Published November 28, 2025 – Bart McGloin recently participated in a panel discussion on the topic of year end planning

Table of Experts: Big Beautiful Bill figures large at year-end

The end of the year confronts individuals and business owners with money decisions regarding maximizing opportunities and reorganizing resources.

To do it all intelligently requires expertise. Enter wealth managers and financial advisers.

Buffalo Business First Publisher John Tebeau sat down with four Western New York financial minds to get a read on how to wrap-up the year and anticipate what is to come in 2026.

Joining the conversation were:

Tax Law Changes

Changes to the tax law courtesy of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will prompt some to revise their approaches to financial planning.

Maximizing contributions to 401(k) plans will be a big part of that planning, Clark said.

In the final weeks of 2025, those who are between ages 60 and 63 can make a “super catch-up” contribution of $11,500 to 401(k) plans. The maximum will increase to $12,000 next year, Clark said.

Wutz said some of the things from the tax cuts and JOBS Act were made permanent, so there is no reason to change course. It is important to keep moving with current strategies, and anticipate in multi-year planning the tax brackets you will be in.

“One thing that did change ever so slightly in the act is we saw haircuts on some of the deductions,” he said.

For example, the deduction for state and local taxes went up from $10,000 to $40,000, and then it phases down when you are between $500,000 and $600,000 adjusted gross income. Your financial adviser can help you understand how much of that you can take, and if you are going to itemize deductions or take the standard, he said.

Gamblers are limited to 90% of their losses as deductions, though there is some lobbying to try to reverse that, he said.

Tips and overtime are no longer taxable. It will be important for those impacted to communicate with their employers to get the information they need to do their returns and capture that deduction.

“There is a transition rule for 2025 where the employers have to report that information, but there is really no formal mechanism for them to do that,” Wutz said. “Draft forms, draft W2s, draft 1040s are out, but there is really nothing on the draft W2 that is highlighting what those overtimes and the qualifying tips are for that deduction. That is going to be a little different for folks to navigate.”

Tax Planning Strategies

In the waning days of 2025 and in anticipation of the year ahead, individuals and business owners are well-advised to develop and execute tax-planning strategies.

McGloin said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does take some of the uncertainty off the table.

“There are a lot of opportunities for corporate clients to manage their financial affairs both at the corporate level and at the shareholder or individual level, but it does take some coordination,” he said. “The Big Beautiful Bill, though does provide significant opportunities for business ownership that going back several decades and generations simply were not available. It is simply a game changer that could breed a lot of business activity that hopefully will be good for not only the Buffalo and Western New York market but certainly the national market as well.”

The opportunities in the act include an extension of bonus depreciation so for the most part firms are able to fully write off their capital additions, McGloin said. That needs to be measured against the other tax planning opportunities.

Coordinating all those items is not simple, McGloin said. It takes time to explain it and model it out for clients and give them space to figure out just which way they want to go with their plan.

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For more information, contact Bart F. McGloin CPA, CFE, CFF at bmcgloin@dopkins.com.