Ashley Francis: AI's a Partner, Not a Replacement: The Disruptors

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Don't be a vending machine for tax compliance.

The Disruptors

With Liz Farr

Ashley Francis wants accountants to value their time and expertise. “I want accountants to stop thinking of themselves as just vending machines for tax knowledge and vending machines for tax compliance,” she says. “I'm not the default. You put a quarter in me, and I'm going to spit out an answer.”

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On LinkedIn, and formerly on Twitter, Francis is well-known for generously sharing her expertise in trust and estate accounting and taxation, areas in which many accountants lack knowledge. Many firms designate someone as the “trust person” simply because they've done it once before, but this specialized area requires deep expertise.

"Trust and estate tax law covers an entire area of tax law, and then you have to pull in the state law as well and understand how they interplay," Francis explains. “The challenge is the one person in the organization that’s called the trust person is kind of left on their own to try to figure it all out and help everybody else. So it can be kind of lonely.”

This dearth of knowledge is concerning, according to Francis. “We have this huge wave of wealth coming at us, the great wealth transfer that's already actually started,” Francis says. “The number of trusts and estates is going to continue to rise, and we don't have enough tax professionals to work on that work.” With that in mind, Francis is creating the Estate Academy, a set of courses and a community where she shares her deep knowledge in this area.

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