As a fiduciary financial advisor in Daytona Beach, Holland Capital helps you plan retirement income, taxes and investments together, including how much you can give your family while you are alive. We build the plan first, then invest to fit it.
Retirement may be a few years away. It may have started last spring.
In both cases, your money now has more than one job. It has to pay for the years ahead of you. It may also be the money you hope will help your children, your grandchildren or a cause you care about.
It is easy to plan those two jobs separately, or to plan only the first. The retirement accounts get attention. The family part waits for the will.
Both draw on the same dollars. A gift you make at 66 is money that is no longer invested for you at 86. A traditional IRA left to your children arrives with an income tax bill attached.
Holland Capital starts with the whole picture: what you have, what you spend, and what you want to do for other people, and when. Then we build the investments around it.
First, How Long Does Your Money Need to Last?
Your own retirement comes first, because everything else depends on it.
This is also the question an annuity is usually offered to answer. Whether one helps depends on the contract: the fees, how long the money is tied up and what happens to it at your death. Our guide walks through five steps to take before you sign.
When the paycheck stops, savings take its place. You need to know how much to draw, which accounts it comes from, when Social Security starts and what you actually spend.
Those decisions affect each other. We put them in order and test whether the plan supports the retirement you want and the help you may want to give your family.
Once the plan shows what you need to keep for yourself, another question becomes possible: how much could you give now, instead of later? Our approach to retirement planning begins with both.
Helping Your Family Now Instead of Later
You may have reached the point where the plan says you have more than you are likely to spend.
A son is trying to buy his first home. A granddaughter starts college in three years. A daughter is still paying off student loans. You would rather help while you can see it make a difference than leave it all in a will.
The first question is how much you can give without changing your own retirement. We run that through the plan first. Only then do we decide what could go to your family and when.
The second question is how to give it. Paying a grandchild’s tuition directly to the school does not count against the yearly gift limit. A 529 plan can take several years of gifts at once. And help with a house does not have to be a gift at all.
The third is which money to give. Stock you bought decades ago keeps your original cost when you give it away, so your child owes tax on the gain when he sells. The same stock inherited at your death generally gets a new cost basis, and most of that gain is never taxed. Cash, or an investment without much gain, often makes the better gift. Appreciated stock may be better left to heirs or given to charity.
If you remarried and each of you has children, the questions get more specific. Who keeps the house? Which accounts go to your children and which to your spouse’s? Does a gift to one child now need to be balanced for the others later?
We work out the numbers and the order. Your estate attorney drafts the documents. Our guide to estate and wealth transfer planning goes further into the tools.
If the Business Is Going to a Son or Daughter
You may also have a family business that was never meant to be sold to a stranger. Your daughter already runs the service side. Your son knows every customer. The plan, spoken or not, is that they take it over.
Passing a business on is a different problem from selling it. The next generation may not have the cash to buy you out. You may still need income from the company after you step back. And if one child gets the business, the others may expect something of similar value from the rest of the estate.
We look at how much of your retirement depends on the business, how you would be paid as ownership moves, and how the handoff fits with what you plan for everyone else. Your attorney and CPA design the legal and tax structure. Our guide to business exit planning covers the choices in more detail.
Where the Investments Fit
Once the plan says what the money has to do, including what may go to your family, we write it into an investment policy statement. It records what the portfolio has to fund and when, how much risk the plan can carry, and how each account is taxed.
The portfolio is managed to that policy, for the best return after tax that your plan’s risk allows. Where each investment sits is part of the work. A Roth IRA can generally pass to heirs without income tax, so it may be the account to leave alone while the traditional IRA pays your bills.
We start from the accounts you have now. A long-held stock with a large gain may be more valuable kept, or given away, than sold. Every change is weighed against its tax cost before it is made.
Our investment management carries out that policy from year to year.
Working with Holland Capital
Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.
You do not need to know how much you want to give before we talk. You may only have a sense of it. We turn that sense into numbers you can check against your own retirement, then keep them current as markets, tax law and your family change.
Bring your latest statements and, if you have them, your will or trust. We will tell you what we see and which decisions come first. Your attorney drafts the documents, and your CPA files the returns. We keep the planning, investment and estate decisions tied to the same set of numbers.
The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Daytona Beach primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the Regus center at 444 Seabreeze Boulevard, on the beachside.
For clients whose investments we manage, accounts are held directly at Charles Schwab in the client’s own name. Holland Capital manages the investments but does not take custody of client assets. If a client ever needs in-person assistance from Schwab, the closest branch is in Ormond Beach at 1414 West Granada Boulevard.
We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.
Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.
RETIREMENT ENGINEERING™
The Order Matters
Five retirement decisions and why timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do We Have to Pay Tax on a Large Gift to Our Children?
Usually not, though you may have to file a return.
In 2026, each person can give up to $19,000 to any one person without filing a gift tax return. A married couple can give $38,000 to the same person when each spouse makes a gift. Medical bills paid directly to a provider do not count toward that limit either.
A larger gift is reported on a gift tax return and counts against your lifetime exemption, which is $15 million per person in 2026. Tax is owed only after that exemption is used up. The IRS answers common questions in its gift tax FAQs.
Can We Help a Child Buy a House Without Simply Giving the Money?
Yes. You can lend it.
A loan between family members should be in writing, carry at least the interest rate the IRS publishes each month for these loans, and be repaid on a schedule. Some parents then forgive part of the balance each year, within the annual gift limit. The IRS lists the current applicable federal rates.
A loan keeps the money on your balance sheet if your own plan might need it later. A gift does not.
What Does a Fiduciary Duty Mean When I Am Giving to My Family?
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. Here, that means the advice on how much you can give starts from what your own retirement needs, not from what keeps the most money in accounts we manage.
A gift to your children can reduce the assets we manage. If it fits your plan, we will still tell you it makes sense. And if a recommendation would increase what we are paid, such as moving an account to us, we say so before you decide.
Do I Need a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Based in Daytona Beach?
No. Most of our work with clients happens by video and phone, and the planning does not depend on sitting in the same room. Statements and documents can be shared electronically, and meetings fit around your calendar instead of a drive.
When meeting in person makes sense, for example, to walk through the plan with your children, we can meet by appointment at the Regus center at 444 Seabreeze Boulevard.
Photo: Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
