Join us in welcoming Kelly Kihneman as a Client Service Associate on our team!
Kelly supports our team with account servicing, scheduling, and addressing your day-to-day needs. Kelly brings a client-first mindset, strong attention to detail, and a genuine passion for helping others. She serves as an additional point of contact, helping us continue to provide the responsive, personalized service you expect. We’re glad to have Kelly and appreciate the value she’s bringing you and our team!

Do You Have a Trusted Contact Person on File with Us?
One of the simplest but most important account protection measures is naming a Trusted Contact Person on your investment accounts. 

 A Trusted Contact Person serves as a resource whom we can contact if concerns arise regarding your health, capacity, well-being, potential financial exploitation, or if we are unable to reach you. 

Importantly:

• A Trusted Contact Person does not have trading authority.
• They cannot make withdrawals, change account ownership, or conduct transactions on your behalf.
• Their role is simply to help ensure communication during unexpected circumstances.

As we move toward the final months of the year, now is an excellent time to review your investment, tax, and estate planning strategies. Taking action before year-end can help position you for the potential for a stronger financial future while ensuring your plans remain aligned with your goals.

Check out Stifel’s latest Wealth Planning Newsletter Issue 4 and other timely retirement and tax planning ideas below.

• Consider whether contributions to a traditional retirement account, which may provide a current-year tax deduction, or a Roth account, which offers the potential for tax-free withdrawals in retirement, better align with your long-term goals.


• If reducing taxable income is a priority, maximizing contributions to traditional employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs may provide meaningful tax benefits. Business owners should also evaluate whether establishing or enhancing a retirement plan could create additional deductions while supporting long-term retirement objectives.


• Families may benefit from retirement planning opportunities as well. Eligible individuals can contribute to an IRA for a nonworking spouse, and children with earned income may also be eligible for IRA contributions. A Roth IRA can be an effective way to help younger family members begin building long-term wealth.


• A Roth conversion may be worth considering. While converting assets from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA creates taxable income in the year of conversion, potential benefits include tax-free growth potential, no lifetime required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the Roth owner, reduced future RMDs from traditional IRAs, and improved tax efficiency for beneficiaries.


• Finally, be sure to review any RMD obligations. Missing an RMD deadline can result in significant penalties, making it important to confirm distributions are taken on time and coordinated with your overall tax strategy.

For many families, charitable giving is an important part of both their investment plan and their legacy. As year-end approaches, it's worth reviewing opportunities that may provide meaningful tax benefits while supporting causes you care about.

• Satisfy your charitable goals and your RMDs with a qualified charitable distribution (QCD)
  • If you are age 70½ or older and own an IRA, you may be eligible to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution directly from your IRA to a qualified charitable organization. QCDs can be a powerful tax-planning tool because the distribution is excluded from taxable income and can satisfy all or part of your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).
  • Potential benefits include:
    • Satisfying RMD requirements without increasing taxable income.
    • Lowering Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).
    • Potentially reducing Medicare premium surcharges and the taxation of Social Security benefits.
    • Reducing exposure to AGI-related tax consequences.
• Utilize annual exclusion gifts
  • Individuals can make annual exclusion gifts of up to $19,000 per recipient in 2026 without using any lifetime gift tax exemption, making gifting an attractive estate planning strategy.
• Use appreciated property in your gifting strategy
  • Consider gifting appreciated assets to family members or charities. When done thoughtfully, transferring appreciated property may help shift future income or capital gains to individuals in lower tax brackets. For charitable gifts, donating appreciated stock held longer than one year can provide a charitable deduction based on the stock's fair market value while avoiding capital gains tax on the appreciation.
• Fund a 529 plan with gifts for education
  • For families saving for education, 529 plans offer tax-deferred growth potential and tax-free withdrawals for qualified education expenses. Certain states may also provide tax benefits for contributions.
• Consider a Stifel Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) to meet your charitable giving goals.
  • For those with charitable goals, a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) can be a flexible planning tool. Contributions may generate an immediate charitable tax deduction while allowing donors to recommend grants to charities over time. A DAF may also support a "bunching" strategy, where multiple years of charitable contributions are made in a single year to maximize itemized deductions while spreading charitable distributions over several years.