Tax Season Is the One Time a Year Your Whole Picture Is on the Table
Not tax advice, a checklist. Once a year every statement you need is already in front of you. Here is what to look at while it is.
There is exactly one time a year when every document you need is already in one place. Use it.
A note before we start: we are a licensed insurance agency, not a tax adviser or an accounting firm. Nothing here is tax advice. This is a checklist for a conversation with your CPA, not a substitute for one.
Why this window
You are already gathering W-2s, 1099s, mortgage interest statements and retirement account summaries. That is most of the picture. Reviewing it while it is in front of you costs an hour and catches things that otherwise wait another year.
The checklist
1. Retirement accounts
- Are you getting your full employer match? This is the first question every year, and a surprising number of people are leaving part of it on the table after a pay change. It is the best return available to you anywhere.
- What did the account actually return, net of fees?
- Is the allocation still what you chose, or has drift changed it?
2. Coverage
- What is the actual number on your life insurance? Not "some through work."
- Does it survive you leaving that job? For most group plans, no.
- Does the amount still match what you owe? A policy sized before the second child, the bigger mortgage or the raise is not sized for now.
- Is there a disability or critical illness gap?
3. Beneficiaries, the ten-minute job nobody does
On every policy and every retirement account. A beneficiary form overrides your will. An out-of-date form can send money to a completely different chapter of your life.
It takes ten minutes to check and years to discover. If you do nothing else on this list, do this one.
4. The refund
A refund is not a bonus, it is your own money coming back. Worth deciding deliberately rather than by default. In rough order of usefulness for most households:
- High-interest debt
- Emergency fund up to three to six months
- Capturing any employer match you are missing
- Then, if there is a long horizon, longer-term accumulation
We are not going to tell you a refund belongs in a life insurance policy. For plenty of households it belongs in the first two lines above, and if that is you, that is what you will hear from us.
5. Anything that changed
New child, marriage, divorce, a house, a job change, a health event, a business started or sold. Each of those changes what the plan should look like, and each is easy to miss until you sit down with the paperwork.
What to bring to your CPA
- Whether you are capturing your full employer match
- Whether your coverage still matches your obligations
- Whether any beneficiary form needs updating
- Anything that changed this year
Four questions. One hour. Once a year.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on the coverage half of that list, we do it at no cost and with no obligation; and if everything checks out, that is exactly what we will tell you.