“Settling an estate or trust can be time consuming and frustrating, but I am here to guide and assist my clients to make the work as easy as possible.”

Joan Wolfe provides tax planning and compliance services to help individuals, estates, trusts, and closely held businesses take advantage of tax-saving opportunities specific to their circumstances. Joan also provides IRS and Franchise Tax Board audit representation services, advocating on behalf of clients under audit. Specializing in estate and trust taxation, Joan strives to ease the burdens of those who have lost a loved one. In addition to the emotional strain, the requirements of estate and trust administration can be time-consuming and onerous. Joan provides guidance for clients in those circumstances, helping them to anticipate problems and identify the right solutions. She helps break down the administration by providing the steps needed to convert the overwhelming into smaller, more manageable tasks. “Settling an estate or trust can be time-consuming and frustrating, but I am here to guide and assist my clients to make the work as easy as possible”, Joan says.

Joan assists trustees, executors, and estate planning attorneys with the many tasks required to administer trusts and estates, including preparing final individual income tax returns for decedents, estate tax returns (Form 706), and fiduciary income tax returns (Form 1041). She also provides fiduciary accounting, tax planning for trust termination and assists attorneys with trust funding. She helps her clients plan for and pursue tax-minimization strategies such as traditional-to-Roth IRA conversions and year-end selections for fiduciary income tax returns.

Born and raised in Washington state, Joan has called San Diego home since 1981. She completed her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from National University in 1984, started working as a staff accountant, and became a CPA in 1987. After working in the tax departments of large local accounting firms for almost 10 years, she started her own tax practice, which was merged into Hamilton Accountancy Corporation in 1997. Joan is actively involved in the community, providing estate planning advice to individuals and fundraising assistance to charitable organizations. Her current professional memberships include:

– Rady’s Children’s Hospital Foundation Estates and Trusts Executive Committee

Joan also served in the following roles:

– Past President of the Estate Planning Council of San Diego

– Past Chair of the La Jolla Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Section

She enjoys gardening, reading, and spending time with her family in her spare time. She also has an extensive travel bucket list which she attempts to whittle down as time allows. Quote: It would take less time to tell you where I would not like to travel to than to tell you which places I would like to visit.