What Issues Should I Consider Before The End Of The Year?

The end of the year provides a number of planning opportunities and issues for financial advisors to discuss with their clients. Issues to discuss can include tax planning issues, issues surrounding investment and retirement accounts, charitable giving, cash flow and savings, insurance and estate planning issues.

In this checklist, we cover a number of planning issues that your clients need to consider prior to year-end to ensure they stay on track, including:

• Various issues surrounding your investment and retirement accounts including matching capital gains against any investment losses in taxable investment accounts and ensuring that all RMDs are taken.
• Tax planning issues including moves dependent upon your client’s prospects for higher or lower income in the future. You will also want to review where they sit relative to their tax bracket as this is a good time to make moves to fill out their tax bracket for the current year that also might prove beneficial down the road.
• For clients who are charitably inclined, there are several strategies that will also help reduce their tax liability that can be considered based upon their situation.
• For clients who own a business, tax reform has created some opportunities surrounding pass-through income from the client’s business to their personal return. Accelerating or deferring business expenses presents another solid planning opportunity for these clients.
• It’s wise to review the client’s cash flow situation as you near year-end to see if they can fund a 529 plan for children or grandchildren or to see if they can save more in an HSA or employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k).

This is a comprehensive checklist of the types of year-end planning issues that advisors should be discussing with their clients to ensure they maximize cash flow and tax opportunities in the current year and beyond.

Updated for 2020 (including The SECURE ACT)