February/March   Fortune.com

BRINGING INSTITUTIONAL TAX SAVING TO THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

Redwood Tax Specialists offers innovative solutions for reducing tax burdens on business owners and high-net-worth individuals.

BECAUSE OF COMPLICATED RULES, FEAR OF THE
Internal Revenue Service, and the generalized knowledge of most certified public accountants (CPAs), many businesses just follow a standard tax plan. But a customized plan can help increase tax savings—something that Cornelius, N.C.–based Redwood Tax Specialists brings to the table for CPA clients every day.

A Storied History
By the time Scott Fedyshyn, lead strategic tax planner and cofounder of Redwood Tax Specialists, established the firm along with Bill Hall in 2019, he’d already had 17 years of experience, including tenure at two of the

“Big Four” accounting firms, working as a strategic tax consultant for Fortune 500 companies. He had been involved in dozens of highly technical tax-reduction strategies and implemented tax savings to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.


But it wasn’t until after Fedyshyn left the Big Four and ultimately owned his own CPA firm in Shelby, N.C., in 2014 that he first experienced a sense of the chal- lenges faced by more traditional CPA firms.


“Endless legislative changes, commodity services with high competition, pricing pressures, and technol- ogy changes were just a few of the challenges I worked with then—and problems that CPAs are faced with today,” Fedyshyn says. “I quickly realized that CPAs have to be nimble and wear many hats.”

This realization would lead Fedyshyn to start push- ing long-held boundaries within the CPA industry. His firm began partnering with other CPAs, including sev- eral of his prior colleagues at the Big Four, rather than viewing them as competitive threats. Fedyshyn formed long-term relationships with dozens of profession- als with niche tax expertise and began to implement tax plans more like a project manager than a CPA. Ultimately, this allows Fedyshyn to assemble a team of professionals for each tax plan he implements and offer his clients multiple strategies simultaneously.

“THE BIGGEST STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE WE HAVE AT REDWOOD OVER OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS OUT THERE IS OUR ABILITY TO BRING HUNDREDS OF STRATEGIES AT ONCE TO ANY GIVEN CLIENT.”

SCOTT FEDYSHYN, CPA, CFP®
Lead Strategic Tax Planner and Cofounder, Redwood Tax Specialists, LLC

In short, Fedyshyn’s outside-the-box thinking allowed him to be flexible—a skill that ultimately drives his position at Redwood Tax Specialists.

“Early on, I realized that the traditional model just doesn’t allow for the necessary time and monetary investments in strategic tax-reduction services,” Fedyshyn says. “Tax planning is the number one service requested by clients, but it takes a tremendous amount of resources to do it right, keeping this service out of reach for most CPA firms. Ultimately, the demand from clients and CPAs alike is what led to the creation of Redwood and our back-office tax planning team, and the expansion of strategic partnerships with advisors.”

Leveraging the expertise he’d gained by work- ing on tax-reduction strategies at the Big Four, Fedyshyn began implementing the same strate- gies on a smaller and more affordable scale at his firm. Some of his clients began realizing a 30% to 50% overall tax reduction, and Fedyshyn’s firm flourished.

A Fortuitous Meeting

As Fedyshyn’s firm and its innovative approach became more widely known within the industry, Fedyshyn eventually crossed paths with financial services professional and coach Bill Hall. Hall
had spent most of his 38-year career helping high-profile financial advisors and CPAs grow their businesses by utilizing comprehensive tax strate- gies. Hall’s extensive professional network and industry connections were a perfect complement to Fedyshyn’s more technical tax foundation.

They decided to start Redwood Tax Special- ists with a dedicated focus on tax reduction for business owners and high-net-worth clients. Out of the gate, their plan was to work collaboratively

with a network of managing directors all across the country. Within a year, Redwood had grown to include almost 300 managing directors.

Hall explains that Redwood’s tax-reduction plans aren’t designed to replace the existing relationship between a client and their advisors; rather, they can be utilized by CPAs in addition to a client’s current strategy. Redwood’s turnkey advisory service, aimed at tax compliance firms, provides an opportunity for those firms to fully outsource tax planning, and avoid the intensive education and investment requirements neces- sary to expand into these technical areas.

“The biggest strategic advantage we have at Redwood over other service providers out there is our ability to bring hundreds of strategies at once to any given client,” says Fedyshyn. “We customize each strategy for every client in order to achieve very specific outcomes, and we offer a complete implementation team. Nobody else is doing this with the level of competence that our team has.”

Even when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and workforces went fully remote, Redwood’s col- laborative approach meant that it had a fortuitous head start, as the team was already using digital technologies to connect with directors and CPAs from coast to coast. Hall even points out that Redwood’s remote service model can almost be regarded as the new industry standard.

“The results we’ve seen at Redwood have been spectacular,” Hall says. “This kind of col- laboration with deep-dive tax experts, along with our ability to maintain existing relationships, is a breath of fresh air to the industry. We’re remov- ing barriers and delivering unmatched client service, and we’re fully prepared to take every opportunity presented to us in regard to tax benefits under any administration.”