthier, happier, and ultimately more productive.
• Sabbaticals. Geometric offers “no work allowed,” fully-paid, five-week sabbaticals after seven years with the firm (and every five years thereafter).

Culture:
Our firm is small, friendly, and informal.  Our team strives to uphold our four core values and we look for others who value these same principles.

 

• Excellence: We are service-oriented, and we put our clients’ interests ahead of our own. We take pride in the excellence of our team, our service, our analyses, and our deliverables.
• Overcommunication: We value open, honest, and thoughtful communication and take extra time to ensure that our communications are clear.
• Continuous Improvement: We embrace the fact that our firm – and each of us individually – will always be a work-in-progress. There is no end state; only a journey of getting better.
• Support and Balance: We choose to work with people who are positive, supportive, and kind.  We value our own mental and physical wellness, and we care about the wellness of our colleagues.

Diverse Perspectives:
We believe that a team performs better when its members bring diverse perspectives.  We strive to provide an inclusive environment for those of any race, religion, ethnic origin, gender identity or expression, age, physical disability, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, military service, medical history, or any other status.  All are welcome and supported here.

Typical Interview/Evaluation Process:

Hiring the right people is the most important thing that we do.  As a result, our hiring process may be more rigorous than the average company’s.  The typical process is described below, though it is always subject to change based on individual circumstances.

1. First-round interview, typically with a member of the Tax team.
2. Second-round interview, with existing Tax team members.
3. Written simulation exercise, intended to give you a better sense of what the job entails, and to give us a better sense of your ability to perform the responsibilities of the role.
4. Final-round interview, typically with Geometric’s CEO and COO.