Six ChatGPT Prompts to Simplify Tax Prep for Financial Advisors

Tax time is here again, and many advisors are looking for ways to cut down on the associated admin work. To complement our Nov. 16 webinar on AI, Automation and Tax Prep, in this post, we’re sharing some simple ChatGPT prompts you can use to make client communication easier in the weeks and months to come.  

What Not to Use ChatGPT For

This should be obvious to anyone reading this post, but: DO NOT RELY ON CHATGPT OR ANY OTHER GENERATIVE AI FOR FINANCIAL ADVICE! Sorry to yell, but it’s a point that’s worth making emphatically. ChatGPT can do a lot of things but you should never use it to complete or prepare your clients’ tax returns. 

We’d also caution against using AI for research. For example, we ran a simple ChatGPT query asking it to prepare a list of documents required to file a tax return in New York State. The results were… not encouraging. 

Ultimately the thing to remember with ChatGPT is that there’s no way of verifying where the app is getting its information from. And because tax rules and regulations change from year to year, even if it is pulling data from a reliable source, there’s no guarantee that the information it’s providing is current. 

So, for anything related to advice or research, stick to trusted sources. 

So, What Can You Do With ChatGPT?

The real value of ChatGPT and generative AI in tax prep is in client communications. Who likes writing emails? Pretty much no one. But deadlines are deadlines, and you have a responsibility to keep clients informed. Fortunately, ChatGPT is an incredibly useful resource for writing emails to clients. Here are three prompts to get you started.  

Kick Off Emails

ChatGPT can easily produce kick-off emails for different types of clients. Use these prompts:

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a client for whom I completed a tax return last year seeing if they would like my team to handle the preparation of their tax return this year

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a client for who I did not complete a tax return last year as they filed their taxes with a different tax preparer seeing if they would like my team to handle the preparation of their tax return this year

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a new client, and this would be their first tax season as an advisory client with us, reach out seeing if they would like my team to handle the preparation of their tax return this year

Personalized Follow Up Emails

Once you’ve started work on a tax project, you’ll likely need to touch base with your client as work progresses. Here again, ChatGPT can make these emails simple. Use the prompt: 

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a client from who I am missing the following documents, W2, 1099

Completion Emails 

Finally, ChatGPT is a convenient way to create wrap-up emails when a return is filed. Use these prompts:

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a client for who I completed a tax return this year, and need to communicate to the client details about their tax return being submitted for their review and acceptance

I am a tax preparer and financial advisor, write a short, friendly, inviting email on my behalf to a client for who I did not prepare tax filings, but require a copy of their tax return for their client files once it’s ready

While these and other use cases for ChatGPT may seem minor, they add up to a considerable amount of time savings when incorporated into your daily practice. And, for all the hype about how AI can and will change financial advisory, ultimately it is simply another tool in your toolkit — as useful as it is, it won’t change the value of the human advice and expertise that you deliver to your clients.