What a Great Time to Start a Charitable Legacy – For You Too?

Do you ever get the feeling you could do more for others?

I do and have many times.

As a long-term focused planner, I probably think more about my personal legacy than many people.

The result, a few years ago I took a big step in that direction and set up a Donor Advised Fund.

It’s called The Rosley Charitable Legacy Fund.

It’s a brokerage account I created and is held at Charles Schwab. Of course, my firm manages the money. I decided that I wanted to create a legacy charitable fund that would outlive my wife and I and be a giver of money to deserving, well run causes for decades to come.

While one great strategic way to fund this is via highly appreciated asses (think stocks or ETF’s that are way up in value), I choose to fund it with quarterly investments.

For the past three years, I’ve contributed $2,000 per quarter, $24,000 total and the balance is roughly $30,000. I plan on increasing it to $2,500/quarter ($10k/year) starting 1/1/25.

At this pace, it could be worth close to $200,000 ten years from now! Depending on how long I can fund it, there is an outside chance it could grow to $500,000 many years from now.,

I’m not exactly a Rockefeller, but it will feel great to make meaningful annual gifts from this fund for many years. It also will allow my children to have the ability to be givers for their whole life.

My plan is to make my three adult children as a committee the decision makers and decide how much and where to make the donations.

The donor gets the charitable deduction in the year the investment in the Donor Advised Fund is made, not when money is eventually sent to the qualified charity. In order to take the tax deduction you will need to itemize your tax deductions. Since president Trump’s 2017 Tax Law, most people are benefiting from their increased Standard Deduction and not itemizing any more. Make sure to check with me before doing this and I take analyze the tax benefit of your investment to the Donor Advised Fund.

Take a look at my video explanation link and the attached walk through of this planning idea.

It’s a great time to review your tax planning (before year-end). I can help you. Let’s talk.