Engineer changing careers to become CPA tax accountant

[ENG2ACCT]

Hi all,

I apologize for getting back to you all so late. Been doing free financial planning for immediate family and that was taking up a lot of my free time until April 15th tax-filing deadline.

Can anyone please advise me Wiki pages and forum threads I should start reading in order from start to finish? E.g. competency-based credits vs semester-scheduled traditional coursework

I don't know anything about accounting, but have you looked at UMPI?

UMPI BA Accounting Degree Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

Accounting, B.A.
http://catalog.umpi.edu/preview_program....turnto=260

UMPI (CBE format)

UMPI would be your best path for the advanced Accounting credits. 
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

You could I guess only take the 24 credits of accounting though it would be strange not to go ahead and get the full Accounting degree there considering you were serious about doing accounting.

Timeframe:
You could easily do 24-30 credits of UMPI courses in 2-4 months. Then add any time if you plan to do Sophia or Study.com courses.

Newbie question, does CBE mean computer-based eduation?

Welcome to the board, here are two threads for you to review, it boils down to UMPI BA Accounting or BABA Accounting as my recommendations.  It really depends on what your requirements are and what you want to complete on route to your educational goal...

Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-which-one
Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...lor-Degree

Since I have a 150 credits already by merit of my BS/MS in engineering, does that give me more options for online colleges and universities to pick from for getting advanced accounting course credits completed in order to meet MN's CPA exam requirements?

So I might have missed something, but everything I've read makes me think OP should go for the Enrolled Agent + CFP route.

"Then I will work for a few years at either a dedicated tax firm or a financial planning firm that also files taxes on behalf of its clients."
Enrolled Agents are federally licensed tax practitioners authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS in all tax matters and specialize in tax preparation, tax planning, and representation (before the IRS). CPAs have a broader range of expertise while EAs specialize solely in tax-related matters. In the tax field, CPAs and EAs share significant overlap, but the main distinction is that EAs cannot audit financial statement. Becoming an EA is significantly easier than becoming a CPA: pass a three-part exam and no education requirements (you can bypass the exam if you have five years of relevant IRS work experience). $259 per section * 3 = $777.
https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/en...nformation
https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/en...-questions

I have talked to two CPA/CFPs so far about the benefits of a CPA vs becoming an EA. My mentor said an EA is fine in theory, but that clients still associate "CPA" with being a tax guy, therefore he believes the brand value justifies attaining the license, especially when people perform web searches for "CPAs in my area"

Another CPA/CFP I spoke with thought the accounting courses unrelated to taxation would be a waste of my time and suggested the EA route.

I think going for a CPA makes sense. Look at this EA Youtuber. His practice was an EA-one originally, but then he got his CPA license in California, despite his company name remaining as "EA Tax Resolutions". This lends support to my CPA mentor's opinion, which is that clients know that a CPA can file taxes, despite us all knowing that Enrolled Agents are perfectly capable of filing taxes for others too.

I noticed I made a mistake in my previous post. The Franklin University Advanced Accounting Microcredential is $99 per credit hour, not per course.

You have to pay the $2,970 upfront to start the cert. I also asked my friend about the class format and he stated it was online live instructions with recordings available for those that missed the session (so both synchronous and asynchronous). You also have 2 years to complete the program.

Unfortunately, I read your post after it was too late. The program says their registration deadline ended March 31st. Says it includes a Miles CPA review program.

Questions:
1. Since this is a 16-month program, I'd have to wait until 2027 to register with a new cohort? If yes, then I'll just hate to explore other avenues.
2. How does the Miles CPA review program compare to other CPA exam review courses such as Becker's CPA exam course? My mentor's son, who is also a CPA, claims that Becker's review course is the best.

Actually, skip what I mentioned earlier... You've got the undergrad/masters degree, I wonder if your state will allow you to just go for 30 credits in accounting, to apply for the CPA.  Review your state requirements and see if getting the WGU MAcc would work for you, it'll be about $5K and 6 months if you have the energy/time to get things done and very less commitments...

Didn't see this listed in the WGU degreeforum wiki. Is it one of these ones listed on their website? Based on my interest in being a CPA/CFP, I'd pick WGU's taxation specialization, perhaps. My mentors said on-the-job training matters most, so just need to take the courses that best prepare me for the CPA exam. Really like that WGU doesn't have set schedules and let's me learn as quickly as I need to before taking their assessments from what I'm reading on their website!

A few general things (and these are coming from a former financial advisor, financial educator, and current tax accountant): the accounting job market is pretty soft right now. A couple of years ago the market was much stronger and there was a lot of hiring in industry and government. That has dramatically slowed. Many of the largest accounting firms have also laid off accountants in the last 2 years and more lay offs are projected. This will be doubly true if the economy slows down. There is definitely a malaise in the accounting and tax subreddits and on some other message boards that I follow. I also have a number of friends—good accountants with good degrees, years of experience, and CPA/EA designations who are underemployed or even unemployed. If you are passionate about accounting and financial planning, then go for it. But I certainly wouldn’t leave the day job, not yet for sure.

When the accounting job market is good, it doesn’t really matter where you get your accounting credits. Accounting firms are filled with CPA’s with history and English degrees who did their accounting credits with community colleges, for-profit schools, etc. Unfortunately, it’s definitely gotten a lot harder to get that initial job due to the weakness in the market. I would seriously consider a certificate or degree program where you live to be able to use their career services. It would be slower and more expensive, to be sure, but would increase your likelihood of actually getting a job (and without having to move across country for a $60k/yr job averaging 50+ hrs/week).

Wow... Lots of perspective here. Really appreciate you diving into the day-to-day of being a tax preparer. Yeah, I don't want to be simply a tax preparer. It's a grind and NOT the lifestyle I am looking for long-term. I want to take on fewer clients, but charge more for proactive tax/financial planning advice that gets bundled with my tax preparation. That way each client becomes much more profitable compared to tax-prep only.

By the way, have you heard of Michael Kitces and his financial advisor success podcast? There's a big dfiference between a good financial advisor or a salesmen masquerading as a financial advisor (e.g. insurance agent who claims to offer financial advice, but is really just there to sell you annuities or whole-life insurance). I am definitely not going for a sales-type of financial advising route. I plan on being a fee-only financial advisor. My plan is to plug into a fee-only financial planning organization such as NAPFA (National association of personal financial advisors) and American Insitute of CPAs for ongoing education through their annual conferences.

[TopHatWombat]

Wow... Lots of perspective here. Really appreciate you diving into the day-to-day of being a tax preparer. Yeah, I don't want to be simply a tax preparer. It's a grind and NOT the lifestyle I am looking for long-term. I want to take on fewer clients, but charge more for proactive tax/financial planning advice that gets bundled with my tax preparation. That way each client becomes much more profitable compared to tax-prep only.

Greetings, fellow Boglehead. I was you, about 20 years ago. The path you are looking to travel is a very well-worn one. I'll remind you that you're on a forum dedicated to, for lack of a better word, "hacking" the system. So please understand that the advice you receive is filtered through that lens, and we're going to give you replies that get you from point A to point B the fastest.

When I transitioned into a tax career, I was looking for the fastest route to licensure. That meant skipping school, skipping CPA, and going straight to the IRS Special Enrollment Exam (SEE) to become an Enrolled Agent. You're an engineer, you're probably smart, so the tests will be easy for you as they were for me.

I'm a product of survivorship bias, but I built an extremely successful career as an EA. Never, not once, in my 15-year tax career did I ever need or desire the CPA license. It was never an issue with clients or colleagues, period. It did not do tax return preparation, but practiced solely in the arena of IRS representation. For the even more basic service of tax prep, you're just fine with the EA license and nothing else. In fact, as an EA, you'd be one of about 50,000 of us, compared to 400,000 completely unlicensed tax return preparers.

The other thing I'll point out is that you don't need to be a CFP to become a successful financial planner. The only licensing requirement you actually need is to pass the Series 65 exam, which in my personal opinion is a joke of a test. Take that test, then boom, you can become an IAR and open up your own RIA, or go broker-dealer if you want less compliance headache.

If you really, really want to become a CFP, then simply do the ChFC curriculum from the American College. It will earn you the ChFC designation for now, and the education meets the CFP requirement once you have the experience.

If you look at my post history, you'll see that I first came to this forum with the same line of questioning. I wanted to get an accounting degree so that I could sit for the CPA exam in order to backfill this "missing" part of my career after I retired. It was nothing but an impostor syndrome thing. I ultimately didn't do it, and went the TESU BS CIS route instead (some day, I'll even finish my last two programming classes and graduate!).

Bottom line: If you want to become a financial planner, don't waste thousands of dollars and several years of your life grinding out for the CPA license. It's grossly irrelevant to life as a financial planner. Either take the Series 65 exam and just jump into the financial planning field with that, or take the ChFC curriculum for about $8k and then you'll have a strong educational foundation and be CFP-eligible.

[freeloader]

Yeah, I don't want to be simply a tax preparer. It's a grind and NOT the lifestyle I am looking for long-term. I want to take on fewer clients, but charge more for proactive tax/financial planning advice that gets bundled with my tax preparation. That way each client becomes much more profitable compared to tax-prep only.

By the way, have you heard of Michael Kitces and his financial advisor success podcast? There's a big dfiference between a good financial advisor or a salesmen masquerading as a financial advisor (e.g. insurance agent who claims to offer financial advice, but is really just there to sell you annuities or whole-life insurance). I am definitely not going for a sales-type of financial advising route. I plan on being a fee-only financial advisor. My plan is to plug into a fee-only financial planning organization such as NAPFA (National association of personal financial advisors) and American Insitute of CPAs for ongoing education through their annual conferences.

I am sure you are aware that 80-90% of financial advisors fail in their first three years.  Worth noting that the failure rate for people who haven't worked in the financial services field before becoming financial advisors is higher than for those who have that experience.  That's about right for the hundreds of friends and former co-workers of mine over the past 2 decades who have become financial advisors of all different stripes.  Probably 15 to 20 are still doing it.  Half of those are what I would consider truly successful.  The rest are getting by but not much more than that.  Most of them who failed have impressive credentials, good selling skills, and a good to great network of friends and colleagues.  And yet they failed.

I mean this with all sincerity: virtually every tax accountant that I know has vocalized plans to leave tax preparation/tax planning and become a financial advisor or to at least get their 65 and start offering financial advice at some point in their career.  A lot of them do it, most of them come back to accounting pretty quickly or drop the advising piece.  It seems so easy, until it isn't.  Just like being a financial advisor generally.

I am not saying you won't be successful.  You might well be.  For your sake, I genuinely hope you are.  But you will be a salesman.  You may not be selling crappy variable annuity products as a fee-only advisor, you are selling yourself.  What is your value proposition?  What do you bring to your clients that the roughly 4,500 other fee-only financial advisories in the United States don't bring?  You need a pitch; you need a hook.  A few people may find you from your website, but not many if you aren't investing heavily in SEO, I suspect.  You can advertise, pay for leads, network with local CPAs and estate-planning attorneys.  You should absolutely do all of those things.  But realistically, if success comes, it will take time and it will take capital.  And a LOT of luck.  Statistically, it isn't going to come for you.  Statistically, you will lose the money you invest into your business and will probably destroy relationships with friends, family members, and colleagues.  That's the reality.  And no, I don't know about the podcast host you mentioned.  For your sake, I hope everything he is selling helps you become fantastically wealthy.  Maybe some day you can hire me as an in-house tax preparer and your surrogate while you are sitting on a beach in Aruba.  I hope that happens for you, but I'm not holding my breath.  What I do know is that every hour that guy spends on his podcast and website is an hour he isn't spending with his clients or his family.  Maybe he just likes to work, but the REALLY successful financial advisors I know don't have podcasts.  They have no reason to have podcasts.  Their business is selling themselves to multi-millionaire clients, not to naive would-be financial advisors.

[LevelUP]

What is your value proposition?

Usually, I'm popular.  

People who have a strong internet and social media presence have a leg up on the competition.

[lisarox]

I used Gleim to pass the CPA exam after failing too many times with Becker. It's cheaper than Becker if you're paying out of pocket.