Charitable Gifting

Protecting Your Family and Heirs

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Charitable Gifting Considerations

For many people, the deepest joy of building significant assets lies in their ability to share their good fortunes. You might wish to give gifts to charity, or pass along assets to younger family members, but gifting strategies are much more complex than you might believe. Making the wrong decisions about these gifts can erode your legacy, so it’s important to work closely with our team of experts to ensure that your assets are shared in the most beneficial ways.

Insurance and Investments

The right mix of insurance and investments can help you to achieve your legacy goals. We offer a variety of options that are geared toward meeting unique objectives, such as:

  • Annuities
  • Life Insurance
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • Alternative Investments
  • Brokerage Accounts
  • Fixed Income Investments

Charitable Remainder Trusts

This type of trust provides funds to a main beneficiary and a remainder beneficiary. As the main beneficiary, you provide funds to the trust, while a qualified charity or private foundation serves as the remainder beneficiary. You can receive a fixed amount or percentage of the trust’s assets as annual income, either for a fixed period of time or for a lifetime. The remainder beneficiary – the organization of your choosing – then receives the designated gift upon your passing. Clients often choose to establish a charitable remainder trust due to its numerous tax benefits.

Gifting

You might be tempted to share your wealth by simply writing checks to children or other individuals. But because there can be various important tax implications of gifts, consult with our experts before reaching for your pen. These gifts can be used to reduce the size of your estate for tax purposes, but exclusions and special rules apply. We can help you strategize to reap the maximum advantages of these gifts.

Family Foundations

If you prefer to make charitable contributions to a variety of organizations, a Private Family Foundation might be the appropriate strategy for you. The foundation itself is considered a charity, so you can transfer highly appreciated assets to the foundation to avoid capital gains taxes. You can even use that contribution as a tax deduction. Assets gifted to the foundation are exempt from your overall estate, helping to lower estate tax liability, and these donations are exempt from gift tax exclusions. As you can see, a Private Family Foundation is a win-win strategy all the way around! Our team can guide you in establishing your foundation, and help you decide upon the most tax-advantaged strategies for making donations.

Donor Advised Funds

A Donor Advised Fund is another way to earn tax deductions for charitable gifts. Assets you place in the fund are owned and controlled by the charity, but you are able to recommend grants from the fund over time. In other words, it’s like a charitable savings account. You make donations on your schedule, where they are held in the fund until you decide to disburse them to your favorite charities.

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