Mark Kohler vs AE Tax Advisors: Tax Strategy Compared
Mark Kohler has spent 25-plus years teaching entity structuring and asset protection to small business owners. AE Tax Advisors runs a hands-on advisory practice with cost segregation in house. Different tools for different problems.
The short version
Mark Kohler is an attorney and CPA whose business is largely education, legal structuring, and a professional network. AE Tax Advisors is a single practice that writes the plan, performs the cost segregation, and files the return.
Kohler's reach is enormous: books, the Main Street Business podcast, a long-running speaking circuit, a law firm (KKOS Lawyers), a self-directed retirement account company (Directed IRA), and a certification program that trains other tax professionals in his methodology. If you want to learn the trifecta approach to entity structuring, asset protection, and self-directed retirement investing, you are in the right place.
AE Tax Advisors does not teach a methodology. We run engagements. The advisor who reviews your prior returns is the advisor who models your entity structure, and the team that recommends a cost segregation study is the team that performs it at $1 per square foot and files the resulting Form 3115.
There is a genuine reason people use both: Kohler for the legal entity formation and the education, a dedicated tax firm for the ongoing planning and filing.
Who Mark Kohler is
Mark J. Kohler is a CPA and attorney with more than two decades in small business tax and legal strategy. He is the author of several widely read books on tax and legal structuring, co-hosts the Main Street Business podcast, and is one of the most recognizable names in small business tax education in the United States.
The businesses around him cover distinct functions: KKOS Lawyers handles legal formation, operating agreements, trusts, and asset protection; Directed IRA administers self-directed retirement accounts; and the Main Street Tax Pro certification trains accountants and advisors in his framework. That last piece matters practically—many people who engage through the Kohler ecosystem are ultimately served by a certified advisor in the network rather than by Kohler personally.
The strength of this model is the combination of legal and tax under one philosophy. Asset protection, trust planning, and entity formation are legal work that a tax firm cannot perform, and having that adjacent to tax strategy is a real advantage.
Who AE Tax Advisors is
AE Tax Advisors is a national tax advisory and preparation practice based in Billings, Montana, staffed by IRS Enrolled Agents and licensed CPAs. We work with business owners and real estate investors in the $250,000 to $2 million income range.
We are not a law firm. We do not draft operating agreements or form trusts, and when a client needs that work we tell them to hire an attorney—sometimes theirs, sometimes one we suggest. What we do is the tax side end to end: entity election and structuring analysis, reasonable compensation, retirement plan design, cost segregation, passive activity planning, prior-year recovery, and the returns themselves.
The practical difference from an education-and-network model is continuity. There is one advisor, one plan, and one team executing it, and the person who told you the strategy would work is accountable for the number on the filed return.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Mark Kohler / KKOS | AE Tax Advisors | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity formation and documents | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
| Trusts and asset protection drafting | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
| Self-directed IRA administration | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
| Ongoing tax advisory relationship | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Tax return preparation | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Cost segregation in house | ✘ No | ✔ Yes |
| Cost segregation pricing | Referred | $1/sq ft, $2,000 min |
| Form 3115 accounting method change | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Entity structuring modeled on your numbers | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| S-Corp reasonable compensation analysis | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Real estate professional status planning | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Short-term rental material participation | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Prior-year amendment recovery | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
| Books, podcast, certification program | ✔ Yes | ✘ No |
| Published pricing | ● Partial | ✔ Yes |
Pros and Cons of Each
Every firm has a profile it serves well and a profile it does not. Here is an honest read on both.
Mark Kohler / KKOS
Attorney-CPA, education and legal structuring
Strengths
- Legal and tax combined—entity formation, trusts, and asset protection under one philosophy
- 25-plus years of experience and an enormous, genuinely useful educational catalog
- Self-directed IRA and retirement account infrastructure through Directed IRA
- Strong on asset protection layering, which pure tax firms cannot provide
- Well-suited to owners who want to learn the framework and direct their own structure
Limitations
- You may be served by a network-certified advisor rather than Kohler himself
- Education-and-certification model means quality across the network varies by advisor
- Cost segregation engineering is not an in-house service
- Legal formation fees and tax service fees are separate engagements
- Less focused on ongoing, year-round tax advisory for a single client relationship
AE Tax Advisors
Hands-on tax advisory and preparation
Strengths
- One named advisor from plan through filed return
- Cost segregation performed in house at $1 per square foot, $2,000 minimum
- Entity structuring modeled on your actual numbers, not a template
- Published pricing with no separate education or certification purchase
- Prior three years reviewed for recoverable deductions on every engagement
Limitations
- Not a law firm—no operating agreements, trusts, or asset protection drafting
- No self-directed IRA administration
- No books, podcast catalog, or certification program
- Not a fit below roughly $250,000 of income
- Smaller public brand than a nationally known author and speaker
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Mark Kohler / KKOS if
You need legal work: entity formation across states, an operating agreement that actually reflects your intent, trust planning, or a layered asset protection structure. You may also prefer this route if you want to self-direct retirement money into real estate or private deals, which requires the custodial infrastructure a tax firm does not have.
Choose AE Tax Advisors if
You want one team that models the structure, performs the cost segregation, recovers prior years, and files the returns. If your plan hinges on depreciation timing and passive activity treatment rather than on legal structure, that is the work we do every day.
Many clients use both
Hire the attorney to build the legal structure, then hire the tax firm to operate inside it. Those are complementary purchases, not competing ones, and we work alongside client attorneys routinely.
Why Clients Choose AE Tax Advisors
- Structuring advice tied to filed returns. An entity recommendation is only as good as the elections, payroll, and allocations that follow it. Because we file the returns, the structure we recommend is the structure that actually appears on Form 1120-S, Form 1065, and your Schedule E.
- Cost segregation in house at $1 per square foot. With a $2,000 minimum, a 4,000 square foot property costs $4,000 rather than the $5,000 to $15,000 typical of standalone engineering firms—and the Form 3115 comes with it.
- One advisor, not a network. You are not routed to a certified partner whose quality you cannot assess in advance. You meet the advisor on the discovery call and that is who runs your engagement.
- Recovery of prior years. Three years of returns reviewed on intake. Missed depreciation, unmade elections, and unclaimed credits are amended at $2,500 per return, which frequently pays for the engagement several times over.
- Real estate and operating business in one plan. Income shifting between entities, passive activity coordination, and depreciation timing only work when a single advisor is holding all the numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mark Kohler legit?
Yes. Mark Kohler is a licensed CPA and attorney with more than 25 years of experience, several published books, and a large educational platform. His firms handle legal formation, asset protection, and self-directed retirement accounts. The main thing to clarify before engaging is who will actually be doing your work—Kohler personally, his firm, or a certified advisor in his network.
How much does Mark Kohler's firm cost?
Legal work through KKOS Lawyers and tax services are priced separately and vary by scope, so you need a consultation for a number. AE Tax Advisors publishes pricing: $7,800 strategic tax advisory with a split-pay option, $1,500 per entity return, $1,000 per personal return, $2,500 per amended return, and cost segregation at $1 per square foot with a $2,000 minimum.
Do I need a tax attorney or a tax advisor?
They solve different problems. An attorney forms entities, drafts operating agreements and trusts, and builds asset protection—work a tax firm legally cannot do. A tax advisor models which structure minimizes tax, makes the elections, and files the returns. Owners with meaningful assets often need both.
What is the best Mark Kohler alternative?
If you want the education, WCG CPAs publishes a comparable free library and Tax Alchemy produces excellent video content. If you want hands-on implementation with real estate depth, AE Tax Advisors and Hall CPA are the firms most often compared against the Kohler ecosystem.
Can AE Tax Advisors work with my existing attorney?
Yes, routinely. We handle the tax analysis and modeling and hand the attorney a clear specification of the structure we need. That division of labor tends to produce better documents than either professional working alone.
Is the trifecta structure right for real estate investors?
The general principle—separating operating income from asset holding—is sound and widely used. Whether a specific version of it fits you depends on your state, your number of properties, your financing, and your exit plan. Any structure should be modeled against your actual numbers before it is formed, because unwinding a bad structure is far more expensive than getting it right initially.
Does AE Tax Advisors form LLCs or trusts?
No. We are a tax advisory and preparation firm, not a law firm. We model and recommend the structure, make the tax elections, and file the returns; the formation documents come from an attorney. We will tell you clearly when a plan requires legal work.
Keep Comparing
Disclosure: this page is published by AE Tax Advisors, so we are not a neutral party. We have tried to describe the other firm accurately and fairly using their own public materials, and we say plainly where they are the better fit. Firm details, service menus, and pricing change—verify anything that matters to your decision directly with the firm before you engage. Nothing here is tax advice for your specific situation.
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