@Jim-from-Ohio If you're not careful you're going to give away the secret of how to make money in the tax return preparation business. You can do three easy returns in the time it takes to do one difficult one -- and bill the easy ones at least 50% of the fee that the time-consumer expects to pay.
But it's the small talk that makes work enjoyable. Yesterday I helped one client figure out whether the county was still allowing her widow's exemption on property taxes, and pointed out how much more she could be making in interest on her savings account just by asking the bank for better terms. And she told me how Farmers doubled her car insurance so she called State Farm, and they quoted a rate lower than what she has been paying. Then another client told me how a surgeon had suggested gall bladder removal to prevent another attack of pancreatitis (I told him there is no such thing as routine surgery, even for people who aren't 80) before I figured out that he should be taking his RMD as a QCD, given his significant church contributions. Now wondering whether I should refund fees for previous years when I should have delivered that advice.
And I discussed death with both clients. It used to be a joke on Monday mornings, asking my assistant who called to report a client had died. Now, it's a regular event. This week we lost a 69-year-old, when we would have expected it to be her 76-year-old husband. So I mention things like this, and that for me the quality of our remaining years is more important than the quantity. And people agree, and are even interested in the Swedish tradition of "death cleaning." (Get rid of the accumulated junk so your family doesn't have to.)
