55% of high-net-worth practices outsource tax planning

In BlackRock's 2026 survey, 41% of women called better tax outcomes a priority, while 12% of advisors named tax as a key client concern. High-net-worth practices outsource tax planning more than any other service Cerulli polled: 55% of them do, ahead of trust administration at 40%.

More than one in four advised women told BlackRock they plan to switch advisors over taxes. Client retention is now tied to a service the majority of high-net-worth practices buy rather than perform.

The gap between the two figures is 29 percentage points. An advisor who does not rank tax among key client concerns is unlikely to raise a client's tax position unprompted, leaving the client to bring it up herself.

Cerulli's polling shows the average high-net-worth practice outsources three to four services, with tax planning and trust administration leading the list. According to Cerulli, enterprise RIAs hold 58% of RIA assets and are adding tax and estate services, while only 17% of RIAs employ compliance professionals.

Vendors are building tax-aware model portfolios. Allspring and Vestmark are putting Allspring's active strategies inside a platform Vestmark says handles trading, rebalancing and tax overlays for advisors. BetaNXT is adding Pave Finance's portfolio construction and optimization tools to its wealth management suite, announced at Schwab IMPACT. These tools put tax management inside the model rather than in a separate conversation.