At first, estate planning can seem a bit much. It can be hard to know where to start and what all you need to know. But once you enlist an experienced attorney to act as a guide through the process and go through executing your plan (making it official), you can breath easy. The great news? Once you have your estate plan in place, it never expires. But, it’s not enough just to have an estate plan—you need to keep it current so it reflects changes in your life, as well as changes in applicable laws. Just to take two examples, an outdated estate plan can more easily be challenged in probate court. or create tensions among family members, than one that reflects your current situation.
You might not want a former spouse to inherit any of your assets, but it could happen if your estate plan is not properly revised.
You have kids (or more grandkids) as this could change your distribution model.
Make sure that your children are represented by a trustworthy guardian in case something happens to you. You will also want to add any additional children as beneficiaries.
Your estate plan and its distributions will need to be revised to take into consideration any changes in your income. Did you inherit money or valuable assets? Is your career is suddenly flourishing? Maybe you experienced something that’s called “a liquidity event”—that is, you’re flush with cash from winning the lottery or selling a successful business. Don’t let your good fortune evaporate by ignoring your estate plan.
A beneficiary or legal representative dies or becomes unable to fulfill his or her duties.
Keep the list of the beneficiaries, guardians, trustees, executors, and agents named in your estate current.
You relocate to a different state (or country) or you acquire property in another state.
Laws governing wills and probate vary from state to state. So, if you buy property in another state and/or set-up a secondary residence, this needs to be reflected in your estate plan. Are you a snowbird who heads to your house in southern Texas every cold Iowa winter? Make sure the Lone State property is in your estate plan. It can be a huge hassle if your will doesn’t address all of your real estate, not to mention expensive.
I advise clients to review their estate plans every year. If there are any updates or questions it’s recommended that folks meet with their lawyer and other professional advisors. Some clients like to do this around the first of the year, while others prefer picking a date that’s easy to remember, like a birthday or anniversary. Any date will work— the important thing is to do it. Don’t be late, keep your estate plan up-to-date!
Did anyone sit in the very back row of their high school calculus class, slumped over, the brim of their baseball cap lowered, hoping to become invisible? I’m asking for a friend, of course. The chalk marks on the board—a series of numbers—may as well have been Mandarin Chinese to me. The teacher was no help, he spit numbers faster than a rapper and made less sense than the chalk marks. My “friend” understood nothing but somehow passed by the skin of his teeth. Law school was suddenly a sure destination (or, really, any school without math).
Even Worse: College Math!
However, you needed an undergraduate degree before law school. (Ok…we’re talking about me, not my friend.) Thanks to the aforementioned miracle of passing calculus, my major at Iowa only required one math for graduation, at least at the time. That class was 22M-One, which was literally known on campus as 22M-Dumb. Still, I had to take the class twice. During the first try, halfway through the final exam, my friend got up, left his paper, and simply walked out. He knew he would flunk, so why torture himself or waste anyone else’s time? He barely passed the second time, and only did so after extensive tutoring.
Just curious, anyone have “math phobia” as bad as young me? This school daze story has a happy ending though. Eventually, I got past my major fear of math and was able to master the rules of math, especially as they relate to estate planning.
This Math Makes Sense
I know someone in your life (probably an engineer or actuary) has undoubtedly told you that math is fun and easy. But, when it comes to the IRA Charitable Rollover (AKA qualified charitable distribution (QCD)), this small bit of math really is!
You only need to remember six numbers:
70.5 (years)
$100,000
1 (as in one plan)
Zero (as in taxes owed if you do this right)
Zero again (as in, zero gifts in return);
100% (every time I write about the IRA Charitable Rollover, I always get a certain response).
70.5 years of age
There are two threshold requirements to take advantage of a special provision known as the IRA Charitable Rollover. The first is that to be eligible you must be 70.5 years of age or older. An important nuance to note is the required annual distribution is based on the year the participant reaches age 70.5, not the day they reach that age.
The second threshold requirement is the IRA Charitable Rollover applies to IRAs only. Under the law, charitable gifts can only be made from traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs. The IRA Charitable Rollover does not apply to 403(b) plans, 401(k) plans, pension plans, and other retirement benefit plans. (I’ll discuss another great option, however, for these other retirement benefit plans, so be sure to read to the end of this blog post).
$100,000
Sure, living to 70.5 is great in itself, but it’s also the age where IRA Charitable Rollover allows individuals to donate up to $100,000 from their IRAs directly to a charity, without having to count the distributions as taxable income.
One Plan
A donor’s total combined charitable IRA rollover contributions cannot exceed $100,000 in any one year. The limit is per IRA owner, not per individual IRA account. Also, this amount is not portable (i.e., sharable) between spouses.
Zero (as in Zero Taxes)
The IRA Charitable Rollover permits taxpayers to make donations directly to charitable organizations from their IRAs without counting this money as part of their adjusted gross income (AGI). Consequently, this means not paying any taxes on them. You read that correctly: folks who are 70.5 years or older are able to transfer donations from their IRA directly to charity, up to $100,000, with ZERO taxes on that money!
What charities/nonprofits are eligible to receive the donation(s)?
Allow me to emphasize the gift must go directly to the charity. A donor cannot withdraw the money, and then give it to charity. Rather, the IRA administrator must send the donation straight to the charity.
Donors cannot receive any goods or services in return for IRA Charitable Rollover amounts in order to qualify for tax-free treatment. As one philanthropist explained, “Why would you want to (potentially) mess up a $100,000 tax-free donation by getting a $25 tote bag?” No matter how good the bag looks, it’s not worth that!
Once again, to be eligible you must be 70.5 years or older. Also, qualifying gifts can only be made from traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs. Charitable donations from 403(b) plans, 401(k) plans, pension plans, and other retirement plans are not covered by the IRA Charitable Rollover law.
100%
Every time I write about the IRA Charitable Rollover, I receive communication from someone saying that life sucks because they don’t qualify for the Rollover. They aren’t 70.5 years old, or they have a different retirement benefit plan than an IRA, or both.
But, here’s the thing, anyone can still use their retirement benefit plan(s) to help their favorite charities.
Magic of Beneficiary Designations
No matter what your age, or what your type of retirement benefit plan (IRA, 401(k), 403(b), etc.), there is a super-easy way for you to help your favorite charity. Simply contact the account holder and name your favorite nonprofit as a beneficiary! This is so simple. No lawyer or drafting of legal documents is required—the owner of the retirement benefit plan simply has to direct the account holder to change the beneficiary. There are also no taxes with this charitable giving approach because, frankly, when the donation passes to the charity it’s because you’re dead. No taxes for the nonprofit either; as a qualified nonprofit, they don’t pay taxes on donations.
Note that if the account owner is married, the spouse should be informed and may need to consent to the designation. And, please follow up with the account holder to make sure the account holder received your request and made the beneficiary changes properly in full.
https://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-05-at-11.46.50-AM.png6861035Mackensie Grahamhttps://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GFLF-logo-300x141.pngMackensie Graham2019-09-09 11:50:552019-09-09 21:14:34Back to School Math Lesson: Wonderful Numbers of the IRA Charitable Rollover
Recently my social media feeds were alight with friends and family member’s grinning kiddos holding signs announcing their first day of a new grade. It made me nostalgic! While I wouldn’t want to repeat law school all over again, I do think it’s never too late to head back to the classroom—proverbial or real. So, the GFLF is heading back to school with lessons in English (like legal words/phrases of the day), reading (GoFisch book club) history, finance and the like. Today’s lesson on planned giving crosses over between business and economics, and it’s super important for donors of all gift amounts and nonprofit pros alike.
What is planned giving?
Planned giving is the process of charitably donating planned gifts. A planned gift is a charitable donation that is arranged in the present and allocated at a future date. A planned gift is often, but not always, donated through a will or trust. (I would say this is true 80-90% of the time; put another way, planned gifts are bequests 80-90% of the time). As such, planned gifts are very often granted after the donor’s death.
Besides charitable gifts made through wills and trusts after death, other planned gifts include charitable gift annuities; charitable remainder trusts (along with the entire alphabet soup of CRATS; CRUTS; NIMCRUTS; FLIPCRUTS; etc.); charitable lead trusts, and remainder interest/life estates in real property. All these gifting tools/techniques/vehicles I’ve discussed previously, sometimes numerous times.
What is a Nonprofit?
You give $20 to a person you meet on the street who lost his bus ticket home.
At your local gas station, there is a collection jar for a local child with leukemia. You donate your change.
You leave money in your will for your niece Jane, hoping she uses it to continue her collegiate studies in engineering.
You have a neighbor who suffers from dementia. You and your friends decide to have an informal walk to raise awareness about the disease and raise money for your neighbor’s health care needs.
While noble, these are not examples of “charitable giving,” as we use the term here. In this context, we are talking about charitable giving to an organization formed under 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Service Tax Code. A 501c3 agency can be known by several terms in general usage, including “nonprofit organization” and “public charity.” For simplicity’s sake, we’ll use the term nonprofit throughout.
Nonprofits cover an extremely broad swath of types of organizations, including schools, churches, hospitals, museums, social services organizations, animal welfare groups, and community foundations.
Nonprofits Must Embrace Planned Gifts
Sometimes nonprofits are overwhelmed at the thought of expansive planned giving because of the number and complexity of some of the planned giving vehicles. How does this match up when you want to donate a less obvious gift than cash, such as stocks and bonds or grain? Nonprofits need to expand their ability to accept gifts of many varieties for at least three reasons:
Craft Beer Factor
The first reason I call the “craft beer factor.” (Bear with me here for a moment). I’m old enough to remember when there were just two kinds of beer. Don’t believe me? You should, as it was immortalized in one of the most famous advertising campaigns of all time–“tastes great, less filling!” This ad campaign strongly implied there were really just two types of beers.
Then came the craft beer movement. I’m not sure whether craft beers were a response to consumers, or whether craft beers created a demand; presumably both. In any case, now a place like Toppling Goliath Brewing Company in Decorah, Iowa, has about thirty varieties of beers (this is based on an informal count from their website).
Now any retail establishment which sells beer must offer lots and lots of different kinds of beer. Any retail establishment which isn’t able to offer its customers wide variety risks irrelevance, or worse.
This is true not just of beer, but of everything. Another quick example– McDonald’s has around 145 menu items, that’s up from about 85 items in 2007. Also, McDonald’s now offers breakfast items not just in the morning, but all day-long.
Consumers want what they want, when they want, how they want.
Donors expect and often demand the opportunity to use many different options to assist their favorite charities. No longer can nonprofits simply ask folks to pony up cash, or just accept credit cards. Donors want to be able to converse with their fave charity and discuss using their whole portfolio. Nonprofits need to be able to accept, and intelligently discuss, gifting of many different types of non-cash assets.
A nonprofit which doesn’t offer its supporters a wide variety of giving options risks irrelevance, or even worse fates! So, as a donor, if you’re interested in donating an asset that your favorite nonprofit doesn’t typically facilitate, connect them with an experienced nonprofit attorney to make the gift a reality.
Planned Gifts Consist Overwhelmingly of Bequests
Second, planned giving is still mostly about wills and trusts. As already stated, I estimate 80-90% of planned gifts are bequests. Simple! Nonprofits should put substantial efforts to encouraging increased, larger testamentary bequests. Donors who already have an estate plan, but didn’t realize they could designate their favorite organizations as beneficiaries should contact an estate planning attorney.
Be it strategies for a monthly giving program or facilitating complex planned giving vehicles like NIMCRUTs, the opportunities for continuous learning about different planned giving technique are seemingly endless! And, there are so many different options, that all donors should feel great about supporting their fave causes with tax-wise gifts that work best for them. I strive to offer free information that breaks down different aspects of planned giving in human terms, as well as promoting community opportunities/events for nonprofit professionals.
Still need help understanding planned giving or any particular tool or technique? Want assistance coordinating a complex gift? Reach out to me anytime. I offer a free one-hour consultation to anyone and everyone. You can contact at my email (gordon@gordonfischerlawfirm.com) or on my cell (515-371-6077). I’d truly love to hear from you.
https://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-03-at-10.12.03-AM.png6931040Mackensie Grahamhttps://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GFLF-logo-300x141.pngMackensie Graham2019-09-08 20:04:202019-09-09 21:10:56Let's Head Back to School! First Lesson is on Planned Giving
Estate Planning: Don’t be Late, be Up-To-Date
Estates & Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts & EstatesAt first, estate planning can seem a bit much. It can be hard to know where to start and what all you need to know. But once you enlist an experienced attorney to act as a guide through the process and go through executing your plan (making it official), you can breath easy. The great news? Once you have your estate plan in place, it never expires. But, it’s not enough just to have an estate plan—you need to keep it current so it reflects changes in your life, as well as changes in applicable laws. Just to take two examples, an outdated estate plan can more easily be challenged in probate court. or create tensions among family members, than one that reflects your current situation.
Ensuring your estate plan is up-to-date is especially important when major changes occur in your life. Here are a few of them:
I advise clients to review their estate plans every year. If there are any updates or questions it’s recommended that folks meet with their lawyer and other professional advisors. Some clients like to do this around the first of the year, while others prefer picking a date that’s easy to remember, like a birthday or anniversary. Any date will work— the important thing is to do it. Don’t be late, keep your estate plan up-to-date!
Back to School Math Lesson: Wonderful Numbers of the IRA Charitable Rollover
Charitable Giving, Taxes & FinanceDid anyone sit in the very back row of their high school calculus class, slumped over, the brim of their baseball cap lowered, hoping to become invisible? I’m asking for a friend, of course. The chalk marks on the board—a series of numbers—may as well have been Mandarin Chinese to me. The teacher was no help, he spit numbers faster than a rapper and made less sense than the chalk marks. My “friend” understood nothing but somehow passed by the skin of his teeth. Law school was suddenly a sure destination (or, really, any school without math).
Even Worse: College Math!
However, you needed an undergraduate degree before law school. (Ok…we’re talking about me, not my friend.) Thanks to the aforementioned miracle of passing calculus, my major at Iowa only required one math for graduation, at least at the time. That class was 22M-One, which was literally known on campus as 22M-Dumb. Still, I had to take the class twice. During the first try, halfway through the final exam, my friend got up, left his paper, and simply walked out. He knew he would flunk, so why torture himself or waste anyone else’s time? He barely passed the second time, and only did so after extensive tutoring.
Just curious, anyone have “math phobia” as bad as young me? This school daze story has a happy ending though. Eventually, I got past my major fear of math and was able to master the rules of math, especially as they relate to estate planning.
This Math Makes Sense
I know someone in your life (probably an engineer or actuary) has undoubtedly told you that math is fun and easy. But, when it comes to the IRA Charitable Rollover (AKA qualified charitable distribution (QCD)), this small bit of math really is!
You only need to remember six numbers:
70.5 years of age
There are two threshold requirements to take advantage of a special provision known as the IRA Charitable Rollover. The first is that to be eligible you must be 70.5 years of age or older. An important nuance to note is the required annual distribution is based on the year the participant reaches age 70.5, not the day they reach that age.
The second threshold requirement is the IRA Charitable Rollover applies to IRAs only. Under the law, charitable gifts can only be made from traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs. The IRA Charitable Rollover does not apply to 403(b) plans, 401(k) plans, pension plans, and other retirement benefit plans. (I’ll discuss another great option, however, for these other retirement benefit plans, so be sure to read to the end of this blog post).
$100,000
Sure, living to 70.5 is great in itself, but it’s also the age where IRA Charitable Rollover allows individuals to donate up to $100,000 from their IRAs directly to a charity, without having to count the distributions as taxable income.
One Plan
A donor’s total combined charitable IRA rollover contributions cannot exceed $100,000 in any one year. The limit is per IRA owner, not per individual IRA account. Also, this amount is not portable (i.e., sharable) between spouses.
Zero (as in Zero Taxes)
The IRA Charitable Rollover permits taxpayers to make donations directly to charitable organizations from their IRAs without counting this money as part of their adjusted gross income (AGI). Consequently, this means not paying any taxes on them. You read that correctly: folks who are 70.5 years or older are able to transfer donations from their IRA directly to charity, up to $100,000, with ZERO taxes on that money!
What charities/nonprofits are eligible to receive the donation(s)?
Charitable contributions from an IRA must go directly to a qualified public charity. Contributions to donor-advised funds and private foundations, except in certain (narrow) circumstances, do not qualify for tax-free IRA rollover contributions.
Allow me to emphasize the gift must go directly to the charity. A donor cannot withdraw the money, and then give it to charity. Rather, the IRA administrator must send the donation straight to the charity.
Zero (as in gifts/services back from charity)
Donors cannot receive any goods or services in return for IRA Charitable Rollover amounts in order to qualify for tax-free treatment. As one philanthropist explained, “Why would you want to (potentially) mess up a $100,000 tax-free donation by getting a $25 tote bag?” No matter how good the bag looks, it’s not worth that!
70.5 years of age and IRAs only
Once again, to be eligible you must be 70.5 years or older. Also, qualifying gifts can only be made from traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs. Charitable donations from 403(b) plans, 401(k) plans, pension plans, and other retirement plans are not covered by the IRA Charitable Rollover law.
100%
Every time I write about the IRA Charitable Rollover, I receive communication from someone saying that life sucks because they don’t qualify for the Rollover. They aren’t 70.5 years old, or they have a different retirement benefit plan than an IRA, or both.
But, here’s the thing, anyone can still use their retirement benefit plan(s) to help their favorite charities.
Magic of Beneficiary Designations
No matter what your age, or what your type of retirement benefit plan (IRA, 401(k), 403(b), etc.), there is a super-easy way for you to help your favorite charity. Simply contact the account holder and name your favorite nonprofit as a beneficiary! This is so simple. No lawyer or drafting of legal documents is required—the owner of the retirement benefit plan simply has to direct the account holder to change the beneficiary. There are also no taxes with this charitable giving approach because, frankly, when the donation passes to the charity it’s because you’re dead. No taxes for the nonprofit either; as a qualified nonprofit, they don’t pay taxes on donations.
Note that if the account owner is married, the spouse should be informed and may need to consent to the designation. And, please follow up with the account holder to make sure the account holder received your request and made the beneficiary changes properly in full.
Want to work through how the IRA Charitable Rollover math fits in with your planned giving goals and current/future tax strategy? Reach out to me anytime. I offer a free, no-obligation one-hour consultation. You can contact me by email (gordon@gordonfischerlawfirm.com) or on my cell (515-371-6077).
Let’s Head Back to School! First Lesson is on Planned Giving
Charitable Giving, NonprofitsRecently my social media feeds were alight with friends and family member’s grinning kiddos holding signs announcing their first day of a new grade. It made me nostalgic! While I wouldn’t want to repeat law school all over again, I do think it’s never too late to head back to the classroom—proverbial or real. So, the GFLF is heading back to school with lessons in English (like legal words/phrases of the day), reading (GoFisch book club) history, finance and the like. Today’s lesson on planned giving crosses over between business and economics, and it’s super important for donors of all gift amounts and nonprofit pros alike.
What is planned giving?
Planned giving is the process of charitably donating planned gifts. A planned gift is a charitable donation that is arranged in the present and allocated at a future date. A planned gift is often, but not always, donated through a will or trust. (I would say this is true 80-90% of the time; put another way, planned gifts are bequests 80-90% of the time). As such, planned gifts are very often granted after the donor’s death.
Besides charitable gifts made through wills and trusts after death, other planned gifts include charitable gift annuities; charitable remainder trusts (along with the entire alphabet soup of CRATS; CRUTS; NIMCRUTS; FLIPCRUTS; etc.); charitable lead trusts, and remainder interest/life estates in real property. All these gifting tools/techniques/vehicles I’ve discussed previously, sometimes numerous times.
What is a Nonprofit?
While noble, these are not examples of “charitable giving,” as we use the term here. In this context, we are talking about charitable giving to an organization formed under 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Service Tax Code. A 501c3 agency can be known by several terms in general usage, including “nonprofit organization” and “public charity.” For simplicity’s sake, we’ll use the term nonprofit throughout.
Nonprofits cover an extremely broad swath of types of organizations, including schools, churches, hospitals, museums, social services organizations, animal welfare groups, and community foundations.
Nonprofits Must Embrace Planned Gifts
Sometimes nonprofits are overwhelmed at the thought of expansive planned giving because of the number and complexity of some of the planned giving vehicles. How does this match up when you want to donate a less obvious gift than cash, such as stocks and bonds or grain? Nonprofits need to expand their ability to accept gifts of many varieties for at least three reasons:
Craft Beer Factor
The first reason I call the “craft beer factor.” (Bear with me here for a moment). I’m old enough to remember when there were just two kinds of beer. Don’t believe me? You should, as it was immortalized in one of the most famous advertising campaigns of all time–“tastes great, less filling!” This ad campaign strongly implied there were really just two types of beers.
Then came the craft beer movement. I’m not sure whether craft beers were a response to consumers, or whether craft beers created a demand; presumably both. In any case, now a place like Toppling Goliath Brewing Company in Decorah, Iowa, has about thirty varieties of beers (this is based on an informal count from their website).
Now any retail establishment which sells beer must offer lots and lots of different kinds of beer. Any retail establishment which isn’t able to offer its customers wide variety risks irrelevance, or worse.
This is true not just of beer, but of everything. Another quick example– McDonald’s has around 145 menu items, that’s up from about 85 items in 2007. Also, McDonald’s now offers breakfast items not just in the morning, but all day-long.
Consumers want what they want, when they want, how they want.
Donors expect and often demand the opportunity to use many different options to assist their favorite charities. No longer can nonprofits simply ask folks to pony up cash, or just accept credit cards. Donors want to be able to converse with their fave charity and discuss using their whole portfolio. Nonprofits need to be able to accept, and intelligently discuss, gifting of many different types of non-cash assets.
A nonprofit which doesn’t offer its supporters a wide variety of giving options risks irrelevance, or even worse fates! So, as a donor, if you’re interested in donating an asset that your favorite nonprofit doesn’t typically facilitate, connect them with an experienced nonprofit attorney to make the gift a reality.
Planned Gifts Consist Overwhelmingly of Bequests
Second, planned giving is still mostly about wills and trusts. As already stated, I estimate 80-90% of planned gifts are bequests. Simple! Nonprofits should put substantial efforts to encouraging increased, larger testamentary bequests. Donors who already have an estate plan, but didn’t realize they could designate their favorite organizations as beneficiaries should contact an estate planning attorney.
Everyone can Understand Planned Giving!
Be it strategies for a monthly giving program or facilitating complex planned giving vehicles like NIMCRUTs, the opportunities for continuous learning about different planned giving technique are seemingly endless! And, there are so many different options, that all donors should feel great about supporting their fave causes with tax-wise gifts that work best for them. I strive to offer free information that breaks down different aspects of planned giving in human terms, as well as promoting community opportunities/events for nonprofit professionals.
Still need help understanding planned giving or any particular tool or technique? Want assistance coordinating a complex gift? Reach out to me anytime. I offer a free one-hour consultation to anyone and everyone. You can contact at my email (gordon@gordonfischerlawfirm.com) or on my cell (515-371-6077). I’d truly love to hear from you.