Use this Comprehensive Checklist to Guide your Planning

A lot can change in a year: your income, your investments, your family’s needs or your plans for retirement. Before the calendar turns, take a closer look at whether your financial plan still reflects where you are today and what you want to accomplish next.

Reviewing your retirement savings, investment portfolio and charitable giving with your advisors can help you spot opportunities to reduce taxes, address gaps and keep your goals on track. Starting early gives you time to weigh your options and make thoughtful decisions before year-end deadlines arrive.

Use the checklist below to identify what needs attention and guide conversations with your wealth and tax advisors.

  • Maximize Retirement Plan Contributions

For 2026, the IRS raised contribution limits for workplace retirement plans, such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans, as well as IRAs. If you haven’t maxed out your contributions to those plans during the year, you can make extra contributions at year-end if you have the cash. A year-end bonus at work can help achieve this. Maximizing your retirement plan contributions each year is a key strategy for ensuring a comfortable retirement and lower tax bill.

For 2026, you can contribute up to $24,500 to a workplace retirement plan, with an additional catch-up contribution of $8,000 if you are age 50 or older. For workers between ages 60 and 63, a “super catch-up” contribution of $11,500 can be made. The maximum contribution to an IRA is $7,500, with an $1,100 catch-up contribution.

If you are self-employed and you haven’t already done so, you have until Dec. 31, to open and fund a new Individual 401(k), profit sharing or defined benefit plan.  for the current tax year. Additionally, you have until your tax filing deadline next year to open and fund a SIMPLE or SEP IRA plan.

  • Review Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

The age at which RMDs are required is now 73, and retirement savers have until Dec. 31 to make their required minimum distribution for 2026 from most IRAs and workplace retirement plans. Penalties for not taking the RMD can range up to 25%, so the IRS is serious about this. Your investment house should inform you of the amount of your RMD.

It’s important to remember that inherited IRAs and some workplace retirement plans have different rules relating to RMDs, so be sure you understand what your requirements are. For instance, if you inherited an IRA as a non-spouse, you may be subject to RMDs even if you are under 73 years of age. If you are in this situation, be sure to talk with an advisor about what you need to do.

  • Consider a Roth Conversion

Talk with your tax advisor about locking in current tax rates by converting your traditional IRA or 401(k) to a Roth account. Such a move comes with a conversion tax bill, so you will need to plan how that will be paid. But it will save you significantly more in future taxes, since future qualified withdrawals will be tax-free. The deadline for making a Roth conversion for 2026 is Dec. 31.

  • Investment Portfolio Review with Advisor

An annual review of your investment portfolio with your advisor is a critical piece of financial planning and year-end preparation. This is the time to look at asset allocations to make sure your portfolio is still aligned with meeting your goals on your timeline. With the equity growth that has occurred over the past three years, it may be important to rebalance your portfolio. If so, be sure to work with your investment and tax advisors.

With the economy and the markets giving mixed signals, fine tuning your asset allocations for the coming year may require a wait-and-see approach. Strong equity growth has generated high price/earnings ratios, with the S&P 500 P/E currently at 26.48 (as of late September), well above its long-term average of 19.7. However, stubborn inflation remains a wild card when it comes to reviewing and rebalancing a portfolio. The most important factor is to work with your financial and tax advisors, especially if you are within three to five years of retiring.

  • Evaluate Tax Loss Harvesting

Work with your advisors to determine if you would benefit from accelerating income for the current year or deferring income to next year. Either strategy may benefit you, depending on your income and your assets’ appreciation. What worked last year may not be the best option for this year, so it’s important to discuss your current situation with your advisor before making a move.

If lowering your income for the current year would benefit you, consider tax loss harvesting, which involves selling investments that are showing a loss for the year and using those losses to offset gains, as well as offsetting up to $3,000 of ordinary income (married, filing jointly). However, beware of the wash sale rules, which penalize you for buying substantially identical securities within 30 days of a sale. For now, crypto is exempt from the wash sale rules, but things could change. Check with your tax advisor before making a crypto move.

  • Maximize your Health Savings Account (HSA)

Maximizing your contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA) by April 15, 2027 can unlock significant tax benefits, including deductions on the contributions, tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals for qualified healthcare expenses. Contributions limits for an HSA in 2026 are $4,400 for individual coverage and $8,750 for family coverage. Individuals aged 55 or older can make an extra $1,000 catch-up contribution for either individual or family coverage.

  • Use Remaining Flex Spending Account Funds

Some years, it may seem there aren’t enough Flex Spending dollars to meet your needs, while other years you are scrambling to spend all the money you have set aside before the end of the year. If the latter applies this year, remember that eligible items now include many over-the-counter products and medications. Moreover, the carryover limit has been raised to $660. If you need ideas about how to use Flex dollars, visit the FSA section of healthcare retailers’ websites for ideas.

  • Contribute to Educational Savings Accounts

Besides building your child’s or grandchild’s 529 plan, adding money to the plan by December 31 could unlock state tax benefits, as well, if your state offers them. Talk with your tax advisor to get the facts. Additionally, prepaying tuition for the spring semester of 2027 can maximize education credits like the American Opportunity Tax Credit. If you want to make a major move toward education savings, you can front load up to five years of the annual gift tax exclusion — $95,000, or $190,000 if you’re splitting gifts with a spouse — without triggering a gift tax. You must file IRS Form 709 to do this, and a discussion with your tax advisor would be a very good idea.

And if you’re planning ahead — first of all, good for you. Just remember that the timing and ownership of income, assets and gifts have important implications for college financial aid formulas. Aid formulas typically look back two years, so if you have a high school sophomore this year who is college-bound, talk to your tax advisor now or a college financial aid advisor.

  • Discuss Charitable Contributions

Charitable giving will look a little different this year, owing to significant changes made in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB tax bill) enacted in 2025. Here are the major changes:

  • Above-the-line charitable deduction for non-itemizers — Effective for the 2026 tax year, single filers will be able to make up to a $1,000 charitable donation, and married couples filing jointly a $2,000 charitable donation, without itemizing. This provision is permanent and is not indexed for inflation. Donations to donor-advised funds or private non-operating foundations do not qualify.
  • New floor on charitable deductions for itemizers — Effective for the 2026 tax year, itemizers who make charitable contributions will only be able to claim a deduction to the extent that their qualified contributions exceed 0.5% of their adjusted gross income (AGI). That means a formerly fully deductible charitable contribution now must be reduced by 0.5% of an individual’s contribution base for the tax year.
  • New limits to deductions for itemizers in the top tax bracket — Effective for the 2026 tax year, the tax benefits of itemized charitable deductions are capped at 35% for those in the 37% marginal tax bracket.

Given these changes, taxpayers would be well advised to discuss their charitable giving plans with their tax advisors before Dec. 31, 2026, to ensure they understand the tax ramifications of their giving this year.

  • Make the Most of Gifting

The annual gift tax exemption — the amount you may gift to a recipient without triggering a gift tax — remains $19,000 in 2026, or double that for married filers who split gifts. Gifting can help reduce the value of your estate without using the lifetime exemption of $15 million per individual. Working with an advisor to craft a long-range gifting plan can have beneficial effects on your estate plan, and can help you plan with intention how you may be able to help family members.

  • Review your Estate Plan and Account Beneficiaries

Your estate plan should be reviewed approximately every three to four years, but it’s a good idea to take a brief look every year to make sure beneficiary designations are current and correct on your 401(k), IRAs, pensions, HSAs, life insurance, wills and trusts to ensure they still reflect your wishes.

Other Year-End Tasks

  • Notify your advisors about major life events such as marriage, divorce, births, deaths, relocation or career and income changes.
  • Revisit your risk management instruments such as life insurance and long-term care insurance
  • Anticipate and discuss with your advisors any expected wealth events that may occur in the coming year, such as a large inheritance.

Questions?

Contact an Adams Brown advisor today for help in putting together a meaningful year-end review of your financial life.