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12/01/2025

Year-End Planning: What to Do Before the End of 2025

By Frazer Rice 

The end of 2025 is fast approaching and tax season is around the corner. Before you start looking toward the new year, don’t forget about year-end planning. Reviewing your finances with care and intentionality can help you save money on taxes, preserve your family’s wealth, and avoid costly investment pitfalls.

When assisting clients with year-end planning, I help them create personalized strategies. Those strategies often include these key steps.

Review and Update Your Estate Plan

It’s generally wise to revisit your estate plan after major life changes like marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child. However, reviewing your estate plan at the end of each year can also help you identify and remedy potential problems.

This year, including an estate plan review in your year-end planning is particularly important. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed in 2025, permanently increased the lifetime gift and estate tax exemptions. 

If you’re like many people, your estate plan may have been designed with a lower exemption in mind. Review any existing trusts to verify they’re still serving your needs. You might also consider establishing a new trust. For example, if you want to lock in high exemption amounts while allowing your spouse to access the funds if needed, a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) is worth considering.

These are a few other steps to take:

  • Review and update beneficiary designations.
  • Take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion, education exclusion, and medical exclusion for tax-free wealth transfer.
  • Consider trust-owned life insurance to minimize taxes.

If you have a family business, don’t forget to update your succession plan (or establish one for the first time) as part of your year-end planning.

Optimize Tax Strategies

The OBBBA creates ample opportunities for proactive year-end planning:

Charitable Giving

If you’re in the top income tax bracket, you might consider making charitable donations this year instead of next. In 2026, the OBBBA is set to change the maximum charitable donation deduction to 35%. Itemized charitable deductions only apply if you donate at least 0.5% of your AGI.

Donor-Advised Funds

With a donor-advised fund (DAF), you receive an immediate tax deduction after funding your account. You can maximize your gifts and minimize your tax burden by donating appreciated stocks.

Review Investments for Tax Efficiency

A careful review of your investments may reveal opportunities for even greater tax efficiency. We can also help you craft an intelligent tax-loss harvesting strategy.

Roth Conversions

Converting funds in your traditional IRA to a Roth may shield you from rising income tax rates. Once in the Roth account, your funds can enjoy tax-free growth.

Diversify and Safeguard Assets

The trifecta of inflation, market volatility, and ongoing economic uncertainty makes shielding your assets even more important. Your year-end planning should involve a review of your portfolio’s resilience. Updating your umbrella policy and insuring high-value assets may help insulate you from unexpected losses.

Strengthening your cybersecurity should be part of your year-end planning as well. As the use of AI becomes commonplace, it is easier for bad actors to steal sensitive personal and financial information. Always use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.

Focus on Intergenerational Strategies

If you’re like most people, you aren’t preserving wealth only for yourself; you’re hoping to pass it on to the next generation. If you haven’t already, start involving your children and grandchildren in discussions about wealth. 

Hold regular family meetings to discuss philanthropy and overarching financial goals. When you help your heirs become financially literate, you’re helping them become responsible stewards of wealth.

Need Help With Year-End Planning?

End-of-year financial housekeeping can be overwhelming. This is particularly true if you’re an ultra-high-net-worth individual. At Next Vantage, we help you find clarity, coordination, and control across your wealth ecosystem.

If you’re unsure of how to start your year-end planning, our team is here to help. Schedule a conversation or referral introduction by calling (212) 433-1108 or emailing frice@nextcapitalmgmt.com.

About Frazer

Frazer Rice is Director of Family Office Services and a Partner at Next Vantage, the Family Office Services group of Next Capital Management in New York City. With more than two decades of experience advising ultra-high-net-worth families, Frazer helps clients bring structure, clarity, and coordination to complex wealth. He specializes in intergenerational planning, fiduciary strategy, and family governance, helping clients manage both the financial and human sides of wealth. Known for his sharp, strategic thinking, Frazer provides a board of directors-level perspective, helping families identify risks, organize priorities, and align advisors around long-term goals.

Before joining Next Capital, he served as Regional Director at Pendleton Square Trust and spent 16 years at Wilmington Trust, where he rose to Managing Director in the New York office. He is the author of Wealth, Actually: Intelligent Decision-Making for the 1% and host of the Wealth Actually podcast, exploring the modern wealth ecosystem.

Frazer earned his BA in Political Science and History from Duke University and his JD from Emory University School of Law. He serves as President of the New York City Estate Planning Council and is a frequent speaker on wealth management and family dynamics. A Manhattan resident, his interests include golf, yoga, media production, politics, horror movies, and 1980s pop culture. To learn more about Frazer, connect with him on LinkedIn.


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