Wow, December is already here! Are you in good shape with your important planning? We've cranked it up helping clients get organized and updated. Our founder Harry Barth gives you some great tips below...
Every year around this time, our phones start ringing with the same question:
“Is there anything we should be doing before year-end for our estate plan?”
For many families, the answer is absolutely yes. Life moves fast—kids grow up, parents age, assets appreciate, and laws change.
And as we enter the final weeks of the year, small oversights can turn into big legal problems if left unattended.
To show how impactful year-end planning can be, let’s look at the story of the Smart family.
A Real-World Example: The Smarts’ Year-End Wake-Up Call
Mark and Jessica Smart are a married couple in their 50s with two adult children. They own a primary home, a rental property, and have retirement accounts and life insurance. Like many families, they set up a living trust almost a decade ago and never really looked at it again.
In early December, Mark’s mother passed away. Suddenly, Mark was dealing with her estate—probate court, outdated beneficiaries, and assets left outside of a trust. It was stressful, costly, and time-consuming.
That experience was a wake-up call. They realized that their own plan had similar gaps. Their trust was outdated, beneficiaries hadn’t been reviewed in years, the rental property LLC wasn’t properly maintained, and their daughter’s new special-needs diagnosis raised new planning issues.
By taking action before year-end, they avoided tax surprises, locked in key protections, corrected beneficiary errors, and updated their trust so it matched their current reality—not the snapshot from 2014.
Their story is extremely common.
Here are the most important end-of-year legal issues families need to evaluate now.
1. Review Your Living Trust, Will & Powers of Attorney (Big Life Changes = Mandatory Updates)
The end of the year is the perfect time to update your core legal documents if any of the following occurred:
- Marriage, divorce, remarriage
- New children or grandchildren
- A child turning 18
- Death or incapacity of a family member
- Someone named in your documents moving away
- Significant asset changes
- A business purchase or sale
The most common problem we see? Old trustees, old beneficiaries, and outdated instructions.
Your plan is a living document. If it doesn’t reflect your current family, assets, and wishes, it can fail when you need it most.
2. Make Sure Your Assets Are Actually in Your Trust
This is the #1 cause of unnecessary probate.
Every December, we discover:
- Homes that were refinanced and accidentally taken out of the trust
- Rental properties bought in the owner’s name instead of the LLC
- Bank accounts never retitled
- New brokerage accounts without a trust designation
If your trust isn’t properly funded, it doesn’t work.
Year-end is the perfect moment to clean this up.
3. Confirm and Update All Beneficiary Designations
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities do not follow the instructions in your living trust—they follow the beneficiary listed on the account.
Every year we uncover surprises:
- Ex-spouses still listed
- Deceased parents
- Minor children named directly (a major legal problem)
- No contingent beneficiary
- Outdated percentages
One simple review can prevent court involvement, tax issues, and family conflict.
4. Evaluate Tax-Sensitive Moves Before December 31
Year-end is critical for several tax-driven planning decisions:
✔ Charitable Gifts
Highly appreciated assets, donor-advised funds, IRA charitable rollovers for those 70½+, and year-end gifting strategies can all reduce taxes.
✔ Gifting to Children
If appropriate, families can leverage the annual exclusion gifts or make strategic transfers into irrevocable trusts.
✔ Capital Gains Planning
Especially relevant for property owners or business owners considering a sale.
Your tax and legal advisors should be aligned on any moves before year end.
5. LLC Housekeeping: Operating Agreements & Asset Protection
For business owners and rental-property owners, December is when we clean up:
- No operating agreement or an outdated one
- Properties titled incorrectly
- Commingling between personal and business accounts
- Old managers or members listed
If you don’t follow the rules, attorneys can “pierce the veil” and go after personal assets in a lawsuit. Year-end is your chance to shore this up so you start January fully protected.
6. Life Insurance Review (Often Ignored but Critically Important)
Life insurance is one of the most mismanaged assets we see.
Year-end is ideal for:
- Reviewing beneficiaries
- Checking policy performance
- Confirming the policy aligns with your estate plan
- Evaluating whether premiums or coverage still make sense
- Ensuring policies are owned by the correct entity (trust vs. individual)
For many clients, life insurance is the cornerstone of estate equalization—especially when there’s a home, a business, or rental properties.
7. Digital Assets & Passwords
A modern estate plan must include access to:
- Banking and bill-pay apps
- Social media
- Cloud storage
- Cryptocurrency
- Digital business systems
Make sure your successor trustee knows how to access critical accounts if something happens.
8. Planning for Aging Parents
This is one of the biggest year-end issues we’re seeing nationwide.
Questions to address now:
- Do your parents have a current trust?
- Who is the successor trustee?
- Are powers of attorney durable and updated?
- Where are the documents stored?
- Are there bank accounts with no beneficiaries?
- Are there outdated or missing life-insurance designations?
Families who handle this proactively avoid massive problems and cost.
9. Preparing Kids for Inheritance (One of the Most Overlooked Issues)
Once children become adults, the conversation changes.
Year-end is perfect for:
- Introducing them to the family’s estate attorney
- Giving them basic instructions
- Discussing roles (trustee, executor, health agent)
- Explaining what they would actually have to do
This avoids confusion, conflict, and legal missteps later.
The Bottom Line: Year-End Planning Protects Families from Avoidable Trouble
Families who schedule a simple year-end review typically discover at least one major issue:
- A missing beneficiary
- An outdated trust
- A rental property outside the LLC
- A bank account in the wrong name
- A child listed directly on an account
- A deceased or inappropriate trustee
- A parent with no current documents
You don’t want your family—or your trustees—dealing with avoidable court battles, taxes, or delays.
A year-end legal review is the smartest financial move most families can make.