Review Investments & Retirement: What to Check Before Year-End

Anthony had not looked closely at his 401(k) allocation since he enrolled in it eight years earlier, during his first week at a new job. He remembered checking a few boxes on a form, picking what seemed like a reasonable target date fund, and moving on. Anthony, now 38, only revisited the account after a colleague mentioned that the IRS had raised contribution limits again and asked whether Anthony was capturing his full employer match. Anthony realized he genuinely did not know the answer.

Anthony’s situation is common among people who set up a retirement account once and never returned to it. A 401(k) or IRA is not a purchase that gets finalized on day one, it is an account that needs periodic attention as contribution limits, income, goals, and market conditions all shift over time.

What Changed for 2026

The IRS adjusts retirement contribution limits periodically to reflect cost-of-living increases, and 2026 brought several notable increases. The employee deferral limit for 401(k), 403(b), and most 457 plans rose to $24,500.  Catch-up contributions for savers aged 50 and older are capped at $8,000, while savers aged 60 to 63 can take advantage of a higher SECURE 2.0 catch-up limit of $11,250. The IRA contribution limit also increased to $7,500 with a catch-up contribution of $1,100 (50 and older). SIMPLE 401(k)s and SIMPLE IRAs have separate limits.

These are not simply numbers to note in passing. A saver who set their contribution rate based on last year’s limit, or on a percentage that assumed an older, lower cap, may be leaving potential savings on the table without realizing it. This is especially true for those who use a flat dollar amount—meaning they contribute the same dollar amount each month—rather than a percentage of income to fund their account.

Checking a contribution rate against the current year’s limit is one of the simplest parts of an October review, yet one of the most skipped.

Confirming the Full Employer Match

Beyond the IRS limits themselves, the more consequential number for most workers is their employer’s match formula.

A common company policy matches a percentage of an employee’s salary up to a certain contribution threshold, meaning an employee contributing below that threshold is leaving part of their employer’s contribution unclaimed.

This gap tends to open gradually rather than all at once.  If an employee gets a raise yet contributes the same flat amount each month, they could be missing out on a considerable percentage being put to retirement accounts.

Reviewing pay stubs or a plan’s summary description to confirm the exact match formula, and comparing it against current contribution levels, can be a five-minute check that can represent a meaningful amount of unclaimed compensation over time.

Does the Portfolio Still Match the Goal?

Contribution levels are only part of the picture. A portfolio’s underlying allocation deserves its own look, particularly for anyone who selected investments years ago and has not revisited them since.

Accounting for Time

Risk tolerance and time horizon both shift over the course of a working life, sometimes gradually as retirement approaches, and sometimes suddenly, following a life event like change in income, a health event, or a shift in family circumstances. A portfolio built for aggressive growth at age 30 may no longer fit what makes sense at age 50. The reverse happens too; someone who played it safe at age 25 out of general caution may end up more conservative than their actual time horizon calls for.

Rebalancing Allocations

Market movement alone can drift a portfolio away from its original target allocation over time, even without any change in a person’s goals or risk tolerance. A portfolio that started at a specific mix of stocks and bonds can end up meaningfully different a few years later simply because one asset class outperformed another, which is why a periodic rebalancing conversation, not just a contribution check, belongs in an annual review.

“People often think of a portfolio review as something that only matters when markets are volatile, but it’s commonly needed when something has changed in their own life, not the market,” says George Amanatides, Senior Vice President, Investments at David Lerner Associates.

“A raise, a new job, a child heading to college, these are the moments that should prompt a real conversation about whether contributions and allocation still make sense together.”

Why October Specifically

Reviewing retirement accounts in October, rather than waiting until the new year, leaves enough time to actually act on what the review turns up before the calendar year closes. A contribution rate adjustment made in October can still meaningfully affect that year’s total savings. The same adjustment made in January applies only to the year ahead, meaning a full year has already passed without the correction. For anyone close to maxing out an available catch-up contribution or trying to capture a specific employer match threshold before year-end, October provides a genuine window to make that happen rather than a retrospective realization in the following tax season.

What Anthony Found

Anthony’s review turned up two things worth fixing. His flat dollar contribution, unchanged since he was hired, was well below the threshold needed to capture his full employer match at his current, higher salary, and his original target date fund selection no longer matched a retirement timeline he now expected to be several years different from what he originally assumed.

Both were simple adjustments once he saw them clearly, neither would have been obvious from a monthly account balance alone.

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Material contained in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be used in connection with the evaluation of any investments offered by David Lerner Associates, Inc. This material does not constitute an offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities and should not be considered in connection with the purchase or sale of securities. These materials are provided for general information and educational purposes, based on publicly available information from sources believed to be reliable. We cannot assure the accuracy or completeness of these materials. The information in these materials may change at any time and without notice. The subject of this article is fictitious and created for illustrative purposes only. It is based on events of a similar nature and should not be interpreted as a direct depiction of any specific individual, organization, or incident. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, or actual events is purely coincidental.David Lerner Associates does not provide tax or legal advice.