Your Year-End Financial Checklist

As the year wraps up, it’s a natural time to revisit your goals and ensure the important areas of your financial life are on track. Below are several key topics to review as you prepare for the year ahead.

Investments

Set a goal to review your investments with your financial professional. You’ll want to come away from the meeting with an understanding of your portfolio positions. Look over your portfolio positions and revisit your asset allocation. Remember, asset allocation and diversification are approaches to help manage investment risk. They do not guarantee against investment loss.

Retirement Strategy

Consider reviewing your current retirement account contributions, including opportunities to maximize deposits to these accounts. This may also be an appropriate time to evaluate catch-up contribution eligibility and determine whether to take advantage of these options.

Taxes

It’s a good idea to consider checking in with your tax or legal professional before the year ends, especially if you have questions about an expense or deduction from this year. Also, it may be prudent to review any sales of property as well as both realized and unrealized losses and gains. Look back at last year’s loss carried forward. If you’ve sold securities, gather up cost-basis information. As always, bringing all this information to your financial professional is wise.

Charitable Gifting

Plan charitable contributions or contributions to education accounts and make any desired cash gifts to family members. The annual federal gift tax exclusion allows you to give away up to $19,000 in 2025. Such gifts do not count against the lifetime estate tax exemption amount as long as they stay beneath the annual federal gift tax exclusion threshold. Besides outright gifts, you can explore creating and funding trusts on behalf of your family. The end of the year is also an excellent time to review any trusts. Using a trust involves a complex set of tax rules and regulations. Before moving forward with a trust, consider working with a professional who is familiar with the rules and regulations.

Life Insurance

The end of the year is an excellent time to double-check that your policies and beneficiaries are up to date. Don’t forge to review premium costs and beneficiaries and consider whether your insurance needs have changed. Several factors could impact the cost and availability of life insurance, such as age, health, the type of insurance purchased, and the amount purchased. Life insurance policies have expenses, including mortality and other charges. If a policy is surrendered prematurely, you may pay surrender charges, which could have income tax implications. Before implementing a life insurance strategy, you should consider determining whether you are insurable. Finally, remember that any guarantees associated with a policy are dependent on the ability of the issuing insurance company to continue making claim payments.

Life Events

Evaluating any significant life changes in the last year: 

• Marital status
• Moving
• Changing jobs
• Buying a home 
• Starting a business 
• Inheritance 
• Gifts
• Additions to the family

All these circumstances can financially impact your life and how you invest and plan for retirement and wind down your career or business. While it’s likely that you have discussed these matters with your financial professional already this year, bring them up in your review.