Victor Shlionsky, Tax Partner at LLME, has a wealth of knowledge and proven track record of providing comprehensive income and estate tax planning services to high net-worth individuals and closely held businesses. We sat down with Victor to talk shop and learn about his career, passion for serving the local community and what drew him to LLME. Here’s a snippet of our conversation covering everything from trends in accounting and taxation to his New Year’s resolution.

Let’s start at the beginning of your career. What drew you to accounting and taxation? And what made you go all in on a career in the field?

Initially, I pursued accounting as a steady job that I thought would be a springboard to better opportunities. My perception was that my day-to-day role would entail sitting in front of a desk inputting numbers. To be honest, I had a one-to-two-year exit plan.

However, within a few months of working in a tax department, I realized just how wrong I was. I began focusing on developing valuable mentoring relationships with partners and managers. I started building a strong rapport with clients, to the point I felt like part of their families and businesses. I also took on incredibly complicated and interesting engagements. Needless to say, I stayed in taxation.

Tell us about your career path and what attracted you to LLME.

I was with a large national firm for about 12 years, where I led the Southern California estate and trust practice. Working at a national firm is very different from being in a local firm. For example, at LLME we focus on serving the local community, and we know our local market very well. It’s really what drew me to LLME.

The firm also allows everyone to have flexible career paths and provides year-round training and mentoring. By doing this, LLME provides the more technical and relevant accounting services that our local community requires. A bonus, the firm supports the local community and various causes, such as Promises2Kids and HomeAid San Diego, which aligns with my own volunteerism.

You have extensive experience working with high-net-worth individuals and closely held businesses. Is there a particularly challenging or interesting client case that stands out to you?

The COVID pandemic was an interesting time to be in public accounting. I had many clients in the restaurant and service industries who were forced to be shut down or couldn’t operate in the way they wanted to. These businesses closing would have been devastating to the client, their employees and their families that rely on the income. In some cases, clients were able to shift the way they did business. But others couldn’t do that. There was no virtual option for them, no Zoom calls to keep things running.

So, I spent countless hours on the phone with clients who were impacted, trying to understand how they could maintain their business and navigate complex tax law changes.

I didn’t always have the answers at hand, but we asked the hard questions and found our clients the solutions they needed. It was a collaborative process during which we were able to help clients identify and communicate various business incentives, such as employee retention credit. This helped our clients receive substantial funds to maintain their business operations and employee headcount.

Your expertise extends to complex real estate matters. Can you provide an example of a real estate-related challenge you helped a client navigate successfully?

Recently, we handled a complex tax case involving the three client bases I specialize in serving. That’s estates and trusts, high net-worth individuals and closely held businesses, typically real estate holdings.

This was a complicated client engagement, involving a deceased client’s multiple real estate investments nationwide, that required intricate coordination and management of trust and estate issues. Working as a strategic partner with the surviving spouse and their attorneys to achieve our client’s goals, we successfully navigated estate and tax challenges. Our comprehensive approach included financial cleanup, stepped-up tax basis calculation, estate and income tax filings and estate administration. By going through this extensive process, we assisted our client in ensuring their deceased partner’s estate goals were met, ensured their future needs were also met, saved substantial estate and income tax all while mitigating audit risks.

What are some of the most common misconceptions people have about taxes? Do you have advice to share with individuals or businesses looking to maximize their tax savings?

New clients often believe that tax preparers should just prepare tax returns and that most tax preparers don’t do any tax planning. When they work with LLME, they realize this is a misconception.

Trust and collaboration are the two most important aspects of a client-tax advisor relationship that lead to maximizing tax savings. First, trust allows a client to be open about what keeps them up at night, what they have going on in their personal and professional lives or what their future looks like. I need to have all the facts to give proper advice, and not all clients are used to having that open dialog with their CPAs. Here at LLME, we work hard for clients and our clients in return provide us fantastic feedback on what we need to help them. Successful engagements require a lot of collaboration.

Collaboration is important as it allows our clients and tax advisors to ask each other challenging and open-ended questions. This process helps us uncover tax saving opportunities. And back to trust, I don’t have all the answers. My clients all know that ‘I don’t know’ is a common response for me. But there is trust that I will get them the answer and find them a solution that hopefully meets their needs.

You’ve lectured on tax saving opportunities with out-of-state trusts. Could you share a valuable tip or strategy in this regard that our readers might find interesting and useful?

Trusts that are properly set up can provide tremendous estate and income tax savings. Specific to out-of-state trusts, there is a perception that to save on state income tax, individuals need to move residency to a tax-free state, such as Nevada. That is not always desirable or practical. There could be an alternative solution to save state tax involving setting up out-of-state trusts. Trusts are generally a complicated vehicle that requires a well-versed tax advisor, which our clients find right here at LLME.

In your opinion, what are some of the most significant changes or trends in the world of accounting and taxation that clients should be aware of in 2024.

Over the next year, the need for tax advisors who can handle complicated tax matters will continue to rise. There are three reasons behind this statement. First, we’re experiencing an industrywide decline in accounting professionals. That’s partly due to retiring baby boomers. Second, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see additional tax changes. Last, but certainly not least, clients need to start planning for 2026 tax changes.

Specifically, the estate exemption is set to be reduced from $13,610,000 in 2024 to an estimated $7 million in 2026. For individuals with estates above $14 million that could be an additional approximately $3,000,000 in estate tax in 2026. For a married couple with an estate over $28,000,000, that could be an additional estate tax of approximately $6,000,000. Over the next year, I expect an influx of taxpayers with a net worth of $5 million and above wanting to do more sophisticated tax planning around this change.

Outside of your professional life, do you have any hobbies or interests that you’re particularly passionate about?

I am passionate about giving back to the communities that have given me so much and helped me be who I am today. Specifically, I am the Audit Chair, a board member, and finance committee member of the San Diego Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. Growing up, I would often find myself at the local Jewish Community Center. When we moved to San Diego, this was the first place we sent our daughter for daycare.

I also serve on the Jewish Federation of San Diego’s Finance Committee. My family would not be in this country was it not for the Jewish Federation. I am on Congregation Beth Israel’s finance committee and serve on the Advisory Board of United Through Education. These roles ensure that I could have a positive impact in the lives of others. I’m also vice chair and soon to be president of California Society of CPAs Estate Planning Committee. It’s a nuanced and technical role that allows me to remain knowledgeable and help CPAs and taxpayers alike.

How do you balance your work with your personal life?

Public accounting provides a lot of flexibility.

At our firm, we have a few associates that take four to six weeks off per year to travel. We have others that work substantially reduced hours. For myself, I think it is important to set boundaries and prioritize what matters. I set those boundaries through my calendar. My personal obligations are placed there first. For example, my son’s sports activities are on my calendar. My associates have visibility to my calendar so that they hopefully can see the importance that I place on maintaining a balanced schedule. By setting boundaries, I can exert my complete focus on work when working and personal when not working.

I have also been more open to saying “no” to requests that would stretch me too thin or are not in line with my personal and professional goals. This helps me do a better job on the tasks that I’m committed to.

Any New Year’s resolutions you’d like to share?

I have found a lot of joy in having common hobbies with my children. In the new year, I’ll be spending more time playing sports and sharing other activities with them!

Finally, could you share an experience that’s guided you in your career and life in general?

I’ve had a lot of great mentors over the years, and each provided me advice that helped my career.

In one case, I was leading a meeting between a client and senior audit partner to discuss tax ramifications of a transaction. I was just a few years into my tax career, and it was a complex transaction. I didn’t think I was ready and had a case of imposter syndrome. My portion of the meeting did not go as well as desired. I was clearly nervous. After the meeting, the audit partner, who I viewed as a mentor, pulled me aside to state the obvious – that I looked nervous. He reminded me that he and the firm decided I was the right person to lead the meeting. The conversation lasted two minutes, if that. I didn’t give excuses. I just listened.

Those two minutes instilled a lifetime of confidence. I changed my entire approach for meetings with this client and the client liked working with me, which reduced the burden of the audit partner. I also took that lesson for future clients. This experience taught me how helpful a good mentor-mentee relationship can be in progressing skills and careers, and to be open to giving and receiving productive feedback.