Charitable Planning

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
         -Winston Churchill

Charitable estate planning allows you to create a legacy for yourself and your family. It enables you to do more for society than you previously thought possible.  It can help you add significance to your life.
 It is our hope that readers of Giving will realize that:

• everyone is a philanthropist;
• you can choose to let government take care of your philanthropy (involuntary philanthropy through taxation) or be a voluntary philanthropist and support the causes of your choice;
• charitable estate planning allows you to be a good steward of your social capital: to receive your gifts gratefully, to nurture those gifts, and to share your good fortune with others;
• once you understand good stewardship, you will have tremendous power to add significance to your lives and to influence others.

Charitable giving is the process of identifying a problem and then figuring out a way to solve it.

Our practice is unique.  We believe that quality estate planning requires the combined efforts of caring professionals working together and sharing their collective knowledge for the benefit of clients and friends.

Our clients wish to do more than leave money to their children.  They wish to pass on their values to their families and give back to the community.  Our clients look to me to show them how charitable planning can benefit them, their family and the community.

While there is no magic formula as to how much one should leave their loved ones in their estate plans, it’s clear that almost anyone can afford to make some contribution from their estate for the betterment of their community.

And that is why charitable giving in an estate plan is such a wonderful opportunity.  It allows you to decide what goal your money will work toward.  Rather than turning over many of your assets to the government through the estate tax, you can select the charities and causes that are most important to you, then work with your estate planner to build them into your plans.