Last week I attended the Mutual Fund Education Alliance’s annual Strategic Summit. There were several excellent presentations, but one in particular raised a very important point about the future tax outlook and, based on what we’ve seen, the industry as a whole is doing their clients a major disservice by ignoring this issue.

Greg Valliere of the Stanford Washington Research Group and a regular on CNBC, weighed in with his take on the economy, politics in general, and the 2008 Presidential election in particular. It was a fascinating, if disheartening, analysis. What really grabbed our attention was his take on taxes. He said that tax hikes were a near certainty - regardless of who wins the White House. Given the sunsetting of the Bush tax cuts in 2010, even if McCain wins the election, the Democratic controlled Congress will use this as leverage for raising taxes elsewhere.

And what’s at stake here - and applicable to your clients - is not just taxes on "the rich". More importantly, it’s the taxes on capital gains, which will affect all investors. The upshot is that investors CANNOT count on having a 15% capital gains tax in 2009. Mr. Valliere mentioned that there was so much other noise coming from the media right now that this capital gains issue is not being given enough credence considering its importance.

Curious, we spent the day reviewing all the brokerage and mutual fund sites we track looking for some educational content about the impact of these upcoming tax hikes. Surprisingly, we found absolutely nothing. While a lot of firms are providing information to clients about how to complete their taxes, not one has broached the issue of what to do if (when) the capital gains tax nearly doubles. I realize that firms cannot provide direct tax advice, but they do their clients a serious disservice by not even acknowledging the issue and urging clients to seek tax advice.