How Mark Seither of Kingsview Partners Uses FP Alpha to Grow His Practice

From helping a terminally ill client confirm his estate plan and plan his wife’s financial future, to showing a high-net-worth doctor how a charitable remainder trust could save $2.5M in estate taxes while blessing his children for 20 years, Mark demonstrates how FP Alpha transforms conceptual planning into actionable, client-ready deliverables.

What You’ll Learn

• How one advisor uses FP Alpha as a non-negotiable part of client onboarding — running estate snapshots and tax analyses for every new client, not just high-net-worth cases
• Case Study 1: Estate planning for a terminally ill client — using the Estate Analyzer to confirm a will was set up correctly, identifying probate exposure, and showing the client his wife would be financially secure
• Case Study 2: Tax projection for a surviving spouse — using the Tax Projector to map out a multi-year income distribution strategy that preserved the family home and dramatically reduced the tax burden
• Case Study 3: Advanced estate planning for a $13M+ doctor — illustrating how the estate tax threshold sunset creates a $2.5M tax liability and how a charitable remainder trust solves it while providing 20 years of income to heirs
• How to use the Snapshot and the Estate Lab together — the Snapshot for current-state analysis, the Lab for modelling what happens over time across different scenarios
• Practical advice on converting prospects using tax analysis — how a 15-minute tax return review consistently leads to new client relationships
• Why legacy planning conversations beat dollars-and-cents conversations — shifting from tax strategy to family values, heir protection, and long-term impact

Chapters

Click a timestamp to jump to that section of the webinar.

1. 0:05 — Welcome & Housekeeping
2. 3:05 — Meet Mark Seither — Kingsview Partners, Knoxville
3. 4:12 — Pain Points Before FP Alpha — Tax & Estate Planning Gaps
4. 6:24 — General Advice on AI and Technology Adoption for Advisors
5. 9:07 — Case Study 1: Estate Analyzer — Terminal Illness, Will Validation & Probate Exposure
6. 17:00 — Snapshot vs Estate Lab — When to Use Each Tool
7. 21:40 — Case Study 2: Tax Projector — Surviving Spouse Income & Distribution Strategy
8. 30:34 — The Emotional Impact — Giving Clients Peace of Mind
9. 33:13 — Building Trust & Winning Assets Through Tax Analysis
10. 37:35 — Case Study 3: Estate Lab — $13M Doctor, Estate Tax Sunset & Charitable Remainder Trust
11. 46:06 — Charitable Remainder Trusts — Turning Tax Strategy Into Legacy Planning
12. 55:25 — Q&A & Final Thoughts — Efficiency, Impact & What’s Next

Key Takeaways

Make Estate Snapshots a Non-Negotiable for Every New Client

Mark treats the estate planning snapshot as mandatory for every new client, not just those with complex estates. His reasoning: you need to verify that how the client’s estate plan is structured actually matches how their financial plan and beneficiary designations are set up. Most clients can’t remember what’s in their will, let alone whether it’s still correct. The snapshot catches issues that a conversation never would — like one client who thought they had a trust but only had a will, and another whose will was correct but had no plan for what happens after the surviving spouse passes.

Tax Analysis Is the Fastest Path to a New Client Relationship

Mark consistently finds that tax analysis — not investment management — is what converts prospects into clients. He offers to review a prospect’s tax return and turn around a report the same day or next day. A 15-minute review using FP Alpha’s tax tools frequently uncovers opportunities the client’s CPA hasn’t raised, such as Roth conversion timing, bracket management, or structuring side income as a business. In one case, he showed a father-son pair that the CPA’s recommendation of identical $100K Roth conversions would cost the son $1.68 for every dollar converted versus $1.24 for the father — leading to a completely different strategy.

The Tax Projector Turns Anxiety Into Relief

In the terminal illness case study, the client and his wife assumed she would need to sell their home and pull $75,000–80,000 per year to survive. Using the Tax Projector, Mark showed them a distribution strategy combining dividend income (in the 0% capital gains bracket), limited IRA withdrawals, and cash reserves that covered expenses with dramatically lower taxes. The wife could keep the house, delay tapping retirement accounts until RMDs kicked in, and bridge to survivor Social Security benefits. The emotional impact was profound — the client broke down with relief knowing his wife would be financially secure after he was gone.

The Estate Tax Sunset Is a Massive Opportunity for Advisors

Mark’s third case study featured a $13M+ client who correctly noted he was under the current estate tax exemption. But when Mark modelled the likely exemption reduction (estate tax sunset scenario in the Estate Lab), a $2.5M estate tax liability appeared. The client’s initial response was humorous — he suggested getting married to double the exemption — but the serious solution was a charitable remainder trust. This is a live example of the kind of proactive planning that the Estate Lab enables: showing clients what happens not just today, but when the rules change.

Shift the Conversation from Tax Strategy to Legacy and Family Values

Mark’s most powerful insight was about reframing charitable remainder trusts from a tax manoeuvre into a legacy conversation. Instead of leading with numbers, he asks parents which of their children would handle a lump-sum inheritance well and which wouldn’t. He discusses asset protection (inherited IRAs lost protection after a Supreme Court ruling), personality risk (children who would spend it in two years), and litigation risk (divorce). Then he presents the CRT as a 20-year income stream that protects heirs, funds their goals (starting a business, buying rental properties, working part-time), and ultimately benefits a charity the family cares about. The tax savings become a secondary benefit to the family impact.

Case Study Summary

Tips & Best Practices from Mark Seither

About the Speaker