An RIA marketing a tax-planning service should describe the work the firm has agreed to perform, identify who is responsible for each part, and state what is excluded or handled under a distinct agreement. Build that verified record first, shape the page title, body and next step around it, and route the draft through the firm's normal review before publishing.
Key Takeaways
- Inventory the firm's tax-related tasks, owners, deliverables and exclusions before choosing a service label.
- Separate work the firm performs from coordination with an outside professional and return preparation handled under its own agreement.
- State verified inclusion, exclusion and fee facts; never suggest that everything is bundled.
- Match the page title, summary, body copy and call to action to the same real service.
- Keep a fact record behind each service claim and route the page through the firm's applicable review.
Start With the Work the Firm Performs
Tax planning means different things from one advisory firm to the next. Before writing any marketing copy, have the firm list the tax-related tasks it agrees to perform for clients. For each task, record who is responsible, what the client receives, when it happens, what inputs are required and what is excluded.
Keep three descriptive categories distinct in this inventory. The first is the firm's own advisory work: analysis, projections or planning recommendations the firm's advisers produce as part of an engagement. The second is coordination, where the firm shares information or aligns planning with an outside tax professional the client has engaged. The third is work under a distinct agreement, such as return preparation, which may sit with an outside accountant.
These categories are descriptions to verify against the firm's real arrangements, not legal definitions. A service page can promise what appears in this record, nothing more.
Make the Provider Relationship Clear
Prospects reading a tax-planning page want to know who does the work. A referral, an agreed coordination role and work performed by an employed or contracted professional are three different arrangements. The page should describe the arrangement the firm has, verified against the underlying agreement.
Identify which responsibilities belong to the advisory firm and which require a separate provider agreement. Verify whether related fees are included in the advisory fee or covered by a distinct agreement, and present that as a fact rather than a selling point. Deciding whether to publish pricing at all is its own question; whether an RIA should publish pricing on its website walks through that decision.
Two wording habits create avoidable risk. Do not use partnership or in-house language unless the factual arrangement supports it. Do not suggest that another professional's credential belongs to the advisory team; an outside accountant who prepares returns for referred clients does not become part of the firm's staff unless that is the genuine employment or contract structure. Building the referral relationships themselves is a separate marketing topic covered in how to build COI partnerships around a specific niche.
Build the Page Around Confirmed Scope
Organize the service description around five elements: the audience the firm serves, the tasks from the inventory, the responsible party for each, the included and excluded work, and the next contact step. When a scope question is unresolved, address it in the introductory conversation rather than presenting an unconfirmed service as available.
Then check that the title, short summary, service explanation and call to action make compatible promises. A page titled around comprehensive tax planning should not describe a narrow annual document review. Google's people-first guidance asks whether the main heading or page title provides a descriptive, helpful summary of the content and avoids exaggeration. Treat that as a consistency check; it is guidance, not a ranking formula, and aligned wording does not promise more leads.
Keep Evidence Behind Every Service Claim
For each factual statement on the page, keep a short internal record of what the firm does, where it is documented and who verified it. This habit speeds up the firm's review and gives the page a maintenance path when services change.
There is also a regulatory baseline for advisers in scope of the SEC's marketing rule. The rule's opening applies to investment advisers registered or required to be registered under section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act who directly or indirectly disseminate advertisements. Among its general prohibitions, an advertisement may not include a material statement of fact that the adviser does not have a reasonable basis for believing it will be able to substantiate upon demand by the Commission, and may not include information that would reasonably be likely to cause an untrue or misleading implication or inference concerning a material fact relating to the adviser.
A service page that implies tax work the firm does not perform is the kind of statement this evidence record exists to catch. Review the impression the page creates as a whole, sentence by sentence, and revise unsupported claims instead of assuming a disclaimer repairs them. Whether a particular phrase satisfies the rule is a question for the firm's own reviewers, not for a marketing checklist.
Let Prospect Questions Maintain the Explanation
After the page is live, listen to the questions prospects ask. Recurring questions about whether the firm prepares returns, who handles implementation, what the service includes or how the fees work are a reason to inspect the page's explanation against the verified scope record; the questions alone do not establish that the page is the cause.
Treat those questions as qualitative feedback rather than proof that a rewrite will lift conversions. Change the wording when the verified service facts and the firm's review support the change. When the underlying arrangement changes (a new provider, a new exclusion, a distinct fee), update the page and the fact record together.
The practical next step for most firms is to assemble the scope record above and ask the firm's designated reviewers to assess the current page against it. Positioning questions, such as how a tax-planning offer fits the firm's broader message, belong to a separate strategy engagement with its own agreed scope. If the firm wants writing support for the revision itself, our content creation work is scoped by topics, formats, responsibilities and approval dependencies, with final approval retained by the firm and its designated reviewers. We support the firm's review process and can flag language for attention; we do not provide legal advice or guarantee compliance.
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