I'll be honest with you: this year hasn't gone quite the way I planned. Between unexpected challenges and the general chaos that seems to define life in 2025, I found myself in early October wondering where the year had gone.
But here's what I've realized as we head into the fourth quarter—there's still time. I have revisited my goals and vision for this year and have realized that if I buckle down and focus on what really matters, I can reach the vast majority of my January objectives. It's not too late for any of us to make 2025 count, and sometimes that realization is exactly the spark we need to finish strong. With that in mind, here are a handful of things for you to think about over the next month.
Year-End Planning You Can Control
As I’ve written before, there are many issues with the July tax bill, but as we turn toward year-end, it is nice to have clarity on the estate tax exemption limits. The rush for year-end tax planning that we were all bracing for? We can take a collective breath—that pressure is off. That said, there are still some smart moves you can make before December 31st rolls around.
Review Your Beneficiary Designations During Open Enrollment. Your beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other accounts supersede your will and trust. Open enrollment is the perfect reminder to check that all your designations reflect your current wishes. Make sure you've named both primary and contingent beneficiaries, verify that you've updated designations after major life events (marriage, divorce, births, deaths), and confirm your choices still make sense with your overall estate plan.
529 Education Savings Contributions. You can contribute up to $19,000 per beneficiary ($38,000 if married filing jointly) in 2025 without triggering gift tax consequences. Even better, there's a special "superfunding" provision that allows you to contribute up to five years' worth of contributions at once—that's $95,000 per beneficiary ($190,000 for couples)—though you'll need to file a gift tax return and elect to spread it over five years. If education funding is part of your plan, December 31st is your deadline. While you are making these contributions, consider checking your 529 to make sure you have moved it into your trust or that you have named a successor owner to assume your role if you die or become incapacitated.
Plan Your Charitable Giving Strategy. The new tax law increases the standard deduction, which can reduce the tax benefit of charitable giving. Consider bunching multiple years of charitable contributions into one year to exceed the standard deduction threshold, exploring a donor-advised fund with your financial advisor that allows you to take an immediate tax deduction while distributing gifts over time, or if you're over 70½, making qualified charitable distributions directly from your IRA (up to $105,000 in 2025) which can satisfy your required minimum distribution without increasing your taxable income.
Make Annual Exclusion Gifts. You can gift up to $19,000 per person ($38,000 if you're married and split gifts with your spouse) in 2025 without filing a gift tax return or using any of your lifetime estate tax exemption. This limit resets every January 1st, so if you want to reduce your taxable estate or help family members with down payments, tuition, or other needs, December is your deadline. You can make these gifts to as many people as you want—children, grandchildren, other family members, or even friends.
Review Your Estate Planning Documents. If it's been more than three to five years since you last reviewed your wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and health care directives, the new year is the perfect prompt to schedule a review. Life changes—births, deaths, marriages, divorces, relocations to new states, changes in financial circumstances, or changes in relationships with named executors or trustees—can make documents outdated quickly.
The Conversations That Matter Most
Once you've got your own financial house in order, I want to encourage you to tackle something that's often harder than any paperwork: the family conversations. And if you're part of the sandwich generation—caring for aging parents while still supporting adult children—I see you. These conversations can feel overwhelming when you're pulled in multiple directions, but they're also some of the most important investments you can make in your family's future.
Talking with Your Aging Parents. Use the holidays as a natural opportunity to broach these topics with your parents. Ask if they have updated estate planning documents and know where the originals are located. My best advice is not to take their word on it: look at the documents yourself or ask our office to review them. Dig into the details of their finances.
I know how awkward these conversations are. I often tell clients that parents tend to fall into the spreadsheet at Thanksgiving group or the total blackbox group. If your parents are in the blackbox group, consider appealing to them on a personal level by letting them know how much easier they will make your life if you can have an open conversation. If that doesn’t work, try telling them how much money it will ultimately save them to share details now.
Talking with Your Adult Children. If you have adult children, the holidays are also a good time to share your own plans with them and encourage them to start their own estate planning—even young families need basic wills, health care directives, and guardianship designations for minor children. Modeling this openness shows them that these conversations don't have to be morbid or taboo; they're simply responsible planning. And if your child is more of an adult in number than in behavior, consider our College Care Plan to allow you to take control if needed.
As we head into the final stretch of the year, let's commit to supporting each other in achieving our goals—whether that's financial planning, family communication, or simply being more intentional about what we want our legacies to look like. Here's to finishing what we started.
Be sure to talk to your financial advisor about each of these. We at Bequest love partnering with excellent advisors but do not give financial advice ourselves. If you need a great advisor, just ask!