As a CPA for 40 years, I often worked with clients on their estate plans. For many people, this was an extremely difficult and emotional process and they often put off completing their plan.
Personally, I knew the importance of putting a viable plan together so that my family was protected should I die early. Karen and I revised our initial plan when our sons were in college and almost, but not quite, out of the nest. At that time, it was easy to decide that we would split our estate equally between them.
As the years went by and our sons and their spouses became financially secure, we began thinking that we could do so much more with our assets than just leave 100% to our sons. The needs and potential concerns that existed when they were in college were no longer present. We began to think that we could help others less fortunate and support organizations addressing our environmental concerns. We established a Donor Designated Fund and began building a balance we could use to help our favorite charities complete their important work. The beauty of the Donor Designated Fund was that we received a current charitable deduction for the fair market value of the securities we donated, thereby reducing our estate, while also escaping the tax on the gain. And we could propose grants from the fund in later years.
Since that time, we have made sizeable grants to our favorite charities with Good Samaritan Services being our largest recipient. Our plan is to have a large portion of my retirement account go into the donor designated fund upon the later of my or my wife’s death at which time our executor will terminate the fund and make distributions to the charities we have designated. Because of the wonderful work that Good Sam does in transforming the lives of people and helping them reach independence, the largest portion will be distributed to it.
We feel good about our plan knowing that in addition to leaving assets to our sons, we will also be supporting the charities that are important to us.
By Tim Michel,
Good Samaritan Services Legacy Society Member
Have you also included Good Samaritan Services in your planned giving, or are you interested in learning more? We’d love to connect with you about joining our Legacy Society!
