Estate Planning and Business Planning Before December 31: What to Review

Estate planning often gets treated as a one-time project. You meet with an attorney, sign a set of documents, and file them away. Business succession planning can suffer the same fate, especially for owners who are busy running the business day to day.

The problem is that both plans tend to go stale. Family situations change, business values shift, and documents that made sense five or ten years ago may no longer reflect what you actually want to happen. Reviewing estate and business plans together, on a regular cadence, tends to surface gaps that reviewing them separately would miss. The end of the year is a natural checkpoint for this kind of review, partly because several planning moves are tied to the calendar.

This article walks through what’s worth revisiting before December 31, and why business owners in particular benefit from looking at personal and business planning side by side. This is general education, not individualized legal, tax, or investment advice.

Key takeaways

Estate documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiary designations) should be reviewed periodically, not just signed once.
Several planning moves are tied to the calendar year, including annual gift tax exclusion usage, Roth conversions, retirement plan contributions, and charitable giving.
Business owners should coordinate their personal estate plan with their business succession plan, since the two are often more connected than they appear.
Buy-sell agreements and business valuations can go out of date quickly and deserve a fresh look.
A year-end review works best as a conversation with an estate attorney, CPA, and financial advisor together.

Why review estate and business planning together

For business owners, a large share of personal net worth is often tied up in the business itself. That means an estate plan that doesn’t account for how the business is structured, valued, and transitioned can leave significant gaps. Conversely, a succession plan that doesn’t reflect current estate planning intentions, who inherits what, how ownership transfers, what happens if an owner becomes incapacitated, can create confusion or conflict down the road.

We believe every financial decision is connected, and this is a good example of why. A change in one area, a new trust, a shift in business ownership percentages, a change in marital status, can have ripple effects across both personal and business planning. Reviewing them in isolation means those ripple effects are easy to miss.

Estate documents worth a fresh look

A periodic review typically covers:

Wills. Confirm that guardianship provisions, beneficiaries, and executor choices still reflect your current wishes and family situation.

Revocable and irrevocable trusts. Trust terms, trustees, and funding should be checked against how your assets and goals have evolved.

Powers of attorney. These designate who can act on your behalf financially if you’re unable to. Confirm the named agent is still appropriate and that the document hasn’t expired or been superseded by a newer version.

Healthcare directives. Similar to powers of attorney, these should reflect current wishes and name someone you trust to make healthcare decisions if needed.

Beneficiary designations. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other assets often pass by beneficiary designation rather than through a will. These designations can be overlooked for years and may not match what the will or trust says. A mismatch here can undo otherwise careful estate planning.

Planning moves tied to the calendar

Several planning elections and opportunities are structured around the tax year, which is part of why year-end is a natural time to review:

Annual gift tax exclusion. Each year, individuals can generally gift up to a certain amount per recipient without using any lifetime gift and estate tax exemption or filing a gift tax return. The exact dollar threshold changes periodically, so the IRS gift tax overview is the right place to confirm the current figure before making year-end gifts. Unused exclusion amounts generally don’t carry over to future years, which is one reason this comes up in year-end conversations.

Roth conversions. Converting pre-tax retirement assets to a Roth account is generally measured on a calendar-year basis. Whether a conversion makes sense depends on your income, tax bracket, and broader retirement picture. This is a decision worth discussing with a tax professional and financial advisor together, since it has both near-term tax consequences and long-term planning implications.

Retirement plan contributions for business owners. Business owners often have more contribution options than employees, including plans that can be established or funded before certain deadlines. The details and deadlines vary by plan type, so this is worth confirming directly with your tax professional or retirement plan provider rather than assuming a single rule applies across all plan types.

Charitable giving. For those who itemize deductions or use strategies like donor-advised funds, charitable contributions are generally recognized in the tax year they’re made. If charitable giving is part of your plan, year-end is a natural time to finalize it.

Business succession items worth revisiting

Beyond the personal estate documents above, business owners have a few additional items worth a periodic check:

Buy-sell agreements. These agreements govern what happens to an owner’s interest in the business in the event of death, disability, or departure. Valuation methods and funding mechanisms written into these agreements years ago may not reflect the business’s current value or ownership structure.

Business valuations. A business valuation that’s several years old may significantly understate or overstate current value, which affects everything from buy-sell funding to estate tax exposure to succession planning decisions.

Succession and continuity plans. Who runs the business if something happens to the current owner? Is that plan documented, or does it exist only informally? A written continuity plan reduces uncertainty for employees, family members, and other stakeholders.

Key-person insurance. If the business carries insurance on an owner or other critical employee, confirm the coverage amount still reflects the financial impact that person’s absence would have on the business today.

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating estate planning as a one-time event rather than an ongoing process.
Letting beneficiary designations fall out of sync with the will or trust.
Reviewing the business succession plan without checking it against the personal estate plan, or vice versa.
Waiting until a health event or ownership change forces a review, rather than reviewing proactively.
Assuming gift, retirement contribution, or charitable giving rules haven’t changed since the last time you checked.

When to talk with us

This article is intended as general education, not individualized legal, tax, or investment advice. Everyone’s family situation, business structure, and goals are different, and the right approach depends on your specific circumstances.

If it’s been a while since your estate documents or business succession plan were reviewed together, that’s a reasonable signal it’s time for a conversation. We generally recommend coordinating with your estate attorney and CPA alongside your financial advisor so that personal and business planning stay aligned. If you’d like help thinking through where to start, meet an MRA advisor.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to update my estate plan every year?

Not necessarily every year, but a periodic review, at least every few years or after major life or business changes, helps catch documents or designations that no longer reflect your wishes.

Why does a business owner need both an estate plan and a succession plan?

Because a large portion of a business owner’s wealth is often tied to the business, the two plans tend to overlap. Without coordination, there’s a risk the personal estate plan and the business succession plan point in different directions.

What happens if my beneficiary designations don’t match my will?

In most cases, the beneficiary designation on file with the account custodian controls who receives that specific asset, regardless of what the will says. That’s why checking these designations is part of a thorough review.

Is there a deadline for charitable gifts or retirement contributions tied to the calendar year?

Generally yes, many of these items are measured by the tax year, though specific deadlines and rules vary by the type of gift or contribution. Confirm current details with your tax professional before year-end.

Who should be involved in a year-end estate and business planning review?

Typically an estate attorney, a CPA or tax professional, and a financial advisor. Each brings a different lens, and coordinating among them helps avoid gaps between documents.

This article is for general educational purposes only and is not individualized legal, tax, or investment advice. Rules for gift tax exclusions, retirement plan contributions, charitable giving, and business valuations can be nuanced and change over time; confirm your specific situation with your estate attorney, a CPA, and a financial advisor. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.