As 2026 comes to a close, our team is focused on helping you finish the year with clarity and confidence. In this edition of The Inside Scoop, you'll find important year-end dates, three articles on year-end planning and charitable giving, and photos from recent events, including our trip to Baird's High Performing Teams Retreat in Scottsdale.
We're grateful for the trust you place in our team. If anything here sparks a question, we're always here to help.
Yaz, Justin, Karley, Ashley & Whitney
Now through end of November
- Tax-loss harvesting
- We will complete this part of your tax strategy as soon as possible. Waiting too long may reduce your flexibility under the wash sale rule.
- Open your donor-advised fund (DAF)
- If you plan to give through a DAF this year, the account needs to be open by the end of November so there's time to fund it and complete your gift before year-end. Contact us now and we'll get it started.
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Now through December
- Medicare open enrollment
- October 15-December 7th is the window to make changes to Medicare or Medicare Advantage coverage.
- RMDs
- Our team will be reaching out to make sure any required minimum distributions from retirement accounts are satisfied.
- QCDs
- If you're 70½ or older, you can give directly from your IRA to charity. The annual limit is $111,000 for 2026. Beginning at age 73, a QCD can also count toward your RMD.
- Gifting
- The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient, and the estate tax exemption is $15 million per person. Planning to give through a DAF or QCD this year? Reach out to our team now so we can coordinate your gift before year-end.
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In early October, our entire team traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona, for Baird's High Performing Teams Retreat. The event is invitation-only and brings together a select group of Baird wealth management teams to share ideas, learn from one another and explore ways to elevate the client experience. We spent our time Learning from the best, Collaborating via roundtables with other high-performing teams, Peer sharing, and Teambuilding. We came home with fresh ideas, new connections and a renewed focus on what matters most: listening to you and planning with you for the long haul.
Your 2026 Year-End Planning Checklist for Tax-Smart Moves
Tax-saving opportunities and key planning reminders for year-end.
Before the calendar turns, it’s worth asking: Are there opportunities to keep more of what you’ve earned and maximize the value of what you give? Many year-end decisions carry tax implications. Review the checklist below or print it out here to help uncover them before discussing which strategies work for your plan with your Baird Financial Advisor team.
Start With Your Basics
Many tax-saving opportunities stem from decisions you may already be making. Take time to review them and ensure you’re getting the full benefit.
Are you fully funding your retirement? Depending on the type of account, your contributions may lower your taxable income today while allowing your savings to grow tax-deferred or tax-free over time. In 2026, you can contribute up to $24,500 to a 401(k) and $7,500 to an IRA. If you’re age 50 or older, these limits rise to $32,500 and $8,600 – and if you’re between ages 60 and 63, the 401(k) contribution limit increases further for a total of $35,750.
Are you taking advantage of a Health Savings Account (HSA)? If you have a high-deductible health plan, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can offer a triple tax benefit: tax-deductible contributions, tax-deferred growth and tax-free withdrawals. Contribution limits in 2026 are $4,400 for those with individual coverage and $8,750 for those with family coverage, plus an extra $1,000 for those aged 55 or older.
Could year-end gifting support your estate plan? Taking advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion ($19,000 in 2026) can help reduce your taxable estate. If your household has a net worth above $30 million, talk with your Financial Advisor team about additional planning for the permanently increased estate tax exemption ($15 million in 2026).
Take a Closer Look
Once you’ve covered the fundamentals, consider whether any of these more specialized strategies could further improve your tax picture. Not every strategy is right for everyone, so discuss these with your Financial Advisor team before year-end.
Assess whether a Roth conversion could enhance your retirement plan. If you expect to be in a higher tax bracket in retirement, converting part of your traditional IRA assets to a Roth may be useful. Your Financial Advisor team can help you weigh three key considerations for deciding whether a conversion makes sense for your situation.
Explore opportunities to manage capital gains and losses more strategically. Year-end is a good time to evaluate how repositioning your portfolio could impact your taxes. Tax-loss harvesting lets you take advantage of losses to offset gains, and your Financial Advisor team can help with thoughtful portfolio strategies to help manage your tax exposure.
Evaluate strategies to make your charitable giving more tax-efficient. Rather than writing a check this holiday season, consider how other strategies – like qualified charitable distributions and bunching – can help increase your charitable impact and tax benefits.
Don't Forget
While these to-dos may not directly impact your tax bill, they still deserve a place on your checklist. A quick review can provide greater confidence heading into 2027.
For your estate plan…
Revisit all primary and successor beneficiary designations on retirement plans, insurance policies and more.
Review your legacy administration decisions, such as trustee, executor, power of attorney and healthcare proxy.
For your healthcare spending…
Accelerate future health expenses into this year if you’ve met your 2026 health insurance deductible.
Use up any remaining Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds before year-end, as these are “use-it-or-lose-it” accounts.
For your portfolio…
Review your asset allocation across all your investments with your Financial Advisor team and determine if rebalancing is needed.
For your overall financial health…
Use Baird 360 Wealth to review your saving and spending habits and confirm you’re still on track toward your long-term goals.
Evaluate your financial flexibility by ensuring your cash reserves, budget, investment mix and available credit provide enough liquidity for unexpected events.
Complete annual credit check and consider enrolling in a credit monitoring service.
Don’t stop at checking the boxes. Share this checklist with our team and discuss which opportunities may help you make the most of your year-end plan.
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Our team exists to come alongside you in your wealth journey as we do not believe in a one sized fits all approach when it comes to your future. In order for us to serve you to the best of our ability, we ask that you keep a few things updated along the way.
Taxes
After filing, send us your tax return. Every year. It's that easy. Our team will then do a thorough analysis.
We will discuss implications and scenario-based decisions personalized to you and your family.
Tax Planning Perspective VIDEO
Estate Documents
It is imperative that you update us when there are material changes to your will, power of attorney, and other directives. No one wants to think about the worst-case scenario, however, keeping our team informed of any updates ensures a smooth transition if/when it was to happen.
Estate Planning Perspectives VIDEO
Insurance
Start the conversation and keep us updated on your current plan.
Whether it be a whole life policy review, health or property insurance referrals, we will review your current situation and connect you with the best resource to mitigate risk.
360 Wealth
Log in to the Baird Online app. At a minimum, link the basics. (mortgage, 401(k), loans and bank accounts).
Your accounts will auto-update and will feed into your financial plan for a 360 view & precise financial advice. It is important to keep us informed of any outside accounts as we periodically review your long-term goals.
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The limits of good intentions: Matt Sonsini on philanthropy’s feedback problem, startup term sheets, and learning to be an optimist.
🎙️ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Matt Sonsini is Managing Partner and co-founder of Ravello Impact, and the former CEO of The Sobrato Organization. Before moving into investing and philanthropy, he spent almost two decades as a corporate lawyer in Silicon Valley, working with startups, venture capitalists, and public companies.
In this conversation, he explains why waiting to give can become its own excuse, why measuring philanthropic impact is harder than measuring investment returns, and what founders sacrifice when they chase the highest valuation. He also revisits the boardroom moment when a CEO quit on the spot and the unlikely IPO that still stands out decades later.
“Well, I guess if you’re Warren Buffett, you have a reasonable shot at compounding capital at a greater rate than the world’s problems are compounding. But for mere mortal investors, I’m personally doubtful that’s the case.”
Key Takeaways:
Giving has its own risk-return spectrum: Local food banks offer immediate, measurable results. Systemic change demands more time, more resources, and a willingness to accept uncertain outcomes. Sonsini approaches those choices as a portfolio, allocating across both.
Good intentions need honest feedback: A business with a bad product hears from the market. A donor can still get a gala and a name on a building without knowing how much good the money did. He also argues that funders, nonprofits, and government need to collaborate more to make their resources count.
A higher valuation can hide a worse deal: Senior liquidation preferences and separate investor approval rights can create conflicts when growth stalls. He urges founders to resist trading away important terms to reach a headline valuation.
Venture’s failures are part of the process: Funding booms draw talent and ideas into new markets. Many companies fail in the correction, but investors cannot know the eventual winners in advance. He sees that experimentation as necessary.
Optimism takes practice: Legal training taught Sonsini to look for downside. Investing taught him that optimism is essential. The best advisers, he says, tell clients which risks matter and which they can stop worrying about.
We share our lives with you because you are an extension of our family. Long-term relationships which encourage open and honest communication have been the cornerstone of our team's success for many years. Thank you for allowing us to walk alongside you and your family.
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from BAIRD TRUST
Four Strategies to Maximize Your Holiday Giving
While gifts of cash can have a tremendous impact, there are ways to give that provide the donor with tax benefits as well.
For many of us, the fast approaching holidays are a moment to give thanks for what we have and to reflect on how we share with others. We are a generous society and tend to give and volunteer a great deal every year. However, more than 85% of all gifts are made using cash, checks or credit cards – and while those gifts can have a tremendous impact for the recipients, there are ways to give that provide the donor with tax benefits as well. Here are four strategies that can maximize your impact for the causes that are important to you.
Donate Appreciated Assets
Marketable securities such as stocks and mutual funds provide an opportunity to gift the full fair market value – and claim a charitable deduction for that full amount – without needing to recognize capital gain taxes on the security’s prior price appreciation. This strategy can be especially useful if your reason to not diversify out of a particular investment is a reluctance generate an additional tax burden. Even if you’re pleased with an investment’s performance, it’s possible to gift shares that have appreciated and still buy additional shares, so that should you sell at some point in the future, the tax burden would not be as great. Assets other than marketable securities, such as real estate, collectibles and even cryptocurrency, may also be gifted. However, these require earlier discussions with charities and may necessitate additional documentation, such as appraisals, or have special rules for the amount that may deductible. Also, smaller charities might not be able to receive any sort of appreciated asset, even marketable securities. In these instances, our next strategy, donor-advised funds, can provide an intermediary that will accept, sell and distribute gifts to the eligible charity of your choice.
Bunch Gifts Using Donor-Advised Funds
Donor-advised funds also provide flexibility in the timing of charitable deductions. The current standard deduction per individual is $15,750 ($31,500 for married filing jointly): Unless your total itemized deductions exceed that amount, you would not receive any tax benefit from your charitable giving. However, using a donor-advised fund, you could “bunch” several years’ worth of giving into a single year to push past the standard deduction and ensure the charitable deduction is used. It would hold those gifted dollars for you to later distribute to your favorite causes on a normal, annual basis.
For individuals whose income fluctuates year-to-year, the ability to deduct charitable contributions in the year of your choosing is significant. The value of a charitable deduction will depend on the tax bracket you’re subject to in a particular year. Setting those charitable gifts aside in a donor-advised fund during high-income years could provide a greater net tax saving. Another benefit: A donor-advised fund can be funded with appreciated assets to further optimize its tax-saving potential.
Consider Qualified Charitable Distributions
Typically, the full amount of a distributi on from a traditional retirement account is taxed at your highest ordinary income tax rate. A charitable deduction could off set some of that tax, but that would only happen if it fully exceeded your standard deduction. In addition, withdrawals from your IRA can cause other credits, exemptions and deductions to be reduced or phased out and may even increase your Medicare Parts B & D premiums. A qualified charitable distribution, which can be made by anyone over 70½ with an IRA, might be a better option. A QCD is a distributi on that goes directly from your IRA to your preferred public charity. With this approach, the distribution is never recognized as income and therefore is not taxed. (Note that if your retirement assets are currently held in a 401(k), you would need to first roll the assets from the 401(k) into an IRA.)
Don’t Forget About State Tax Benefits
If you reside in a state that imposes a state income tax, watch for any available state tax credits in addition to federal income tax deductions. Not every state offers tax credit programs, and the requirements for applying for the credit and using charitable contributions can differ dramatically from state to state. However – when offered – these programs can reduce your state tax liability dollar for dollar from 20% to 50% of the amount of your gifts.
Note that some states might promote endowment funds that benefit charities in the state, while others might promote neighborhood revitalization programs or scholarship programs for lower-income families. Because the options vary, be sure to consult with your local tax and legal advisors.
An Important Reminder for Substantiation Requirements
To receive a charitable deduction for any gift to a 501(c)(3) charity that is $250 or more, you must receive a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the entity prior to filing your tax return. This acknowledgment must describe the gift given, indicate the date of the gift and include a statement that the nonprofit did not provide goods or services in exchange for the contribution. A common mistake is trying to use a store receipt for items purchased by a donor for the charity: If the charity hasn’t provided the acknowledgement, the receipt alone is insufficient to deduct the gift.
All charitable gifts are documented on Form 8283 as part of your tax return. While the form is not long or difficult, the IRS requires it to be properly completed. Additionally, gifts valued over $5,000 (except for cash or marketable securities) require the declaration of a qualified appraiser.
Annual giving by individuals makes up the vast majority of all charitable gifts – more than foundations, bequests and corporations combined! There is a palpable feeling of satisfaction from giving, and the impact to our local communities cannot be overstated. Our goal is to help ensure those gifts are as effective as possible and help you support the causes you value.
Reach out to our team to talk about a plan to enhance the impact of your charitable giving.
