As 2025 closes and 2026 approaches, Ancora professionals from Investments, Planning and Life Insurance share their year-end best practices, the major themes shaping their work this year and where they see things going in 2026 and beyond.
Q: As we come up on year-end, what best practices do you encourage clients to consider as they wrap up 2025 and plan for 2026 and beyond?
A: (Jeff) Year-end, or shortly thereafter, is an ideal time for a comprehensive portfolio review. Key steps include:
- Review realized gains and losses in taxable accounts and perform tax-loss harvesting to reduce the overall tax burden. Many clients don’t realize how simple and powerful this can be. Losses can offset gains, plus up to $3,000 of ordinary income, with additional losses carried forward—just be mindful of wash-sale rules.
- Revisit asset allocation and risk tolerance. Market shifts and life changes can alter both your ability and willingness to take on risk. We rebalance in as tax-efficient a manner as possible and ensure proceeds align with upcoming liquidity needs.
- Improve asset location and reduce concentration. Placing tax-inefficient assets in retirement accounts and tax-efficient, growth-oriented assets in taxable accounts may enhance long-term results.
- Confirm adequate liquidity for short-term goals in the new year.
A: (Vanessa) Start with a Retirement Savings Check. Make sure you’re maximizing contributions to 401(k), 403(b), IRAs, and other plans—or at least contributing enough to get the full employer match. For 2025, catch-up contributions add another $7,500, and beginning in 2026, high-earner catch-ups will be Roth only. The SECURE Act’s “super catch-up” for ages 60–63—up to $11,250—remains a valuable planning window.
Then:
- Assess your tax bracket today vs. the future. This informs whether traditional or Roth contributions, or Roth conversions, may make sense.
Ensure RMDs are completed if you’re subject to them. - Review cash needs and confirm a 6–12 month emergency fund plus reserves for upcoming big-ticket expenses.
- Revisit household asset allocation and consider any year-end tax-loss harvesting with your advisor, especially after a high-income year.
- Plan philanthropic giving. Many charitable strategies can be paired with tax planning for maximum impact.
- Review beneficiaries and estate documents. Life changes, and your paperwork should reflect that.
- Complete annual gifting. The 2025 exclusion is $19,000 per person; gifts above that require a Form 709 gift tax return.
A: (Rick) Year-end is a perfect time to evaluate the insurance and risk-management side of your plan:
- Are policy owner and beneficiary designations up to date with estate plans and family changes?
- Are existing life insurance policies performing as expected?
- Have there been shifts in income, assets, debts or family needs that warrant adjustments?
- Should you revisit long-term care protection?
- For business owners: Is your buy-sell agreement or succession plan current, and does it still align with your objectives?
- For those with qualified retirement plan balances that will not be needed to produce income, consider redeploying those assets into life insurance which can produce a much larger tax-free benefit for family or philanthropic planning.
Q: What themes dominated your client conversations in 2025, and what do you see ahead for 2026 and beyond?
A: (Jeff) This year brought an unusually heavy flow of political and policy news, but clients were especially focused on high valuations in technology stocks, the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and the market volatility earlier in the year. Despite these concerns, markets have reached roughly twenty new highs.
Clients often worry when markets climb a “wall of worry,” but historically, markets can (and often do) continue rising after reaching new records. 2021, for example, saw seventy all-time highs. We expect similar dynamics to shape our conversations heading into 2026.
A: (Vanessa) The standout theme was The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which reshaped planning by:
- Making the TCJA tax brackets permanent.
- Raising the standard deduction and adding a senior deduction.
- Temporarily increasing the SALT deduction, prompting renewed itemizing strategies.
- Raising the estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million per person, leading to more lifetime gifting.
- Expanding QSBS opportunities for business owners.
- Reshaping charitable giving through new AGI floors, deduction caps and the introduction of an above-the-line charitable deduction.
Because some charitable deduction limitations begin in 2026, high earners have a short window to maximize 2025 giving under more favorable rules.
A: (Rick) In 2025, a good deal of our conversations centered around thorough reviews of clients’ life insurance portfolios and how well their coverage aligns with evolving planning goals. Many strong outcomes came from reorganizing or redeploying existing policies into more efficient structures.
Looking ahead to 2026, several trends will influence the field:
- AI tools increasingly assist with underwriting and policy performance projections.
- Accelerated underwriting programs continue to streamline the application process.
- Yet, for complex situations, we remain committed to a concierge, high-touch approach, even when that requires more time, because it consistently leads to better long-term results.
Q: While it’s easy to get excited about change, what doesn’t change in your fields—what basics should clients always focus on?
A: (Jeff) The fundamentals of intelligent investing never change. Successful investing requires:
- Patience
- Discipline
- Emotional control in both rising and falling markets
There’s broad agreement among great investors on what works. What often gets in the way is human behavior, namely distraction, emotion and the tendency to chase what’s new. Strong outcomes rarely happen by accident; they come from sticking to proven principles.
A: (Vanessa) Some timeless basics:
- Automate good decisions. Set automatic savings and transfers so emotion doesn’t derail your plan.
- Plan ahead for liquidity so you aren’t forced to time the market.
- Focus on long-term asset allocation aligned with your true risk tolerance and risk need.
- Keep your financial life simple. Consolidate where possible and use tools like the My Ancora client portal to stay organized.
- Align money with meaning. Goals matter more when tied to values.
- Review your plan annually. Ensure your insurance, estate documents, and key decision-makers still reflect your wishes.
Your advisor coordinates with your portfolio manager, financial planner, insurance consultant and other team members at Ancora to assist you with any remaining year-end planning needs. Be sure to address these as soon as possible to allow time for processing. We look forward to 2026 planning with you.