Category: Insight

The midpoint of the year is an ideal time to assess your financial progress, particularly when it comes to retirement planning.

Whether it’s just around the corner or years away, being proactive now allows you to make any necessary adjustments to your strategy to help secure your ideal retirement.

Planning for retirement can be stressful, so we created this mid-year checklist to help guide your review.

1. Revisit Your Vision for Retirement

The one certainty in life is that circumstances are constantly changing. That’s why it’s critical to review your retirement goals and make any necessary updates.

• Have my retirement age or lifestyle expectations changed?
• Are there new financial responsibilities or life events (such as aging parent care, a new job, or divorce) to factor in?
• Should I adjust my anticipated retirement expenses to address inflation or changes in my vision?

Assessing and refining your retirement goals allows you to adjust your long-term wealth strategy to better achieve them.

2. Evaluate Your Retirement Contributions

If you have an employer-sponsored retirement plan—like a 401(k) or 403(b)—consider maxing out your contributions to help reduce your taxable income and potentially enjoy tax-deferred growth until you withdraw your savings. The 2025 contribution limit for these accounts is $23,000, with catch-up contribution limits of $7,500 for those aged 50 to 59 and $11,250 if you’re between 60 and 63 years old.¹

The contribution limits for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs are $7,000 or $8,000 if you’re 50 years of age or older. For 2025, your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) must be under $150,000 for individuals or $236,000 for joint filers to qualify for the full Roth IRA contribution.¹  If your MAGI is too high, you may want to speak with your advisor about contributing to a traditional IRA and converting it to a Roth.  

If hitting the maximum contribution limits isn’t feasible this year, remember that modest increases now can have a powerful impact over time due to compounding growth.

3. Assess Your Investment Portfolio

Market volatility, economic shifts, and your personal risk tolerance can all affect your portfolio’s performance. That’s why it’s essential to review your portfolio and ensure that it is diversified and continues to align with your retirement timeline and goals.

For example, if you’re nearing retirement, consider gradually shifting to more conservative holdings while still maintaining enough growth potential to outpace inflation. If you’re decades away from retirement and advancing in your career, you can feel comfortable taking on more risk in your investments. Your wealth advisor can help you:

• Rebalance your portfolio to stay aligned with your target asset allocation.
• Evaluate whether your current mix of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments supports your overall retirement strategy.
• Identify underperforming assets or funds and consider reallocating to more promising areas.

4. Maximize Your Tax Savings

It’s important to consider how taxes can impact your finances both now and in retirement. The good news is that there are a number of strategies you can employ to help mitigate your tax burden, depending on your current spending needs and anticipated tax bracket.

Depending on your specific financial circumstances and objectives, tax-efficient strategies to consider include:   

• Converting a portion of your tax-deferred assets into a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k). While you will owe taxes on the conversion, qualified withdrawals in retirement should be tax-free.
• Tax-loss harvesting, or mitigating capital gains and/or income taxes by using investment losses to offset investment gains or ordinary income.
• Postponing payouts and payments until next year if the extra income will place you in a higher tax bracket (or if you expect to fall into a lower tax bracket in 2026).
• Bunching two years of charitable contributions into this year, itemizing deductions to gain extra tax savings, and then opting for the standard deduction the following year.

5. Revisit Your Retirement Income Strategy

You’re not alone if your goal is to create a reliable, low-risk income stream during retirement. Depending on your health and life expectancy, you might choose to delay starting your Social Security benefits, which can lead to higher monthly payments. Additionally, income-generating investments, such as bonds, annuities, and money market funds, can supplement your Social Security and retirement plan.

It’s also important to start planning now for how you’ll withdraw income in retirement, including the order in which you’ll tap different accounts and the potential tax impact of required minimum distributions (RMDs). To take advantage of potential growth for as long as possible, you may want to withdraw from taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred and then tax-exempt accounts.

6. Consider Your Healthcare Expenses

One of the most significant threats to financial security during retirement is the cost of healthcare.

We recommend reviewing your current health insurance and obtaining long-term care insurance for added protection. As you near 65, it’s important to carefully review your Medicare options and choose the plan that best aligns with your needs.

If your employer offers a Health Savings Account (HSA), think about contributing the maximum allowable amount to support your healthcare needs in retirement. You can deduct your contributions from your taxable income; unspent tax-free HSA funds roll over from year to year, and HSAs can earn interest that isn’t taxable.²

7. Consult with Experts

A mid-year wealth checkup is not only a good financial habit—it’s a powerful tool to help you maintain control of your retirement future.

Our dedicated team can leverage its expertise to evaluate your progress and make timely updates to your wealth plan, ensuring you remain on track to achieve your retirement goals.

Schedule your checkup meeting today.

Sources
¹ https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/401k-limit-increases-to-23500-for-2025-ira-limit-remains-7000
²  https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/hdhp-hsa-work-together/

By Joel R. Freedman, CFP®, CPWA® and Alex Freedman

Investing in your child’s education is one of the most powerful ways you can help shape their future.

Research shows the average tuition and fees for in-state students at a ranked public college exceed $11,000, while $43,505 is typical at a private institution.¹ As costs hit record highs, the sooner you begin saving, the better.

To help you get started, here’s an overview of 529 plans and other college funding strategies to give your children every opportunity to reach their full potential.

529 Plans

A 529 plan is a popular, tax-advantaged way to save for your family’s future education costs. These plans are sponsored by states, state agencies, or educational institutions.

There are two types:

1. Education Savings Plans function as investment accounts, allowing your money to grow tax-free. Withdrawals are also tax-free when used for qualified expenses, such as tuition, fees, books, or room and board at eligible colleges, universities, and vocational schools.

2. Prepaid Tuition Plans, on the other hand, let you lock in tuition rates by prepaying some or all of the costs at participating colleges and universities, helping you circumvent increasing costs.

There are no IRS-imposed annual contribution limits for 529 plans, but most states impose an aggregate account limit. But if your contributions exceed the annual gift tax exclusion of $19,000 for 2025, they count towards your lifetime gift and estate exemption of $13.99 million.²  If your exemption is a concern, you can consult your advisor about “superfunding” your plan, which involves making a lump sum of up to five years of contributions at once.

Potential advantages of 529 plans include:

• Up to $10,000 a year can be used for K-12 tuition or to pay off student loans.³
• You may qualify for state income tax deductions or tax credits for contributions when using your home state’s plan.
• If you are the account owner, there is generally minimal impact on your child’s eligibility for financial aid.
• You can change your designated beneficiary to a different family member, such as a sibling, cousin, grandchild, or even yourself.
• Under certain conditions, a beneficiary can roll over up to $35,000 in unused funds without incurring penalties, enabling them to save for retirement.⁴

If your beneficiary withdraws funds for non-qualified expenses—like transportation or medical services—you’ll owe taxes on those amounts, plus a penalty fee. Also, keep in mind that you’re limited to the investment options available within your specific 529 plan.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are another tax-efficient strategy to fund your child’s education. ESAs and 529 plans have similarities, but there are some key differences to consider:

• ESAs can only be opened for beneficiaries under 18 years of age; contributions must stop once they turn 18, and all funds must be withdrawn by the time they turn 30.
• The modified annual gross income (MAGI) limit for contributions to an ESA is less than $110,000 for individuals and $220,000 for married couples.⁵
• Contributions to ESAs are limited to $2,000 per year for each beneficiary.⁵
• With ESAs, you have the flexibility to choose your own investments.
• In addition to tuition, ESA funds can also be used to cover qualified K-12 expenses.

As you can see, your income, the age of your child or grandchild, and their education timeline all contribute to determining whether an ESA makes sense for your family.

Roth IRAs

You can withdraw contributions to Roth IRAs penalty-free and tax-free at any time—and use earnings without penalty to pay for qualified education expenses for yourself, your child, or your grandchildren. However, the earnings will be taxed as income.

In 2025, you can contribute up to $7,000 to a Roth IRA, or $8,000 if you’re 50 or older. However, if your income is too high—over $146,000 to $161,000 for singles or $236,000 to $246,000 for married couples—you won’t be able to contribute.⁶

The good news is that if your loved one’s plan changes, you can use the funds in your Roth IRA for retirement savings. Additionally, you can customize your investment with ETFs, stocks, bonds, and index funds for long-term growth. However, it’s important to consider that there is a risk of losing money with your investments, and income from a Roth IRA could impact your child’s eligibility for federal student aid.

Custodial Accounts

Custodial accounts can be a good option if your income exceeds the eligibility limits for a Coverdell ESA or Roth IRA. You can choose between the types of accounts: Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA).

When you establish a custodial account, you can maintain oversight until your child reaches the “age of majority” in your state. Friends and family can contribute to a UGMA/UTMA, and there are no income or contribution limits, restrictions on how funds can be used, or early withdrawal penalties.

However, since the assets in a custodial account are regarded as your child’s property, they will be included in their Free Federal Student Aid Application (FAFSA).

Start Today

College is a significant investment, but with careful planning, it doesn’t have to be a financial burden.

Whether through a 529 plan, a combination of savings accounts, or even leveraging scholarships and grants, the key is to start early, save regularly, and explore every opportunity.

Eclipse can ease your concerns, provide objective advice, and help you select the best education savings strategy for your family.

Let’s secure a brighter future for your loved ones.

Sources

¹ https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/paying-for-college-infographic
² https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/529-plans-questions-and-answers | https://www.savingforcollege.com/intro-to-529s/what-is-a-529-plan
³  https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/whats-new-estate-and-gift-tax
⁴ https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a#en_US_2024_publink1000129982
⁵ https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf
⁶ https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/401k-limit-increases-to-23500-for-2025-ira-limit-remains-7000

By Joel R. Freedman, CFP®, CPWA®

For families looking to pass down significant wealth, the goal isn’t simply to transfer over assets; it’s to ensure that values, vision, and prosperity endure for generations.

However, statistics paint a sobering picture: 35% of Americans do not plan on discussing wealth transfer with their families.¹ Unfortunately, a lack of transparency often results in confusion, conflict, and missed opportunities.

Successful generational wealth transfer, on the other hand, entails clearly communicating your intentions and equipping your heirs with the necessary tools to preserve and grow your family legacy.

Education: Instill Financial Literacy & Confidence

Empowering your heirs to embrace financial literacy is essential to preserving generational wealth. Accordingly, it’s critical to start this education early and ensure it evolves over time.

For example, you might include your young children in family budgeting, encourage teenage grandchildren to contribute to their 529 plans, and involve young adult heirs in estate and tax planning.

As you include your loved ones in financial discussions and responsibilities, it’s important to recognize the potential for philosophical disconnect. While your ethos may center on the values of hard work, disciplined saving, and traditional investing, your heirs may lean more towards impact investing or alternative investments. 

By understanding and aligning your different perspectives, you can minimize conflict and increase the likelihood that the following will resonate:

Financial Literacy Programs
Younger generations who spend time on TikTok may encounter poor financial advice from unqualified influencers. By providing formal education on topics such as budgeting, investing, taxes, and estate planning—through online educational platforms, financial literacy apps, or sessions with experts—you can help ensure they are well-informed.

Family Meetings
Regular family meetings can foster open communication about wealth, its purpose, and the responsibilities it entails. These meetings provide a forum for discussing family goals, values, and future plans. Ensure that your heirs understand the origin of your family’s wealth—whether it came from entrepreneurship, strong investment acumen, or previous generations.

Mentorship
Direct involvement in wealth management can help prepare heirs for the responsibility of handling large estates. By providing opportunities for younger generations to help choose investments, manage charitable donations, or get involved in the family business, you can help build their confidence and encourage stewardship rather than entitlement.

Governance: Build a Culture of Communication & Accountability

Education lays the foundation, but governance is what holds the house together. Families that thrive across generations often treat wealth management like running a company, with shared goals, rules, and responsibilities.

Family governance promotes accountability and transparency, fosters inter-generational communication, facilitates family harmony, preserves family traditions, and sustains wealth across generations.

A great starting point is to establish a family constitution that codifies your values, expectations, and vision, including guiding principles for philanthropic giving, investing, education, leadership, ownership, and succession.

Depending on your family’s unique situation, your family governance framework may assume various forms, including:

Family Councils
Similar to a Board of Directors, a council is comprised of select family members elected to manage your affairs and represent the best interests of all parties. Council members may make decisions regarding liquidity, family employment, or conflict resolution.

Family Assemblies
This involves gathering all family members annually, semi-annually, or quarterly (under the guidance of the family council, if applicable) to discuss leadership development, review legal or taxation issues, and pinpoint opportunities to enhance family unity or philanthropic impact.

Family Business Advisory Boards
Qualified advisory board members can offer objective advice based on their expertise, help identify unique business opportunities and provide outside perspectives on strategy and decision-making.

Structure: Employ Tax-Efficient Wealth Transfer Strategies

Estate and tax planning are crucial for preserving your wealth for future generations. The good news is that there are various strategies you can implement to help minimize the value of your taxable estate and mitigate the eventual tax burden on your heirs. If you plan to pass on significant wealth, here are three options to consider:  

1. Gift money directly during your lifetime.
The current lifetime estate and gift tax exemption is $13.99 million for individuals and $27.98 million for couples.² With regular gifting that stays within the annual exclusion limit—$19,000 per person in 2025²—you can support your loved ones financially, help the next generation achieve goals such as earning a degree or buying a home, and avoid triggering gift taxes.

2. Support charities your family is passionate about.
Another way to remove assets from your taxable estate is to make donations to qualified charitable organizations. If eligible, these contributions result in a tax deduction of up to 60% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) in the tax year you donate, but you must itemize deductions on your return.³  Donating appreciated stocks and securities, implementing Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), and establishing Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are additional strategies to help mitigate estate taxes.⁴

3. Set up irrevocable trusts.
When you transfer assets or funds into an irrevocable trust, you can legally remove them from your taxable estate while you’re alive and distribute them to your heirs when you pass. For example, generation-skipping trusts enable you to bypass your children (and the estate taxes that would incur if they received an inheritance directly) and distribute assets directly to your grandchildren.⁵ Additionally, irrevocable trusts can help:

• Remove appreciable assets from your estate while providing beneficiaries with a step-up basis in value
• Protect your family’s assets from potential creditors and lawsuits
• Prevent heirs from misusing their inheritances by setting conditions for wealth distribution
• Hold a life insurance policy, while removing the death proceeds from your estate
• Gift a principal residence to your loved ones in a tax-efficient manner
• Retain income from assets gifted to your estate ⁶

Collaborate With Experienced Professionals

Preparing the next generation for wealth stewardship involves not only the mechanics of wealth transfer but also fostering the knowledge, mindset, and values needed to manage it successfully.

Eclipse can help reduce stress, align the right solutions, and coordinate with your estate attorneys and tax professionals to ensure an integrated plan for wealth transfer.

Let’s set up your heirs for success.

Sources

¹https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/why-edward-jones/news-media/press-releases/great-wealth-transfer-research
² https://www.ml.com/articles/estate-gift-tax-exemption-sunset.html
³ https://www.irs.gov/publications/p526#:~:
⁴ https://www.oppenheimer.com/news-media/2025/insights/articles/january/legacy-planning-a-key-component-of-financial-wellness.aspx
⁵https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/generation-skippingtrust.asp
⁶ https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/irrevocabletrust.asp#:~:

By Joel R. Freedman, CFP®, CPWA® and Alex Freedman

Women today are increasingly breaking boundaries in business, taking control of their financial futures, and leveraging their wealth to create meaningful social change.

While challenges remain, the financial landscape is evolving to reflect the unique needs, values, and visions of women, particularly those who continue to rise as investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

This article examines essential strategies to help women build wealth and embrace philanthropic pursuits with greater confidence and success.

Bridging the Wealth Gap: Financial Strategies for Women

Historically, women have faced significant barriers to building wealth, including the gender pay gap, lower lifetime earnings, and longer life expectancies—all of which pose challenges when saving for retirement. Additionally, the average woman-owned business generates only 50% of the average annual sales of those owned by men.¹

On a brighter note, American women are projected to control $30 trillion in assets by 2030, offering an opportunity to help mitigate these financial disparities.²  In addition, in 2024, there were 14.5 million women-owned businesses (39.2% of all U.S. firms) that collectively generated $3.3 trillion in revenue. ³

Here are three strategies to help women eliminate the wealth gap sooner rather than later:  

1. Shift Your Mindset

The greater the levels of financial literacy, the more successful women can be in investing, managing their money, and growing their wealth.

That starts with women shifting their mindset and flipping the script on cultural roadblocks that can impede them from taking full control of their financial lives.

For example, while there are more women in leadership positions than ever before, too many women in the workplace continue to fear that being proactive about negotiating contracts or asking for raises will be seen as aggressive or selfish.

In addition, research suggests that past financial trauma can lead to underinvesting and emotional behaviors that can negatively impact decisions and wealth-building, even among financially savvy women.⁴ 

Whether you’ve experienced financial struggles or not, it’s crucial to recognize that fostering a mindset geared towards building wealth, investing without fear, and creating a legacy should be celebrated, not criticized.

Partnering with a financial advisor like Eclipse Private Wealth Management can help. It’s no surprise that 86% of women agree that having their investments managed by a professional makes life less stressful and 77% believe they’d be more confident about their financial future if they had a financial advisor. ⁵  

2. Invest in Your Financial Future

The longer your money is invested, the more opportunities you have to take advantage of the power of compounding to exponentially grow your wealth. In addition, a Fidelity study indicates that women investors outperformed male counterparts by 40 basis points (0.4%) based on annualized returns of five million customers over a ten-year period.⁶

As women tend to have a longer life expectancy than men, that means the potential for even greater long-term outcomes for those who start early, plan holistically, invest for the long-term, and make consistent decisions across financial life. For example, establishing an emergency fund, creating a tailored plan and investment portfolio, mitigating taxes, and maximizing contributions to tax-advantaged retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.

Confidence is key, and although women still have a confidence gap compared to men, Fidelity studies show that 7 in 10 women currently own investments in the stock market⁷ and 71% of women felt more confident after they set up a financial plan.⁸

3. Prioritize Estate and Legacy Planning

Estate planning is a critical step for women who want to safeguard their wealth, transfer their assets to future generations, and strengthen their legacies. Without a clear plan—one that includes a will, powers of attorney (POAs), and trusts—your loved ones may deal with unnecessary stress, legal disputes, and unintended tax repercussions.

Here are some key estate planning considerations for female entrepreneurs and leaders:

• Succession planning is crucial for women who own businesses and want to maintain continuity while mitigating disruptions or conflicts. A thorough plan should identify potential successors, outline training and development programs, and create a framework for transferring ownership after you retire or pass away.
• Trusts are essential estate planning tools that can help bypass probate, protect privacy, shield assets from creditors or lawsuits, ensure the controlled distribution of your wealth to heirs, reduce the tax impact of transferring highly appreciated assets, and enable you to create a charitable legacy.
• Ownership structures like limited liability companies (LLCs), S corporations, and family limited partnerships (FLPs) can help protect your personal assets from business-related liabilities, avoid double taxation, and facilitate the transfer of your business interests to family members while minimizing gift and estate taxes.

Eclipse Private Wealth Management can coordinate with your attorneys, accountants, and other advisors to ensure an integrated and compliant estate plan that helps protect, manage, and distribute your wealth to your loved ones and charitable beneficiaries.

Women & Philanthropy: Transforming Charitable Giving

Women are expected to benefit significantly from inheritances passed down by their Boomer parents and spouses during the “Great Wealth Transfer” in the coming decade — with Millennial and Gen X women increasingly pursuing purpose-driven investments.⁹

In addition, women are increasingly investing their money in businesses, organizations, or funds that reflect their values—and supporting charitable giving in areas like education, healthcare, and economic empowerment.¹⁰

Women are also taking an active role in creating charitable foundations, partnering with other philanthropists, and investing in projects that champion social or environmental causes. In other words, women are leveraging their wealth, not only for financial gain but for the betterment of underprivileged communities and society as a whole.

Here are a few ways female investors can get started:

• Invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, or bonds that choose companies based on values like environmental stewardship, human rights, or corporate governance—and avoid investing in companies whose practices, services, or products you do not support.
• Invest venture capital in women and minority-owned businesses or buy shares of funds with clear social missions.
• Invest in donor-advised funds (DAFs), which are investment accounts that enable you to make an irrevocable contribution to a qualified public charity, receive an immediate tax deduction, and recommend grants over time.

Embrace the Pursuit of the Exceptional

As women continue to take control of their financial lives, overcome historical challenges, and use their wealth and influence to help foster positive change, the value of a trusted financial advisor can be essential to greater confidence and long-term outcomes.

Eclipse can help. We are an independent advisory firm that deeply understands the complexities of wealth and the challenges women face — and we’re committed to simplifying the process, alleviating stress, and aligning the right solutions to help you protect and grow your family’s wealth.

Let’s shape a brighter future together.

Sources

¹ https://laconteconsulting.com/2022/08/05/financial-facts-women-business/
² https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/women-as-the-next-wave-of-growth-in-us-wealth-management
³ https://smallbusinessresources.wf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/wells-fargo-2025-impact-of-women-owned-businesses.pdf)
⁴ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alejandrarojas/2025/03/13/whats-next-for-women-and-wealth-building/
⁵https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/about-fidelity/FidelityInvestmentsWomen&InvestingStudy2021.pdf)
⁶ https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/about-fidelity/FidelityInvestmentsWomen&InvestingStudy2021.pdf)
⁷  https://newsroom.fidelity.com/pressreleases/new-research-from-fidelity–shows-71–of-women-own-investments-in-the-stock-market/s/db3a5765-9b69-4e51-a315-66ecc51e0066
⁸  https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/about-fidelity/FidelityInvestmentsWomen&InvestingStudy2021.pdf
⁹ https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/11/18/the-great-wealth-transfer-an-84-trillion-investment-opportunity-for-women/
¹⁰ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexanderpuutio/2024/12/05/who-the-rise-of-women-led-giving-is-changing-philanthropy/