End-of-Year Check-In: Are Your Investments Aligned with Your Estate Plan?

As the year winds down, it’s the perfect time to reflect on your financial goals and ensure your investments and estate plan are working together seamlessly. If you’ve experienced significant financial or personal changes this year — or even if you haven’t — an end-of-year check-in can help you maximize tax benefits, avoid costly mistakes, and keep your legacy on track.

Here are a few key areas to review before the clock strikes midnight on December 31.

1. Review Your Beneficiary Designations

Beneficiary designations on accounts like 401(k)s, IRAs, and life insurance policies override what’s written in your will or trust. This means outdated designations can cause unintended consequences.

Example: Imagine you remarried but forgot to update the beneficiary on your IRA. If your ex-spouse is still listed, they’ll inherit the account — even if your estate plan says otherwise. Double-check that all beneficiary designations reflect your current wishes.

2. Maximize Tax-Advantaged Gifting

The end of the year is your last chance to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion for 2024, which allows you to gift up to $18,000 per recipient without incurring gift taxes.

Example: If you want to reduce the size of your taxable estate, you could gift $18,000 to each of your three children and their spouses. If you’re married, you and your spouse can combine your exclusions to gift $36,000 per person, transferring up to $216,000 out of your estate in one year.

3. Consider Charitable Giving

Donating appreciated assets or setting up a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) can reduce your taxable income while supporting causes you care about.

Example: If you donate stock valued at $50,000 (originally purchased for $20,000) to a DAF, you avoid paying capital gains tax on the $30,000 appreciation and get a charitable deduction for the full $50,000, all while leaving a charitable legacy.

4. Align Your Investments with Your Estate Plan

Your estate plan and investment strategy should work hand-in-hand to protect and transfer your wealth efficiently. Consider whether your assets are properly titled and whether trusts could help reduce taxes or simplify transfers.

Example: If you’ve invested in rental properties, placing them in a revocable living trust can keep them out of probate, ensuring your heirs receive them quickly and efficiently.

Finish the Year Strong

A little year-end planning can go a long way toward securing your financial future and protecting your legacy. Whether you need to update beneficiary designations, make tax-savvy gifts, or ensure your investments align with your estate plan, taking action now can save you time, stress, and money later.

Contact us today to schedule your end-of-year estate planning review. Let’s make sure 2025 starts off right!

Charitable Planning: Beyond Tax and Legal Strategies

The following is a guest post by Erinn Andrews of The Give Team.

What life experiences shaped who you are and what you care about? What values guide how you raise your family and what legacy do you hope to leave behind? How do you give back? Do you volunteer, help family members in times of need, donate to your kid’s school? There are many different ways individuals give back and practice their culture’s traditions of generosity and care.

Charitable planning often comes up in the context of estate planning as we think about trusts, bequests, annuities, and strategies to potentially reduce your estate’s tax burden. In short, charitable giving in an estate planning context often amounts to testamentary giving—giving after we die. However, there’s more to charitable planning than many of the “tools” we traditionally think about in this context.

For charitably inclined clients in the busy life phase of growing their wealth and their families, here are some simple and effective ways to be thoughtful about giving back without having to carve out lots of extra time.

Vision/Strategy: Spend an evening on your own or with your partner talking about what values are important to you. What causes and populations do you care about? What geographies are priority areas?

Budget/Vehicle: The next time you meet with your financial advisor, ask them to help you figure out which types of assets you should be donating to charity (hint: if you have appreciated assets like stock, it’s often advantageous to donate that rather than cash). Ask your advisor if a donor-advised fund might be a good charitable vehicle to keep track of your donations in one place. And ask Shafae Law about what other tax strategies and estate planning strategies make sense for your situation!

Family Engagement: Discuss whether you want to involve your family, if at all. Do you want to give your kids a gift-giving budget, find volunteer opportunities, etc.? How would you like to instill your values in your children?

Grantmaking: Chances are, there are many amazing nonprofits out there working on the topics you care about. Explore going beyond the “usual suspects” (like your alma mater, kids’ school, religious institution, and large-brand-name-nonprofit). There are lots of local, often smaller, community-based nonprofits doing incredible work where your donations can go extra far. You might do online searches for foundations that support causes you care about to learn about the great nonprofits they’re funding. You can take advantage of the due diligence these funders have already conducted to know these are likely very strong organizations.

Some folks like to lead themselves through these steps, while others prefer to work with a trusted advisor to help them along the way. With GiveTeam, we walk individuals or couples through a 1-hour Reflection Session in which we discuss their values and develop a charitable mission statement. Then, a few weeks later, we schedule a 45-minute Delivery Meeting in which we present 9-12 US-based (often local) nonprofits we’ve hand-picked for you to consider funding based on your strategy. And just like Shafae Law, we charge a flat-fee for this service making it an incredibly accessible option for folks like yourself.

Whether you engage with a firm like GiveTeam or guide yourself through these suggestions, we encourage you to spend some time reflecting on what you care about and being intentional with your charitable planning, just as you are with your financial planning and estate planning. And then, come December, you can spend more time relaxing with family rather than rushing through your end-of-year checklist.

Erinn Andrews
erinn@thegiveteam.com
www.thegiveteam.com