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- FYI: Qualified Charitable Distributions can satisfy your Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
The Gift of Giving Now: Why You May Not Have to Wait to Make an Impact
Adam Finch CFP®, CEO, Senior Wealth Strategist
Your legacy is more than your assets. It’s your values, your memories, and the difference you make in the lives of people and causes you cherish. Many of our clients come to us believing that generosity has to wait until the end of life. What they discover through thoughtful planning is that they often don’t have to wait. The question we help answer isn’t just, “What will I leave behind?” it’s, “What can I do right now, while I’m here to see it?”
The Worry That Can Hold Most People Back
We hear it often: “I’d love to help my kids now, but what if I need that money later?” Taking care of yourself first isn’t selfish, it’s usually the foundation of every plan we build. We start with a clear picture of your assets, income, expenses, and life’s “what-ifs”, from healthcare to long-term care. Once we know what you need to help protect your own financial freedom, we can show you with confidence what’s available to give now. For many clients, that number is larger than they imagined.
True wealth isn’t just what you accumulate, it’s what you’re able to do with it. We help clients find the confidence to focus on both: defend their future and make a difference today.
The Joy of Giving While You’re Here
There’s something profoundly different about giving now versus giving later. When you help a grandchild with a down payment, you’re there for the moment. When your gift helps a nonprofit launch a program you believe in, you get to watch it happen. You’re not just leaving a legacy, you’re living it. That balance between securing tomorrow and living fully today is exactly what great financial planning can help make possible.
Giving Smarter: It’s Not Just How Much, It’s How
What you give can matter as much as how much. The right asset: cash, investments, different types of retirement funds, can help maximize what reaches your loved ones and the organizations you support, while reducing your tax burden.
Strategies we commonly explore include:
- Appreciated investments: Donate investments that have grown in value to avoid capital gains taxes while the recipient receives the full current worth.
- Annual gift exclusions: Transfer meaningful amounts to loved ones each year, completely free of gift tax, a simple but powerful way to shift wealth while you’re here to see it used.
- Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs): If you’re 70½ or older, give directly from your IRA to charity. Satisfying your required minimum distribution without it ever touching your taxable income.
- Donor-advised funds: Contribute now for an immediate tax deduction, then direct grants to your chosen organizations on your own timeline.
- 529 education funding: Fund a grandchild’s education account for a tangible, lasting gift that also carries meaningful estate tax advantages.
Your Plan. Your Defense. Your Legacy.
Working alongside our preferred estate planning attorney, George Remy, Estate Planning Attorney at George Remy Law, and our dedicated C.P.A., Angie Finch, C.P.A., of Angie Finch C.P.A., our team helps your giving goals and your financial plan work together. And if you already have a trusted tax advisor or estate attorney, we’re equally glad to collaborate with them, because what matters most is that every part of your plan is working in concert. The goal is to give with confidence. That’s what true wealth looks like, and it’s one of the most fulfilling things we get to help our clients pursue.
Wondering if you could do more for the people and causes you love sooner than you think? We can get to know your situation and explore what’s truly possible.
George Remy & Angie Finch are not affiliated with Cetera Wealth Services LLC. Any information provided by these individuals is provided entirely on behalf of George Remy Law and Angie Finch C.P.A. and is in no way related to Cetera or its registered representatives
Choosing the Right Trustee for Your Estate Plan
Naming a trustee isn’t just checking a box, it’s selecting someone to handle potentially complex financial and legal responsibilities on your behalf. Learn what the role can require and thoughts on how to choose the right person for your family’s needs.
Blog: What you need to know when choosing the right trustee
Looking Ahead: Next month we will be focusing on retirement planning strategies that go beyond the numbers, covering both financial matters and some lifestyle considerations across different stages of life.
The Gift You Intend vs. The Gift They Receive:
How the Right Legal Tools Can Help Protect Every Dollar You Give
Guest Contributor: George H. Remy III, Estate Planning Attorney, George Remy Law
When your financial advisor shows you how much you can give, and when, that’s only half the equation. The other half is making sure that gift actually lands the way you intend. As an estate planning attorney, my job is to build the legal framework that helps transform a generous plan into a risk mitigated, purposeful transfer of wealth. Giving generously is one thing. Giving wisely, in a way that holds up against life’s complications, requires a little more architecture.
The Question Nobody Thinks to Ask
Most people focus on the “how much” and the “when” of lifetime giving. Rarely does anyone ask: “What happens to this gift after I give it?” A check written to an adult child is a gift, but it’s also an asset that now sits in their name, fully exposed to divorce proceedings, creditor claims, or simply the financial pressures of life. A $50,000 down payment on a home that later ends up in a divorce settlement is not the legacy anyone envisioned.
The right legal structure doesn’t just move your money. It moves it with intention.
Tools That Help Put Guardrails on Generosity
Depending on your goals and your family’s circumstances, here are some of the legal tools we use to make lifetime giving both protected and purposeful:
- Irrevocable Trusts for Large Gifts: Rather than gifting assets outright, placing them in a trust for a child’s benefit lets you set terms: what the funds can be used for, when distributions are made, and how the assets are protected from outside claims. The beneficiary can benefit from the gift without being fully exposed to its risks.
- Crummey Trusts: If you want to use the annual gift tax exclusion while still maintaining some structure, a Crummey trust allows annual contributions to qualify for the exclusion while keeping assets in trust rather than giving them outright. The beneficiary receives a brief withdrawal window each year (which is what qualifies the gift for the exclusion), but if they don’t withdraw, the funds remain protected in trust.
- Gift Agreements for Charitable Giving: If you’re making a significant gift to a nonprofit, particularly one tied to a specific program or purpose, a written gift agreement helps ensure the organization uses your contribution exactly as intended. This is especially important for donor-advised fund grants directed at named programs or endowments.
- 529 Plan Ownership Structures: A 529 plan is a powerful education gifting tool, but ownership matters. When you’re the account owner rather than the parent, you retain more control, and in some states the funds may be better protected from the parent’s creditors. We can structure these accounts to help maximize both control and help minimize risk.
- Equalization Clauses in Your Estate Plan: When you start giving during your lifetime, your estate plan needs to keep pace. If you help one child with a down payment now and another isn’t ready yet, your will or trust should reflect how you want that accounted for, whether as an advance on inheritance or a separate gift. Without this, lifetime generosity can inadvertently create family conflict down the road.
Living Your Legacy Means Planning Your Legacy
The vision our team shares is helping you give with confidence while you’re here to see the impact. The joy of giving now is best experienced when you know the legal scaffolding is solid. That means your trust documents are updated to reflect current giving, your beneficiaries are properly structured, and every dollar you give is traveling the path you intended.
If you’ve been doing more lifetime giving lately, or you’re considering it, it’s worth a conversation to make sure your estate plan is keeping up. A plan that was drafted five years ago may not reflect the gifts you’ve given since then, or the goals you have for the ones ahead.
Generosity is a gift. A well-structured plan can help make it last.
Have questions about your current estate plan or how lifetime giving fits into your bigger picture?
Reach out to schedule a conversation.
734-637-0796 | [email protected] | www.georgeremylaw.com
George is not affiliated or registered with CWM, LLC or Cetera Wealth Services LLC. Any information provided by George is in no way related to CWM, LLC or Cetera Wealth Services LLC or its registered representatives.
What types of tasks is a trustee of a trust responsible for? Click here to learn more!
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Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses associated with municipal fund securities before investing. This information is found in the issuer’s official statement and should be read carefully before investing. Investors should also consider whether the investor’s or beneficiary’s home state offers any state tax or other benefits available only from that state’s 529 Plan. Any state-based benefit should be one of many appropriately weighted factors in making an investment decision. The investor should consult their financial or tax advisor before investment in any state’s 529. The use of trusts involves a complex web of tax rules and regulations. You should consider the counsel of an experienced estate planning professional before implementing such strategies.
