Webinar: 10 Things Advisors Should Discuss With Clients Before the Year Ends

Written by Susannah Snider, CFP®

Updated on March 5, 2025, 8:19am ET

Before 2022 comes to a close, advisors should kick off discussions with clients on a range of subjects, including retirement, investing, insurance and taxes.

For many of these topics, there are year-end deadlines or contribution cut-offs that are important to note. Missing them could result in penalties, higher tax bills and other financial repercussions.

Conversations to Have With Clients

Watch the SmartAsset webinar below

To determine which topics advisors should surface to clients before year-end, SmartAsset spoke with Elliot Herman, partner and chief investment officer at PRW Wealth Management LLC.

SmartAsset’s Advisor Marketing Platform offers financial advisors services like client lead generation, automated marketing and more. Learn about SmartAsset AMP today.

Herman is responsible for his firm’s investment advisory process, including the development of investment strategy, asset allocation, and investment manager and product due diligence. He also oversees the firm’s wealth management practice, developing plans focused on the areas of wealth transfer, retirement, investment, tax, risk management and estate planning.

The webinar, moderated by Susannah Snider, managing editor for financial education at SmartAsset, was live-streamed on Nov. 17.

Here are the 10 topics discussed:

Retirement account contributions
Mutual fund distributions
Roth conversions
Tax-loss and capital-gain harvesting
RMD strategies
Gifting strategies
Income tax withholding
Managing income tax brackets
Rising replacement costs
Contributing to HSA accounts

For more context and advisor tips, watch the video.

The panel did not offer advice, and each circumstance is unique. A tax professional should be consulted when executing these strategies.

Elliot Herman is not an employee of SmartAsset and is not a SmartAdvisor client. Additionally, he has not been paid for his participation.

Please email advisorinsights@smartasset.com if you’d like a PDF copy of the slideshow.

Tips for Growing Your Financial Advisory Business

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Expand your radius. SmartAsset’s recent survey shows that many advisors expect to continue meeting with clients remotely following COVID-19. Consider broadening your search and working with investors who are more comfortable with holding virtual meetings or spacing out in-person meetings.

Susannah Snider, CFP®Susannah Snider is the Managing Editor of Financial Education at SmartAsset where she oversees the strategy and production of all expert-driven personal finance content, including commentary and columns from CFPs and other financial professionals. In addition, Susannah writes articles, newsletters, columns and commentary found on SmartAsset.com and syndication partner sites. She also serves as a spokesperson and quoted expert on a wide range of personal finance and financial planning topics, including retirement, investing, estate planning, mortgages, and more. Susannah earned her CFP designation in 2019 and leverages her expertise to easily explain complicated financial topics with an approachable tone. Prior to SmartAsset, Susannah was the Senior Editor for Financial Advisors at U.S. News & World Report. She also previously covered personal finance, careers, and college financing for U.S. News and worked as a staff writer for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. She is the recipient of the McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism program and won the 2018 RTDNA/NEFE Excellence in Personal Finance Reporting award in the digital category. Susannah holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Susannah has appeared as a personal finance expert on Cheddar, Fox & Friends, The Tavis Smiley Show, Your Money on Wharton Business Radio, Fox Business News and more.