As we collectively work to make giving thrive, we wanted to share with you a few highlights from the newly released U.S. Trust Study of The Philanthropic Conversation: Understanding Advisor Approaches and Client Expectations:

• Clients report advisors to be a valuable source of philanthropic information, second only to their spouse or partner.
• Many advisors underestimate their clients’ desire to discuss philanthropy early in their advisory relationship and overestimate the importance of tax benefits as a motivation for giving.
• High-net-worth clients named passion for a cause, impact on the community, and a desire to give back as their top motivations for giving. Fifty-eight percent will not change their level of giving as a result of the new 2017 tax policy.

• Seventy-eight percent of advisors are experiencing the positive impact of philanthropic discussions with their clients on their bottom line. Having philanthropic conversations has helped advisors to:

  • Establish new clients (60%).
  • Deepen existing relationships (74%).
  • Build relationships with clients’ extended family (63%).

We look forward to your continued partnership and hope you'll contact us as opportunities arise where we can serve you and your clients.

Advisor Connections: Complex Giving

Did you know Communities Foundation of Texas can accept a very wide range of gifts, including complex assets?

While the assets that are the most tax advantageous to give may be complex, charitable giving doesn’t have to be.

Partnership Interests Become Philanthropic Interests
Working with local advisors, CFT has had the opportunity to receive several gifts of limited partnership interests in 2018. Each one of these transactions has been unique, but gifting these business interests into donor-advised funds has included the following considerations:

•    the structure of the partnership;
•    the underlying assets;
•    the nature of any income to be received; 
•    the potential for unrelated business income; and
•    plans, if any, for liquidation.

It is exciting to be creative with each scenario to provide the best outcome for the client and the advisor in order to maximize the client’s tax benefits while fueling the client’s philanthropy. Contributions to CFT such as these have the added benefit of being anonymous if the donor desires.

From Antique Collection to Charitable Contribution

Professional Seminar Highlights

On May 10, 2018, CFT/SMU Professional Seminar speaker Chris Hoyt, Professor of Law at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law, addressed the strategies, traps and solutions for challenging situations that estate planners and donors frequently face.
 
Discussing ways that estate planning techniques could benefit donors, Professor Hoyt offered the following advice:

“A typical charitable bequest is a distribution from the estate’s corpus, and [usually provides] estate tax savings but no income tax savings. An income-based charitable bequest is one where the source of the payment is the estate’s [trust’s] taxable income... this is a wholesale change from the traditional way of drafting a charitable bequest.”
 
We extend our gratitude to our 2018 co-sponsor Southern Methodist University; our major sponsor, Meadows, Collier, Reed, Cousins, Crouch & Ungerman, L.L.P.; to our partner sponsors, Carter Financial Management, Frost, and Thompson & Knight Foundation; and to our supporting sponsors, Armanino, L.L.P., Dallas CPA Society, Gray Reed & McGraw, HighGround Advisors, The Nautilus Group, Quest Capital Management, Inc., and Tolleson Wealth Management for their commitment to this year’s seminar.

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