Both Ends of the Table, Part 5
Layering a Windfall Onto an Already-Full Plan
June 17, 2026
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Show Notes
Eddie and Betty's Conversation
Welcome back to The American Retirement Advisor. I'm Betty, and I'm here with Eddie, and today we're picking up a thread we've been pulling on for a while now. This is part five of Ian Schaeffer's series, Both Ends of the Table. And I love where this one lands, because it asks a question almost nobody gets to ask out loud.
It's a good one. So the last time around, we talked about the tax trap that can spring when a big windfall shows up. And this piece picks up right after that. The money's safely in. The taxes are handled. And now you're sitting there with a question that, honestly, most financial advice has no idea what to do with.
And the question is, what do you actually do with it? Which sounds almost silly at first. But Ian's whole point is that it isn't silly at all, because of who's asking.
Right. Picture the family in this spot. They already had enough. They built a plan over a lifetime, it was full, it was working. And then a parent passes, and a few million dollars arrives on top of a plan that didn't need it.
So this isn't somebody scrambling. This is somebody who already won.
Exactly. And here's the thing he names that I think is so sharp. For your whole working life, the goal was just one thing. Accumulate enough. Save more, grow it, get the better return. That's the game everybody plays.
And we're all trained for that game. The whole industry is built around it.
It is. But if you already had enough, more security isn't really what you need anymore. A slightly better return doesn't change your life at that point. So the families our advisors talk to who are in this spot, they're not asking how to get richer.
They're asking what the money is for.
And Ian says that's a better question, and it deserves a real answer. I think that's the heart of the whole piece.
So let's sit with that for a second, because I think it sneaks up on people. You spend forty years with one job, fill the bucket, fill the bucket, fill the bucket. And then one day the bucket's full and somebody pours more in. And you almost don't know how to feel about it.
That's the mindset shift he talks about, and he says it's the one almost nobody prepares you for. There's this quiet moment where you realize you've won the game you spent decades playing. You have enough. And more doesn't make you safer.
And he says that can feel oddly disorienting. Which I think is so honest. You'd expect it to feel like pure relief, but it doesn't always.
No, because the saving was the identity for so long. The discipline, the watching, the worrying a little. And suddenly there's nothing left to worry about on that front. That can leave you unmoored.
But here's the part I really wanted to land on. He doesn't leave it there. He says it's actually a gift. Because once you're past needing more, you're free to ask what you want the money to do.
For your family, for the causes you care about, and for the life you still want to live. The windfall, he says, isn't a scoreboard anymore. It's a chance to be deliberate.
It's a chance to be deliberate. I just love that, because it turns the whole thing from a math problem into a meaning problem. And those are so much more fun to solve.
They are. And the rest of the piece is basically the practical menu. Here are the smart moves when growing the money is no longer the point. And he groups them into three ideas, which I'll keep simple.
Give me the three.
One, keep your estate from drifting into tax territory. Two, give with intention while you're alive to actually enjoy it. And three, line up what you do with the money with what you actually want it to accomplish.
Okay, so let's take them one at a time. The first one, keeping the estate from drifting into tax territory. That sounds a little intimidating. What does that mean in plain English?
It means watch the size of your own estate. And there's a specific number in the article for this. Under current law for 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is fifteen million dollars per person. For a married couple, it's thirty million dollars.
So that's the line. Below that, and we'll get to states in a minute, but below that, the federal estate tax generally isn't in the picture.
That's right. And Ian's quick to say most families will never get anywhere near that. So for most folks listening, this is not a worry. I want to be clear about that.
But this series is talking to the family where a few million just landed on top of an already comfortable situation.
Right. So if you were already in good shape and then you inherit, it's worth knowing where you stand relative to that ceiling. Not to panic, just to know.
And why does the timing matter? Because he makes a point of saying start early.
He does. The tools that keep an estate under that ceiling, things like lifetime gifting and certain trusts, they work best when you start early rather than late. Time is part of how they work.
Now I want to be careful here, because trusts can get complicated fast. Are we talking about a specific kind of trust?
And that's exactly where I'd pump the brakes. The article says certain trusts and leaves it general, and I'm going to do the same. The specific structure, what fits whom, that's genuinely a question for one of our advisors. I wouldn't want anybody picking a trust off a podcast.
That's fair. Write it down and ask the team. He also mentions that a handful of states have their own thresholds, and they can be lower.
Right, lower than the federal number. So where you live matters, and that's another one I'd bring to an advisor rather than guess at on the air. The point of this first idea is just awareness. Know your number.
Okay. Second idea, and this is the one I think is the most joyful. Give while you're alive to watch it.
This is my favorite too. He calls it one of the most underused privileges of having more than you need. The ability to give it away now, while you're here to see what it does.
And the tax code actually makes this easy at a surprising scale. There are real numbers here.
There are. In 2026, you can give up to nineteen thousand dollars per person, per year, with no gift tax and not even a filing. Nothing to report.
Per person meaning per recipient, per person you give to.
Per recipient, yes. And here's where it gets nice. Each spouse has their own exclusion. So a married couple, together, can give thirty-eight thousand dollars to the same person.
And to as many people as you like.
As many people as you like. So think about a couple with, say, four grandkids. That's a meaningful amount of money you can move every single year, completely clean, no tax, no paperwork.
Now there's a college piece in here too that I thought was clever. The front-loading.
Yeah, this is a neat one. If you fund a grandchild's college account, you can front-load five years of that gifting all at once. And for tax purposes, the gift gets treated as if it were spread across those five years.
So instead of nineteen thousand this year and nineteen thousand next year, you can put a bigger lump in now and have it counted like it was spaced out.
That's the idea. Now the exact mechanics of how you elect that and report it, I'd let the team walk you through, because there are forms and details. But the concept is, you can put real money to work for a grandchild's education early.
And early matters for college money, because it has time to grow before they need it.
It does. Although I'll stay general on the growth part, because that depends on what it's invested in, and that's not what the article's about.
Fair. But here's the emotional core of this whole section, and Ian says it beautifully. Watching a gift land while you're alive is something no inheritance after you're gone can offer.
He gives the examples. Helping a child buy a home. Watching a grandchild graduate without debt. You're in the room for it.
You get to see their face. That's the thing. If the money waits until you're gone, you miss the best part of giving it, which is watching it change somebody's life while you're still here to share the moment.
And he says there's a whole piece coming in this series just on that, because it's the part families find the most joyful. So we'll dig in deeper down the road. But you can feel why it matters.
I think a lot of people default to leaving everything in the will because that's just what you do. And they never stop to ask whether they'd rather give some of it now.
And the answer for a lot of families, once they think about it, is yes, some of it now. Not all. But some, on purpose, where they can enjoy it.
Alright, third idea. Giving to causes in the smartest way. And this one has a real tool with a name. The qualified charitable distribution.
It does, and it's a mouthful, but the idea is elegant. If you're charitably inclined, and you're seventy and a half or older, you can send money directly from your IRA to a charity.
Directly. So it doesn't pass through your hands first.
That's the key. It goes straight from the IRA to the charity. And the article gives the limit. It now exceeds a hundred thousand dollars per person per year, and it rises with inflation.
That's a lot of generosity it can cover. And there's a tax angle that connects back to last episode.
This is the clever part. That distribution can count toward your required minimum distribution, your RMD, the amount you're required to pull from the IRA. But because it goes straight to the charity, it never shows up as taxable income to you.
So you satisfy the requirement and you don't add to your income.
Right. And remember those income thresholds we talked about last time, the ones that can quietly push up what you pay? Keeping this off your income can help keep those in check too. So for the right family, it does two jobs at once.
Support what you believe in, and trim the tax picture at the same time.
That's exactly how he puts it. Now, seventy and a half is a specific age, and required minimum distributions have their own rules about timing and amounts. The exact mechanics there, I'd absolutely confirm with one of our advisors. But the shape of it is, give from the IRA, skip the income.
Okay, so we've got three ideas. The estate ceiling, giving while you're alive, and the charitable distribution. And here's the part I really appreciate. Ian basically says, you don't have to do all of this.
I'm so glad he put that in. Because a menu like this can start to feel like a to-do list. Like you've failed if you didn't use every tool.
And that's not the point at all.
Not even close. The point is to choose the few that fit your values and your family, and to do them on purpose rather than by accident. He says the families who handle a windfall well are not the ones who optimized every single dollar.
They're the ones who decided what the money was for, and then acted on it.
With someone coordinating the pieces, so the giving and the taxes and the estate plan all point in the same direction. That coordination word keeps coming up, and it matters.
Which brings us to the title of the whole series. Both ends of the table. Can you unpack that, because this is where it all ties together.
Yeah. So picture a table. One end is what you received, the inheritance that came to you. The other end is what flows out from you, to your children and the causes you care about. And the big idea of the series is that those two ends are connected.
What you received and how you handle it directly shapes what reaches the other end.
Exactly. And he draws the contrast really cleanly. Handle it as one connected plan, and a windfall becomes a tool for the legacy you actually want. Handle it as a loose pile of money, and it just sits there, slowly drifting toward a tax bill.
Drifting. That word again. Money doesn't stay still. If you don't give it direction, it finds its own, and usually not the one you'd pick.
And the difference between those two outcomes, he says, is intention and a little coordination. That's it. Not genius, not a perfect return. Intention and coordination.
And that coordination piece is really where a team earns its keep, isn't it? Because deciding what the money is for, that's personal. Nobody can do that for you.
No, that's yours. But executing it well, that's a coordinated job. The gifting, the charitable strategy, the estate documents, the tax picture, they all touch each other. Pull on one and the others move.
So you really don't want four different people working on four separate corners of it with nobody seeing the whole table.
That's the trap. And it's exactly the kind of plan the team at American Retirement Advisors builds in an Inheritance Planning meeting. Looking at both ends of the table at the same time, not one piece in isolation.
And there's the BeneficiaryBox piece too, which I always think is so practical.
Right, the BeneficiaryBox keeps it all organized, so your intentions actually get carried out. Because it's one thing to decide what you want. It's another for everyone to be able to find it and follow it when the time comes.
That's the part families forget. The best plan in the world doesn't help if nobody can locate it or understand it later.
So if you've received, or you expect to receive, more than your plan was ever built for, that's the conversation to have. You can reach the team at American Retirement Advisors at 602-281-3898.
And just so folks know what's coming, the next piece in this series is the one Eddie and I are both excited about. Giving while you're alive to watch it. Ian calls it the most joyful part of all of this.
Which after a whole episode about it, I believe him.
So here's what I'd leave you with. If you've reached that quiet moment where you realize you have enough, don't treat it as the end of the planning. Treat it as the beginning of the good part, the part where you get to decide what the money is for. Sit down with someone who can see both ends of the table at once, write down the questions we said to ask, and make those choices on purpose. That's where a windfall stops being a number and starts being a legacy. Thanks for spending this time with us. We'll see you next time on The American Retirement Advisor.
Take care, everybody.