Relocating to a new state can offer exciting opportunities and lifestyle benefits, but it also brings important financial, tax, and estate planning implications. Whether you are moving for retirement, tax efficiency, or family reasons, taking the proper steps to establish your new residency is essential to supporting your broader financial plan.
Use this checklist to help ensure your transition is both smooth and strategic:
1. Tax Planning: Income, Estate, and Residency Risk
Review how your new state treats income, capital gains, and retirement distributions. Not all states tax these categories in the same way. Work with your advisor to understand potential tax savings or exposure.
Consider whether your new state imposes an estate or inheritance tax. Some states have thresholds and rules that differ significantly from federal law.
Keep thorough records of time spent in each state to document your residency. Using a travel tracking app can help provide a reliable audit trail.
File a part-year or nonresident tax return in your former state if needed, and a full-year resident return in your new state.
Be aware that residency audits are common, especially when moving from a high-tax state. Documentation such as credit card statements, flight records, and lodging receipts can support your case.
Planning Tip: A move can change your overall tax picture. Consider updating your withdrawal strategy, income plan, and charitable giving approach to reflect your new state’s tax environment.
2. Real Estate and Property
Establish a primary residence in your new state and make it your home base for financial and legal purposes.
Apply for the homestead exemption in your new state if applicable and relinquish any such claims in your former state.
Move valuable and meaningful personal belongings to your new home, such as artwork, family heirlooms, or important documents.
Planning Tip: Selling or retaining your previous residence can impact your estate, liquidity, and investment plan. Coordinate this decision with your financial advisor.
3. Legal Documents and Estate Planning
Update your will, trust documents, and powers of attorney to reflect your new state’s laws.
Review all beneficiary designations to ensure they remain appropriate after your move.
Reassess any trusts or business entities you are involved in to ensure compliance with your new state’s legal and tax structure.
Planning Tip: Different states have unique definitions of domicile, probate rules, and laws for durable power of attorney. Keeping documents current can avoid costly delays and unintended consequences.
4. Financial Accounts and Investment Strategy
Update your address with banks, investment accounts, retirement plans, and insurance providers.
Open a banking relationship in your new state and consider closing local accounts in your former state.
Engage local professionals, such as a CPA or estate attorney, who are familiar with your new state’s laws.
Reevaluate your investment strategy, especially if your move affects municipal bond holdings or access to local tax incentives.
Planning Tip: Moving may also be a good time to revisit asset location decisions, which determine the investments you hold in each account type, to align with your updated tax profile.
5. Establishing Personal and Legal Ties
Apply for a driver’s license and register your vehicle in your new state.
Register to vote and consider joining local organizations, clubs, or religious communities.
Enroll children in local schools if applicable and build new relationships with service providers like doctors and dentists.
Notify personal and professional contacts of your move, ideally in writing, to support your stated intent to change domicile.
Planning Tip: Demonstrating intent is one of the most critical factors in a successful residency change. Take consistent and visible steps to make your new state your true home.
Why This Matters to Your Financial Plan
Changing residency is more than updating an address. It affects your tax obligations, estate planning strategy, healthcare access, and investment decisions. Coordinating with your financial advisor can help protect your wealth and position you for long-term success.
Working With Janney
Depending on your financial needs and personal preferences, you may opt to engage in a brokerage relationship, an advisory relationship or a combination of both. Each time you open an account, we will make recommendations on which type of relationship is in your best interest based on the information you provide when you complete or update your client profile.
If you engage in a brokerage relationship, you will buy and sell securities on a transaction basis and pay a commission for these services. Our recommendations for the purchase and sale of securities will be based on what is in your best interest and reflect reasonably available alternatives at that time.
If you engage in an advisory relationship, you will pay an asset-based fee, which encompasses, among other things, a defined investment strategy, ongoing monitoring, and performance reporting. Your Financial Advisor will serve in a fiduciary capacity for your advisory relationships.
For more information about Janney, please see Janney’s Relationship Summary (Form CRS) on www.janney.com/crs which details all material facts about the scope and terms of our relationship with you and any potential conflicts of interest.
By establishing a relationship with us, we can build a tailored financial plan and make recommendations about solutions that are aligned with your best interest and unique needs, goals, and preferences.
Contact us today to discuss how we can put a plan in place designed to help you reach your financial goals.
Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, its affiliates, and its employees are not in the business of providing tax, regulatory, accounting, or legal advice. These materials and any tax-related statements are not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used or relied upon, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties. Any such taxpayer should seek advice based on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor.
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