What to Focus on Heading into the New Year 

Written by: Anthony Striker, Senior Wealth Manager, Director of Wealth Management

As 2025 comes to a close, now is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and make deliberate decisions about your overall retirement plan. Taking action on these items can ensure you enter 2026 with a confident and well-positioned financial strategy. 

1. Revisit Your Risk Tolerance & Investment Strategy 

Markets, the economy, and our lives all change as we age. Make sure you’re comfortable not only with the volatility you’ve experienced recently in your portfolio, but also with the potential volatility that your current level of risk could create. Ask yourself, “Would I sleep well at night with my portfolio if the market fell 20-30%, or even more?” If you are unsure how this might impact your portfolio, or if you feel uncomfortable, now is the time to consider adjusting your risk allocation. At Wheelhouse, we will review your risk tolerance and allocation at least every six months for your plan.  

2. Lock in or reconfirm your Retirement Date 

If you are still working, nailing down your exact retirement date or month, or reconfirming it with your trusted Wheelhouse team can help with the timing on many other elements of your retirement journey. When planning for this date, don’t be too rigid and know that life happens. But having a default date to retire gives you and your portfolio better direction overall. 

3. Finalize Big Purchases, Trips, & Lifestyle Changes 

Whether it’s a big trip, a home renovation, or a new car, getting clarity on these purchases now can prevent surprises in the new year. Since “one-off” expenses like these can alter your withdrawal rate, you will want to make sure you are familiar with both your current withdrawal rate as well as what your rate would be if you had one of these large expenses, or even if your monthly withdrawals increased simply due to inflation. As a reminder, an ideal withdrawal rate for a secure and sustainable retirement is under 4%.  

4. Tax planning and Account Positioning 

Recap any Roth conversions, Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), or other “special” tax moves that you did in the current year and make sure to assess with your trusted advisor whether these may make sense again in the new year. Even if you do not nail down exact numbers for these types of moves, it can be very beneficial to have the “prep” conversations on these before the year is up, so you have a confident mindset around it going into the new year.  

5. Update Estate, Beneficiary, and Insurance Documents 

Make sure your intentions with your accounts and assets are still represented properly on all the above. Confirming beneficiaries on financial accounts, reviewing your estate planning documents to make sure you understand them and they are still fully relevant, and reassessing insurance coverages on all types of policies are a few proactive ways to certify you are moving into the new year with a full plan that makes sense for you.  

If you have any questions on the items above, please reach out to our Wheelhouse team. We are happy to answer any questions you have to make sure your new year starts as smoothly as possible!