Planning for the Holidays: Estate Planning Tips to Protect Your Family This Season

It’s hard to believe, but the holiday season is already just around the corner. For many families, this is a time to come together and create memories that will last a lifetime. With everyone together, the holiday season can be a good time to address important family-related matters as well—including matters related to estate planning.

For high-income and high-net-worth individuals and couples, tax planning can also come into play during the holiday season. If your gifts to any family members will exceed $19,000 (as of 2025), then some planning will most likely be warranted.

Of course, you won’t want to spend the entire holiday season focused on estate planning and tax issues, nor should you. But, if you devote the time necessary to make informed decisions—or at least start the process—this can help protect your (and your entire family’s) best interests in the future.

5 Estate Planning Tips for the Holiday Season

With this in mind, here are five estate planning tips to protect your family this holiday season:

#1. Review Your Current Estate Plan (if You Have One)

If you currently have an estate plan, you should review your plan’s documents to ensure that you have an accurate recollection of what they say. This will help set the stage for any discussions you may have during the holiday season. In particular, you should pay attention to the issues about which your family members are most likely to have questions. For example:

• Who have you selected as your personal representative (and backup personal representative)?
• How have you decided to handle healthcare decision-making in the event of incapacity or the need for life-sustaining treatment?
• How have you decided to distribute your estate (including whether you have set aside any funds or other assets for charitable donations)?

It is up to you to decide how much information you want to share. If you don’t want to discuss the details of how your estate will be distributed after your death, your loved ones should respect your decision. On the same token, if you anticipate any dissatisfaction with your decision-making, you will want to think carefully about how (and if) you discuss these decisions with your family during the holiday season.

#2. Write Down Your Estate Planning Goals

Whether you want to talk to your family about revising your estate plan or you are just beginning the process of putting a plan together, it will be helpful for you to write down your estate planning goals. This will also help frame your discussions and allow you to anticipate many of the questions your loved ones are likely to have. You will want to think carefully about your goals regarding issues such as:

• Providing financial stability or independence for your children or others
• Leaving a financial legacy for future generations
• Using your wealth to support charitable causes
• Minimizing the burdens of healthcare decision-making and estate administration for your family
• Minimizing tax losses when it comes time to distribute your estate

These are just examples. Estate planning can serve a wide range of purposes—and, regardless of what your goals may be, there are tools you can use to achieve them. Once you have identified your goals and discussed them with your family members (to the extent that you want their input), then you can sit down with an estate planning attorney to talk through the options you have available.

#3. Be Sure to Consider All of Your Options

Speaking of your options, there are several options for achieving your goals during the estate planning process. This is true for all aspects of the process—from planning for healthcare decision-making to ensuring that you have access to Medicaid, and from making gifts and charitable donations during your lifetime and distributing your remaining estate after your death.

When you sit down with an estate planning lawyer, your lawyer will be able to explain all of your options and help you make sound decisions with your family’s future in mind. For now, it is enough to know that there are options available for addressing all of the issues discussed above, including options such as:

• Revocable trusts (or living trusts) for distributing your estate
• Irrevocable trusts for asset protection, Medicaid planning, and estate distribution
• Family foundations and other charitable options
• Powers of attorney and living wills
• Life insurance and other tools for protecting your family

Here too, these are just examples. As you have discussions during the holiday season, you should make note of any ideas you would like to discuss with your lawyer. After listening to your (or your family members’) ideas, your lawyer will be able to identify the options that are best-suited to your specific goals and needs.

#4. Don’t Let Meaningful Discussions Turn Into Contentious Disputes

While it is important to have meaningful discussions with your family about your estate plan, it is equally important not to let these discussions devolve into contentious disputes. This is especially true during the holiday season. If your discussions about your estate plan become contentious or unproductive, it may make sense to set them aside and revisit them in the future.

#5. Consider the Tax Implications of Your Gift Giving (if Necessary)

As we said above, tax planning can also come into play for high-income and high-net-worth individuals and couples. There are annual and lifetime gift exclusions that allow for tax-free transfers to family members under the Internal Revenue Code, and charitable giving can be a highly effective tax mitigation strategy as well. But, careful planning and documentation are required, so these are matters that you will want to discuss with your estate planning lawyer as well.

Schedule an Appointment with an Estate Planning Lawyer at Rendigs

If you would like to speak with an estate planning lawyer at Rendigs, we invite you to get in touch. To schedule an appointment with a lawyer at our offices in Boulder, Cincinnati or Louisville, give us a call at 513-381-9200 or tell us how we can get in touch online today.