Hazel

Altruist built Hazel for the advisors who custody with it, and that fact should shape any accounting firm's read of the product. Altruist is a US custodian, and Hazel is the AI software it offers to the advisory firms in that orbit. The tax planning agent takes uploaded documents, 1040s, W-2s, paystubs and 1099s, or pulls what it needs from the firm's CRM and custodial records, then produces a personalized set of recommendations. Scenarios recalculate live, so a Roth conversion, a change in withdrawal sequencing or a life event can be shown to a client during a meeting rather than after it. The output is an interactive client report and a tax letter with talking points attached, which is a deliverable shaped for a review meeting.

The buyer is different from the reader of this directory, and that is the honest headline. Hazel's homepage counts more than 1,000 advisory firms and 1,500 active advisors, names Ritholtz Wealth Management and Root Financial among its users, and never addresses CPA firm workflows at all. There is no e-file, no return preparation, no integration with Lacerte, UltraTax, Drake or CCH Axcess, and no notion of an engagement letter or a busy season. A tax firm evaluating this is evaluating a wealth management tool that happens to do tax planning competently, not a peer of the products it would otherwise be comparing.

The mechanics have gaps a tax professional will notice. Neither the product page nor the pricing page commits to which projection calculations run underneath, so AMT, net investment income tax, QBI phase-outs and the excess business loss limitation are unverified, and state tax coverage is not described anywhere public. The security page is candid and reads well, with US-only processing, AES-256 at rest, zero data retention with AI model providers and a November 2025 independent penetration test, but the certification is SOC 2 Type I rather than Type II, which is a meaningful distinction for a firm handling client tax data. Pricing is per seat, so a six-person team pays $900 a month for the tax tier before anyone has produced a plan, which compares poorly with a household-based model.

Holistiplan is the direct comparison and the more sensible purchase for most accounting firms. Both are advisor-first, both read a return rather than importing it from tax software, but Holistiplan charges by household with unlimited users and has years of survey placement behind it. Intuit Tax Advisor costs a Lacerte or ProConnect firm nothing extra and is therefore the first thing to rule out before paying $150 a seat for anything.

One-to-watch holds, and the reason is fit rather than quality. Hazel appears to be a well-built product with real users, a serious parent company and a credible security posture. It is aimed at RIAs and wealth managers, priced for them, and integrated with their systems rather than a tax practice's. An accounting firm buying it would be buying against the grain of the roadmap. If the product ever picks up tax software imports and a Type II report, that assessment should change.