Older individuals who have inherited wealth are often mistrusting of others, and usually for good reason. There are lots of people who would like to get their hands on the wealth. Such an individual typically has a few close advisers or confidantes she trusts, and that’s it. The problem often is, the wealthy individual trusts… read more

A major area of planned gift fundraising is working with elderly individuals.  Here some problems to anticipate: The donor repeatedly over time asks the same question or asks for information you’ve already provided. It’s probably best to provide this individual with a postage-paid envelope addressed to you and ask that he or she communicate with… read more

Good charitable gift planning often requires an understanding of applicable state law. Pledges: The enforceability of a pledge depends on the law of the state whose laws govern the pledge. For example, Donor lives in New Jersey and makes a spoken (non-written) promise to give $X to a charity located in Kentucky. If New Jersey… read more

The world of charitable gift planning is a world of well-meaning donors who do a world of good across an incredible spectrum of needs, wants and aspirations. It’s too bad, but it must not be ignored by gift planners, that the most well-meaning donor can be tripped up by the tax law, be given faulty… read more

We left off last time with a challenge to you, the reader, to solve a problem and also to check your solution. The problem is a real-world gift planning problem. In terms of difficulty, it’s a simple first-year algebra problem The solution of n, the number of shares to be donated, is given to be:… read more

Here are the facts: Donor owns 100 shares of ABC stock, which is publicly traded. Each share is worth $200 and has a $50 cost basis. What Donor wants to do: Donor wants to donate some of the shares and sell the remaining shares. She wants the charitable deduction for the donation to offset exactly… read more

What they reveal is how tough the IRS and the Tax Court have gotten on gift substantiation . . . gift receipt and “Qualified Appraisal” rules. The first case involves a gift of real estate to the University of Michigan. The donor was a partnership that had purchased the real estate for $2.5 million. More… read more

The Charitable IRA gift is likely to be the gift of choice going forward for many American 70½ and older. “Going forward” means in the wake of the 2017 tax law changes. One doesn’t need to itemize deductions to save taxes via a Charitable IRA gift (called a “qualified charitable distribution,” or QCD) … given… read more

Here’s the gift planning problem from last time. Don wants his name on Charity’s new clinic building. Charity’s president, Ron, has told Don it will cost him a big chunk of change, $X, in cash or securities or in a combination of both. Don is just about to sign a pledge agreement to this effect… read more

Now that we know all about pledges (Click to read Part One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six), a gift planning problem. Don wants his name on Charity’s new clinic building. Charity’s president, Ron, has told Don it will cost him a big chunk of change, $X, in cash or securities or in a combination of… read more