Tax-Efficient Investment Strategy
I want to first make it clear that I am not in the business of providing investment advice. However, as a CPA providing tax and financial planning services, I have learned that you can improve your overall investment strategy by making it more efficient from a tax standpoint.
One of the main ways you accomplish this is by considering which categories of investments you are allocating between your retirement vs. your non-retirement accounts. For example, actively managing mutual funds try to manage the securities within the fund more aggressively in an attempt to beat the overall market. In doing so, these funds typically perform a lot more buying and selling of securities within the fund. This creates a higher tax burden in the form of capital gain distributions. On the other hand, passively managed index mutual funds are structured so that they track a specific index, such as the S&P 500. Passive funds tend to have less buying and selling of securities within the fund since they are simply tracking the market as opposed to trying to beat the market with more active management. Because of this, passive funds will usually have less capital gain distributions. This results in a lower tax liability.
As I said before, I am not here to advise you as to whether you should purchase active or passive funds, but what I am saying is that from a tax standpoint, it would be in your best interest to keep actively managed funds in your retirement accounts and passively manage funds in your non-retirement investment accounts. As long as the active funds are held in a retirement account, the capital gain distributions paid within the fund will not be taxable to you until later on when you withdraw money from your retirement account. Or even better, if the active funds are held in a Roth IRA, as opposed to a tax-deferred retirement account such as a traditional IRA or 401(k), then the withdrawals will be tax-free. At the same time, the passive funds held in your taxable non-retirement accounts will have fewer capital gain distributions each year and will result in less tax being owed.
The same philosophy can be used when deciding how to allocate large-cap and/or value securities vs. small-cap and/or growth securities. Large-cap and value funds/stocks typically pay more dividends each year as they are usually more established companies with greater ability to return a portion of their earnings to investors. The higher dividends paid by the company or fund will be taxable to the investor unless that security is held in a retirement account. So it is more tax-efficient to hold these types of securities in a retirement account, when possible. Conversely, small-cap and growth funds/stocks typically pay out less in dividends as they are less established and usually more concerned with reinvesting their earnings back into the company to facilitate growth, as opposed to paying a portion of their earnings to investors. It would be more tax efficient to keep your small-cap and growth securities in taxable non-retirement investment accounts as you would have less of a tax burden due to the lower dividends paid as compared to large-cap and value securities.
Additional ways to increase the tax efficiency of your investments would be to take advantage of tax loss harvesting opportunities, max out contributions to your tax-deferred retirement accounts, consider the timing of your investments, and possibly invest in Exchange Traded Funds, which are more tax efficient due to their in-kind creations and redemptions. Again, I do not provide investment advice, and I am not a registered investment adviser. You should choose your own investment strategy and work with a licensed investment adviser if necessary. At the same time, taxes should not be the primary motive when choosing an investment strategy. But after you have chosen the proper investment strategy based on your goals, risk tolerance and financial situation; it would be wise to consider the tax implications of that strategy. I am here to work with you and/or your investment adviser to make your investment strategy more tax-efficient.