Not sure your portfolio still fits your life? Two Cedar Falls CFP® pros share the checklist we use to review investments — allocation, fees, taxes, and risk.
Most people review their investments by looking at one number: the return. Did it go up? Did it beat the market? And so that's usually where the conversation starts and stops.
We'd gently push back on that. A portfolio review really isn't about the return — it's about whether your money is still lined up with your life. Before we look at a single fund, the first question we ask is the same one we ask about every dollar you have: what's this money for? When is it needed, and how is it going to be used? Get that right and most of the other decisions fall into place.
This is the checklist we actually walk clients through when we sit down to review investments. It ties right into the "Assets" piece of our SPARK planning framework — making sure what you own is doing the job you need it to do.
And so the starting point is your objectives. If you're saving for a specific purchase down the road — a new roof, a truck, a wedding — we look at the timeframe and how much needs to stay liquid. Money you'll need in two years shouldn't be riding the roller coaster. If part of an account is meant to pass to your kids someday, we make sure it's titled correctly and actually addressed in your estate plan, not just floating out there.
Then there's risk. There's a difference between the risk you're comfortable with, the risk you're able to take, and the risk you actually need to take. We don't want you taking one bit more risk than you have to. If you can hit every one of your income goals on a 60/40 mix, great — let's do that and sleep well at night. Your phase of life matters here too: someone still working with a paycheck coming in can weather a drop a lot differently than someone pulling income out every month.
The next bucket is honest math: are you on pace to hit your goals? We look at whether the expected returns baked into your plan are reasonable — not rosy — and then we adjust them for taxes and inflation, because a 7% return with 3% inflation isn't really 7%. The accountant in me runs those numbers conservatively on purpose. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than come up short.
If you're already taking money out, we revisit the distribution rate. Think of your safe spending like guardrails on a mountain road — we're not trying to steer you into the ditch on either side, just keep you in the middle where you don't run out of money and you also don't die with a giant pile you never got to enjoy.
Here's a piece people leave out: the money coming from outside the portfolio. A pension, an annuity, and your Social Security check are all reliable lifetime income. When you've got a solid floor of guaranteed income covering the essentials, you can often afford to take a little more risk with the investment accounts — or a lot less, if that's what helps you sleep. Either way, we plan the whole picture, not just the brokerage statement. You can check what the Social Security side looks like at SSA.gov. Does that make sense?
And so once we know the goals, we look at the whole pie — every account together, not one at a time. Looking at accounts in isolation is how people accidentally end up way too concentrated in one thing, or trip a wash sale between two accounts without ever realizing it.
Over time, a good run in stocks quietly pushes your allocation off target. That's normal. The question is whether you've got a rebalancing plan: do we trim it back on a set schedule, or when it drifts past a certain point? Rebalancing is really just the discipline of selling a little of what's high and buying a little of what's low — which is the opposite of what your gut wants to do, and exactly why it works.
The big one we look for is concentration. If a single position — often company stock — has grown into a huge slice of your portfolio, that's a risk hiding in plain sight. I had a client whose folks had a million and a half bucks in one company. It went kaboop and gone. None of us are smart enough to know what jumps tomorrow, so we'd rather own the whole market than bet the retirement on one name. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If that sounds like you, our piece on when your DIY investing days should end digs into it.
This one's a quiet money-saver that almost nobody outside the business talks about. It's not just what you own — it's which account you own it in.
Most people have three buckets: taxable (your regular brokerage account), tax-deferred (401(k), traditional IRA), and tax-free (Roth, HSA). The idea is to put the right investment in the right bucket. Tax-efficient holdings that don't throw off much taxable income can sit in the taxable account. The stuff that kicks out a lot of interest or big capital-gain distributions is better tucked inside the tax-sheltered accounts, where it isn't creating a tax bill every single year. Same investments, smarter placement, less going to Uncle Sam. It's like putting a puzzle together — everybody's picture looks a little different. What's your puzzle?
We have to pay our share, but we don't have to leave the IRS a tip. A big part of reviewing investments is looking at the tax bill your portfolio creates — not just this year, but down the road.
If you're holding long-term positions with a low cost basis, the tax rate on those gains depends on your income. For 2026, if your taxable income is under $49,451 (single) or $98,901 (married filing jointly), your long-term capital gains rate is actually 0%. Between there and $545,500 single ($613,700 MFJ), it's 15%; above that, 20%. That 0% window is one of the most under-used tools out there — we wrote a whole piece on harvesting capital gains at 0%. The IRS lays out the brackets on Topic 409.
When something's down, that loss isn't all bad news. You can harvest it to offset gains plus up to $3,000 of ordinary income, then carry the rest forward. Just mind the wash-sale rule so you don't accidentally wipe out the deduction — here's our plain-English guide to the wash-sale rule. And if your income is over $200,000 single ($250,000 MFJ), there's a sneaky 3.8% surtax called the Net Investment Income Tax riding on top of your investment income; municipal bonds and a little planning can help keep that in check. The IRS explains the NIIT here. For the bigger tax picture, see our 7 ways to lower taxes in retirement.
Now this is one we'll climb up on the soapbox about. Fees are the single biggest thing you can actually control, and most people have no idea what they're paying.
Picture your money as a snowball rolling downhill. Every year it earns a little and gets bigger, and that compounds decade after decade. But if someone's shaving off a chunk every time it rolls over, that snowball never picks up the snow it should. A 1% fee doesn't sound like much — until you see it as hundreds of thousands of dollars over a full retirement.
So when we review investments, we add up everything: the expense ratios on the funds, plus any 12b-1 fees, wrap fees, sales loads, or commissions hiding in the statement. Some of the options in a typical 401(k) are, frankly, stupid expensive. You keep what's in your pocket; the rest goes to fees. If a low-cost index fund does the same job for a fraction of the cost, that's an easy win. We get into the why behind all this in the hidden cost of "free" financial advice.
A portfolio review isn't a once-and-forget thing. Part of what we check is whether the review schedule itself still fits — some folks need a look once a year, others whenever life changes. We also make sure everyone who should be involved knows their role: you, us, your CPA, your attorney. Everybody rowing the same direction.
And the big one: is there a plan for when the market drops? Because it will. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it won't. We're going to have years where it falls, and the worst thing you can do is jump off the roller coaster while it's still moving. No one gets hurt on that ride unless they jump. This is where having a couple years of cash set aside — so you're never selling stocks at the bottom just to cover the grocery bill — lets you stay the course. Honestly, a downturn is when the disciplined investor gets to buy more while everything's on sale. A low market can also be a great window for a Roth conversion, since you're moving shares at depressed values. But it's your decision — our job is just to help you get educated on it.
For most people, a thorough review once a year is plenty, plus a check-in any time life changes — a retirement, an inheritance, a new job, or a big purchase. Watching your accounts every day usually just talks you into doing something you'll regret. Set a schedule and stick to it.
Allocation is the mix — how much you hold in stocks versus bonds versus cash. Location is which type of account each investment sits in (taxable, tax-deferred, or tax-free). Getting the location right can quietly lower your tax bill every year without changing what you actually own.
Add up the fund expense ratios plus any advisor fee, and look for extras like 12b-1 fees, wrap fees, sales loads, or commissions. If you're paying well above a fraction of a percent for funds a low-cost index fund could replace, that's worth a hard look. A 1% difference can cost hundreds of thousands over a retirement.
Usually the opposite. Selling at the bottom locks in the loss — no one gets hurt on the roller coaster unless they jump off while it's moving. If your plan has a couple years of cash set aside, you can ride it out and even buy more while things are on sale. Staying the course is the whole game.
It's a 3.8% surtax on investment income for people with income over $200,000 single ($250,000 married filing jointly). It rides on top of your regular capital-gains tax. Strategies like municipal bonds and managing when you realize gains can help keep it in check.
Plenty of people do a fine job on their own for years. A second set of eyes tends to earn its keep on the pieces that are easy to miss — asset location, tax-loss harvesting, concentration risk, and keeping your hands off the wheel in a downturn. If it's gotten complex or the stakes have gotten big, that's usually the sign it's time.
Want a second set of eyes on your investments — the allocation, the fees, the tax bill, all of it? That's exactly what we do. Reach out and we'll send you our "Reviewing My Investments" checklist so you can walk through it yourself, or we're happy to sit down and go through it with you. No pressure, no jargon, and it's a judgment-free zone.
Just give us a holler through our contact page and we'll get you the checklist, or grab a time that works right here: schedule a free introduction meeting. Take care, guys.
— Mike & Casey, Ignite Financial