Real Clients. Real Complexity. Real Results.

Brandon has spent fifteen years on the operator side of commercial real estate. He's good at the business — the financial infrastructure around it was an afterthought.

Two deals he'd been waiting years to close hit in the same tax year. Combined with advisory fees, he was looking at nearly $900K in gross income, most of it landing on Schedule C with no structure, no retirement plan, and no year-end strategy in place. He came to us with two months before year-end.

We started with entity architecture: an S-Corporation to receive his fee income and reduce SE tax exposure, a management LLC for GP operations, and separate single-member LLCs for each property — keeping liability firewalled between asset classes.

With the entity framework in place, we implemented a defined benefit cash balance plan layered with a profit-sharing 401(k), allowing Brandon to shelter $210,000 in pretax contributions in year one.

We then commissioned a cost segregation study on his newly acquired 68,000 sq. ft. industrial property, accelerating significant depreciation into the current year. Because Brandon qualifies as a real estate professional, those losses were fully deductible against ordinary income — not suspended as passive losses.

The three strategies worked together: entity structure reduced SE tax, the cash balance plan sheltered active income, and accelerated depreciation eliminated the remainder.