As the year begins to wind down, consider tapping into your clients’ philanthropic interests as a catalyst to motivate them to start addressing year-end planning items right now rather than waiting until November or December. You may discover that the uplifting topic of philanthropy makes it easier to at least start a conversation. Then, the conversation can evolve to include not only charitable giving topics, but also other tax planning topics that need attention.
Here’s how this could work with a client:
- Review the charitable components of the client’s estate and financial plans, including provisions in wills and trusts, beneficiary designations, donor-advised funds, prior years’ tax deductions, and historical gifts to favorite charities.
- Reach out to the client to suggest that you have a check-in conversation to discuss 2024 charitable giving plans and other items.
- Open the conversation by briefly recapping the charitable planning components already in place and the client’s history of giving. Then ask the client about their plans for 2024.
- As you talk with the client about charitable intentions, bring up various charitable giving tools and opportunities that match those intentions. In each case, use the charitable discussion as a springboard for general tax planning items that need to be addressed before year-end.
- When your client talks about charities they plan to support before year-end, remind them not to automatically reach for the checkbook. Most of the time, highly-appreciated marketable securities (or other highly-appreciated, long-term assets) are ideal gifts to a client’s fund at the Community Foundation or other public charity because the client is eligible for a tax deduction at the assets’ fair market value, and the proceeds from the sale of the assets will flow into the client’s fund at the Community Foundation free from capital gains tax. That means more funds are available to support the client’s favorite causes. Conveniently, the conversation about highly-appreciated stock can segue naturally into a conversation about overall stock positions.
The Community Foundation team is here to help you serve your charitable clients every step of the way, every month of the year. We understand that late-December transactions are often unavoidable and we’re happy to work with you according to your clients’ schedules, whether that means getting a jump on a new year and processing stock gifts in February, helping you plan in September for year-end, or preparing fund agreements in December.
To learn more about how we work with professional advisors and their clients, contact Megan Sommerfeldt, Director, Gift Planning, at (716) 852-2857 ext. 227 or megans@cfgb.org.