Charitable Giving
“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” Maya Angelou
Do you have a strategy for making an impact in the world using your resources? Balancing giving with your other priorities like retirement, child education and more takes planning. Let’s look at a brief overview of how you could implement giving in a way that makes an impact in the community while making an impact on your long-term financial plan.
Transcript
Hi there. Mike Brady with Generosity Wealth Management, a comprehensive financial services firm headquartered right here in Boulder Colorado.
So, today I want to talk a little bit about charitable planning. And what that means is do you have a strategy for making an impact in the world using your resources? And the answer might be hey, I am just trying to put my kids through school, I’m trying to plan for my retirement. Absolutely essential. That is the number one priority. I talk with clients and have multiple goals and so we have to prioritize what those goals are. But charitable planning might be a part of that. And one of the ways that we do charitable planning is not hey, who gets all my money or do I set up an endowment or a foundation upon my passing, but also while you are living is there a plan for how you use your dollars? Are you just giving to whoever asks or every year or every two or three years do you have a plan for hey, this next three years I really want to have an impact with children or I really want to have an impact on the climate, you know, environmental issues, I really want to make an impact in this third place or this fourth place. How do you do it and do so in a really tax efficient way as well?
A lot of times people come to me and they say well, I never really give enough money that it makes an impact on my itemized deduction, I don’t really get the maximum benefit that I am afforded by me giving and my impact that I am making here with my gifts. There is a very simple answer to that in my opinion, which is a donor advised fund. That is essentially where you set up a fund, you are in control of that fund and you get to put lots of money in it one year and dole it out. So you put lots of money in year one and you might dole it out two/three/four years down the road or ten or 20 years down the road but you get the deduction when you gift it to the fund. I am a big fan of local community funds. There is one here in Boulder, there is one in Longmont. I work more with Longmont, but these are consultants who will work with you to help set up that fund and they will work with you to say what is your real impact that you want to make and here are some organizations that you might want to partner up with. As your financial advisor planner you should go to those meetings because I might know what you might want to do as well and I do a lot of this myself. That is the reason I named my company Generosity Wealth Management is because I believe being generous in the world is a part of happiness and it makes me a better person because of it.
So, charitable planning is important not only to when am I giving my charity but what years, how does it impact my taxes but also what is the impact that I am making. And, of course, upon our death we could also make a huge impact and that could help to reduce some of the estate taxes if that is one of the things that we have going on in our lives. It’s also, with your required minimum distribution, it is a great way to go right from your required minimum distribution to the charity and talk with me about that because it satisfies your requirement minimum distribution without increasing your income, which is a major impact to the deductibility of your calculation for your Medicare and other things. I don’t want to get too technical but there are great tax benefits to going directly to satisfy your required minimum distribution that you are forced to take out of your IRA if you are over 72 years old that you can direct it directly to a charity. Some portion, you know, maybe you have to take out 10,000 you can just have 1000 go over, but there is a benefit to you, you get to satisfy it but there is also a tax benefit as well.
Anyway, non-investment discussion today but one that I think is really important. Mike Brad; Generosity Wealth Management; 303-707-6455. You have a wonderful day. Thanks. Bye-bye!
