A specialist discipline — built for coordinated planning environments.

Established in 2011, Guardian Tax Consultants® has spent 14+ years building a specialized platform applying MSO frameworks — historically reserved for ultra-high-net-worth and large enterprise — to the closely held business owner space. Today, GTC™ partners with CPA firms, family offices, and transaction advisors across all 50 states.

Design, structure, and ongoing service of managed service organizations. That is our entire practice. We don't do financial planning, we don't file tax returns, we don't manage investments, and we don't draft legal documents. Those are the roles of the CPA firm, the family office, the investment advisor, and legal counsel — all of whom remain central to the client relationship.

Our work is specialized. It focuses on the governance framework, fee methodology, related-party documentation, and ongoing discipline required to operate the structure consistently over time and adapt it as the business evolves.

MSO work delivered as a side offering — layered onto financial planning, tax preparation, or M&A advisory — produces inconsistent methodology and thin ongoing support. GTC™ runs MSO work as the core practice.

We took the opposite approach. By doing only MSO work, across every industry where the framework can apply, we've been able to build the back-end service and support structure that makes the methodology consistent. And we've been able to do it without competing with the advisors who bring us in.

"Every MSO looks different. Every MSO follows a disciplined process."

GTC™ operates as a B2B platform. Engagements come through partner relationships — an accounting firm, a family office, a transaction advisor, or a legal team. The advisor who owns the client relationship stays central; GTC™ delivers the MSO-specific layer through their introduction.

This model exists for two reasons. First, sophisticated clients are already well-served by their existing advisors — the last thing that serves them is another firm attempting to duplicate or replace that work. Second, specialization at our depth requires constraint. We stay in our lane because it's how we remain exceptional at the one thing we do.

GTC™ operates under Circular 230. All fees are scoped as flat engagements. We do not attach fees to tax savings, percentages of retained earnings, or contingent outcomes. Fees are based on complexity. Engagements are developed in coordination with the client's independent legal, tax, and advisory team.

Leadership combining deep advanced-planning credentials with operating-business experience at scale.

Guardian Tax Consultants® was co-founded in 2011 by Alexander Jones and Michael Claudio. The pairing was deliberate: Alex's depth in advanced tax and financial strategy, married to Mike's discipline as a former owner-operator who built and exited a 350-person enterprise. The firm's methodology, governance, and back-end service architecture all trace to that combination.

Indaba 2025 · Speaking

Advanced MSO strategy keynote

Co-Founder & President · CEPA

Michael Claudio brings the operational discipline that defines how Guardian Tax Consultants delivers its work. Before co-founding GTC™, Mike was an owner-partner of an engineering and quality-control staffing firm that he and his partners grew to 350 employees and approximately $35M in revenue before exiting the business. That experience — building, running, and selling a privately held enterprise — informs every operational decision at GTC™.

His 25 years across quality control engineering and operations management produced an instinct for systems that scale without losing precision. At GTC™ that translates to engagement governance, documentation discipline, partner coordination, and the back-end service architecture that allows the firm to maintain consistent methodology across more than 100 active engagements in 50+ states.

Mike speaks regularly to advisor and CPA audiences on the operational side of MSO work — what makes engagements run, what causes them to fail, and how the GTC™ methodology is designed for examination-readiness where required. He recently joined a panel of industry leaders at the 3rd Annual ASE Business Excellence Symposium at the City Club of Greenville alongside Christopher D. Fagan (Moore Colson), Tom Zucker (EdgePoint Capital Advisors), Kyle Brown (First Trust), and Joe O'Shields (ASE Private Wealth) — discussing what sophisticated buyers prioritize and how early preparation influences valuation.

Where the work gets presented — and tested.

GTC™ regularly speaks at the conferences, retreats, and institutes where institutional advisors gather. The methodology is shaped by the rooms it gets presented in — and tested by them.

Penn Mutual Life Matters Podcast · Season 2, Episode 10 · 33 min · Hosted by Bill Bell, VP Advanced Sales

"Tax planning is one of the most pressing challenges for business owners… In this episode, Bill Bell is joined by Alex Jones, Founder of Guardian Tax Consultants, to break down the role of Management Services Organizations (MSOs) in advanced planning."

San Antonio — RIA channel conference; MSO frameworks for advisor practices serving business owners

Western & Southern Financial Group — onsite carrier strategy session on MSO frameworks within the carrier's advanced-planning channel

CPE-accredited continuing education delivered directly to partner accounting firms across multiple states

Scale, without losing discipline.

50+

States —
National Practice

Operational depth behind every engagement.

Beyond the co-founders, GTC™ maintains a dedicated team handling engagement coordination, documentation discipline, partner integration, and client service operations across more than 100 active engagements in 50+ states. The firm's institutional rhythm — from initial fact-pattern review through annual §482 governance — is held by people whose work is calibrated to the specific demands of MSO consulting.

The firm also retains specialist counsel through Of Counsel relationships covering tax law, fraud examination, and U.S. federal tax controversy. Independent legal counsel is engaged for entity formation and structural validation in every active jurisdiction, coordinated through the firm's Platform Partners.

Detailed team biographies, engagement coordination protocols, and partner onboarding materials are available to active platform partners through the Partner Resource Center.

What GTC™ does not do.

Defining the lane matters. Below are the boundaries of GTC's engagement so that advisors, deal teams, and family offices understand exactly what GTC provides and what stays with the client's independent counsel and tax advisors.

×   GTC™ does not provide legal opinions.

×   GTC™ does not prepare tax returns.

×   GTC™ does not replace the client's CPA, legal counsel, investment advisor, or family office.

×   GTC™ does not guarantee tax outcomes, audit results, §1202 eligibility, capital-gain treatment, estate-tax results, or investment performance.

×   GTC™ does not implement structures without coordination with the client's independent legal and tax advisors.

No outcome promises. No pre-packaged structures. Each engagement is evaluated against the client's facts, advisor environment, documentation, implementation, and applicable law. The platform provides the architecture and the coordination; the conclusions remain with the client's independent advisors.