| Good morning from Traverse City |
| A new tax law changed the rules on charitable giving this year, and if you give regularly in retirement, the change is worth a look before you write your next check. We'll start there, then get into what's actually inside your index fund and how families are planning for the cost of care. Traverse City is sitting at a clear 63 this morning, so it's a good week to read with your coffee on the porch. |
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1.A new tax law reworked charitable giving
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2.Your index fund may be less diversified than it looks
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3.Planning for care before you need it
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4.When work becomes optional
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The lead · NEW TAX LAW
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A new tax law reworked charitable giving
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| A new federal tax law changed several of the rules for deducting charitable gifts. |
| The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed a batch of rules for deducting charitable contributions, enough that old assumptions may not hold. If you give in a typical year, whether by cash or appreciated stock, the deduction you counted on could look different now. This year's giving deserves a fresh look rather than autopilot. |
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Why it matters: It means the way you gave last year may not be the most tax-smart way to give this year, so it's worth a look before you set up this year's gifts.
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Read at wealthmanagement.com →
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UNDER THE HOOD
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Your index fund may be less diversified than it looks
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| The broad index fund that feels like owning the whole market is leaning harder and harder on a small number of giant companies. |
| A few of the largest technology companies now make up an outsized share of the broad index funds most of us own, so a 'diversified' fund can rise and fall on a small group of stocks. Some managers are selling fixes for this — direct indexing, structured notes, long-short strategies — and here's where we'd pump the brakes. Those products tend to be complex and expensive, and they rarely work as simply as the pitch suggests. |
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Why it matters: The upshot for you: one broad index fund may hold more concentration than it appears, so understand what you own before you worry about it or pay someone to 'fix' it.
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Read the full story →
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CARE PLANNING
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Planning for care before you need it
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| One of the largest costs many retirees face is also the one they plan for least: long-term care. |
| One of the largest expenses in retirement is also the one people plan for least: long-term care. Nursing homes and in-home help add up fast, and Medicaid ends up being the backstop many families lean on. New rules landing in 2026 are nudging some families to look again at how their estate plan and their care plan fit together, because the two are more tangled than they seem. |
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Why it matters: The question it raises for you is a blunt one to bring to your next review: if one of you needed care for a few years, how would you pay for it, and what would that do to the rest of the plan?
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Read the full story →
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THE LONG VIEW
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When work becomes optional
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| The real finish line in retirement planning is the day work becomes optional — the day staying at your job or walking away from it is entirely your call. |
| A retirement talk making the rounds this week framed the goal as making work optional, reaching the point where a job is something you keep because you want to. For a lot of the people we work with, that point shows up a few years earlier than expected, once steady income and savings cover the essentials. It's a gentler way to picture the finish than circling a date on a calendar. |
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Why it matters: It means the sharper question at this stage than 'can I afford to stop?' is 'what would make work optional for me, and how close am I to it?'
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Read the full story →
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Quick hits
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• Leaving your charitable gifts for your estate to hand out later can forfeit tax breaks you could have captured by giving while you're alive. →
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• Treasury officials are scrutinizing a batch of aggressive, tax-driven investment products this week, a fair reminder that when a pitch leans mostly on beating the IRS, it's worth a careful second read. →
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• Planners keep making the case that families who bring adult children into the money conversation early run into far fewer surprises when a plan eventually transfers. →
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Tip of the week
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Take an hour for a mid-year tax check-up
By late summer, most of this year's income is already visible, but there are still months left to do something about it. Pull your recent income statements and sketch out where your taxable income will land for the year. That single estimate is what turns a year-end move — a Roth conversion, a well-timed charitable gift — from a December scramble into a calm decision.
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How was this issue?
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Until next week,
Tom, your planner
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| P.S. It's clear and calm in Traverse City today, and we hope your weekend looks the same, with a little time away from screens and spreadsheets, ours included. |