This upcoming tax season will prove to be an interesting one indeed. I just wanted to add a couple of notes to your listing.

1. There is still a month to go to lock in losses for purposes of tax loss harvesting. Evaluate your holdings and see where it makes sense to lock in, while still picking up the lost exposure on the sale in another one of your accounts (see points 2 and 3).

2. This is a great time for people to be looking at their risk profile and making adjustments. People always gauge their theoretical risk tolerance levels – but until they experience the risk head on; it is but a guess in my opinion. Take this opportunity to leverage the chance to tax loss harvest with the opportunity to reevaluate your risk tolerance and make changes to your investment mix.

3. Going along with one and two, use the end of the year to evaluate how you are making use of your tax sheltered accounts. Are you holding a bond index fund in your taxable account and a low turnover index fund in your 401k? — make the switch; you keep the same investment risk in your overall portfolio yet you get to capitalize on tax savings.

4. We should also make sure to talk to our clients about the new rules that have gone into play during the last year – and what may be upcoming. More people than ever are watching the news, and sadly misunderstanding the various programs that are available for them to take. It is our responsibility to help them gain this understanding – and another great opportunity for us to do some planning for our clients on a go forward basis.