Time for a Financial Review
Confirm beneficiary designations. A short review of retirement accounts, insurance policies, and other payable-on-death assets can uncover outdated names, overlooked accounts, or opportunities to reflect new priorities and relationships.
Update estate planning documents. Wills, trusts, and directives work best when they evolve with you. Areas to concentrate on include; ensuring your structure is clear, eliminating potential uncertainty for others, and making room for any new intentions you want represented.
Review insurance coverage. Look across your all your policies, including home, auto, liability, disability, long-term care, and life, to confirm that the coverage still fits your needs, protects your assets, and still reflects your risk tolerance. Pay attention to gaps or outdated limits that could leave you exposed during an unexpected event.
Review investment portfolio. Portfolios tell a story about past decisions. Revisiting yours can help spot imbalances, confirm that your risk level still feels right, and provides an opportunity to adjust your mix to support the direction you’re heading next.
Conduct a tax review. Review potential strategies such as loss harvesting, contribution adjustments, income timing, or new legislative opportunities so that your tax picture stays efficient. Explore whether upcoming life events may offer additional ways to improve your overall tax position.
Evaluate charitable giving plans. Revisit your giving philosophy and logistics to ensure your contributions reflect your values, make the intended impact, and take advantage of the most effective giving structures. Explore whether certain causes or community needs have become more meaningful to you over the past year. And if you have not already done so, consider whether a donor-advised-fund is right for you.
Revisit business succession plans. Examine leadership continuity, ownership transitions, and contingency plans so the business remains stable and purposeful regardless of future changes. Make space to adjust roles or expectations as your company grows and your vision becomes more defined.
Personal risk changes. Events such as co-signing a loan, taking on side projects, informal partnerships, or assuming responsibilities for family members can shift your risk profile in ways that standard planning doesn’t automatically capture. A yearly scan helps you notice where new exposures may be and whether its something that needs addressing.
Lifestyle inflation patterns. Looking at how your lifestyle has changed over the past year, not in a restrictive way but rather with curiosity, giving you a chance to identify shifts that could impact your financial situation.
Hidden concentration in your financial life. Concentration of assets in one class or entity is a risk that needs to be defined, observed, and changed if warranted. But concentration shows up in other places: your career being tied to a single industry, real estate located in one region, or income streams dependent on the same economic forces. Reviewing these patterns each year helps you identify where your financial life might be leaning too heavily in one direction without you realizing it.
So enjoy the holidays, and use this time to reflect, including your financial life.