Year-End With Intention: Reflect, Realign, Recommit

As another year draws to a close, you might find yourself reflecting on what went well and what could be improved for 2026. Now’s the time to consider your values and find opportunities to realign your wealth with what matters most. A year-end review may start with some financial basics (portfolio performance and tax assessments), but also consider this your chance to examine those less tangible aspects of success—your family’s greater purpose, relationships, and legacy.

As you consider how your financial decisions can effectively support the life you want to live, it’s essential to take a holistic view that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative measures. Here are a few tips for conducting your family’s year-end financial review with greater intention.

Measure Your Personal Goals & Highlight Your “Wins”

Financial planning and goal assessments often center on measurable outcomes like net worth growth or investment performance. While those benchmarks matter, they’re only part of the story. Your family’s end-of-year reflection should begin with a clear understanding of your personal goals (financial and non-financial) and a willingness to evaluate your progress honestly.

This means having open conversations about what’s working well and where priorities may have shifted throughout the year. If you’re a multigenerational family, parents and grandparents can help model healthy financial behavior by involving the younger generations in these discussions and explaining how certain choices connect back to shared family goals.

Celebrating “wins” from the year can also help keep your family’s positive momentum going, especially for younger generations. When you recognize important milestones, such as a successful business transition or a consistent charitable giving practice, it reinforces positive behavior and reminds families of the purpose behind their planning.

Talk As a Family

For wealth to truly serve its purpose, you should all share a sense of understanding and commitment. As a family, your year-end meeting is an opportunity to discuss your shared vision for the future.

If your family has a hard time discussing wealth without conflict, it may be more productive to meet in a neutral, comfortable place (like a coffee shop), rather than someone’s home. Doing so can help foster openness, alleviate tension, and prevent anyone from feeling like they have the upper hand.

Financial advisors can serve as facilitators when these (sometimes) difficult discussions happen and offer their unbiased, objective perspective to ensure every voice is heard.

Including adult children in these discussions can be especially valuable for families preparing to pass down wealth. Keep in mind that a family member’s maturity, rather than their age, should determine their readiness to participate in big-picture discussions. Often, adult children bring fresh perspectives or creative ideas to the table, which can help keep the family’s wealth plan moving in a positive direction for all involved. Their engagement today can help ensure a smooth transition of wealth in the future, when the time comes to navigate the family’s financial legacy.

Discuss Your Charitable Giving Goals

For families who give regularly, the last few months of the year are an ideal time to evaluate whether their charitable commitments still align with their values and impact goals.

Instead of writing checks to familiar organizations, consider revisiting the “why” behind your giving. Philanthropy goals often stem from a personal connection to a cause, so consider:

• Which causes resonate most deeply with you right now?
• How has your family’s experience shaped those priorities?
• How do you weigh supporting local versus global needs?

If your primary motivation for donating is tax savings, keep in mind that charitable giving is a deduction, meaning you won’t receive a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes. For example, if you’re in the 24% tax bracket and donate $1,000, you’d save about $240 in taxes, not $1,000.

Additionally, the IRS imposes limitations on deductions, which can affect your gift-giving strategy from a tax perspective. You may want to discuss your charitable giving intentions with an advisor to determine the most effective strategy for supporting an important cause while optimizing the potential tax savings.

Prepare to Navigate 2026 as Unified Front

Every individual brings their own perception of wealth to the table, which is often shaped by personal experiences, childhood memories, and (in some cases) challenges or trauma. Your perspective on wealth can often differ from that of your spouse, parents, siblings, or other relatives.

Before the new year, take some time to have an open and honest dialogue about money. Identify your shared goals with other family members while learning more about your separate priorities. Beyond goals, you can discuss other values and factors that influence your financial decision-making, such as your appetite for risk, preferred investment style, and more.

If retirement is on the horizon, it can be a good idea to have conversations about what your ideal retirement lifestyle looks like. Often, spouses or partners assume they’re on the same page about the bigger picture—when they’ll retire, where they’ll retire to, and what they’ll do with their time in retirement. If you aren’t discussing these visions together, you’re running on assumptions about what your loved one wants.

Once you’ve discussed the broader vision for retirement, don’t forget to delve into the details that will help you feel secure and confident moving forward, such as your anticipated spending habits, income sources, and strategies for addressing specific challenges (like inflation or long-term care costs).

Ready for the New Year?

As you look toward 2026, take some time to reflect on the progress you’ve made so far and what you look forward to accomplishing in the year ahead. With the holiday season upon us, this is an opportunity to gather with family and recommit to making positive, forward-focused financial decisions together.

If you’d like to review your financial situation with a professional, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Linscomb team. We’re more than happy to work with you and your family on your journey to making the most out of 2026.