Charitable Estate Planning
Thoughtful, strategic stewardship of your giving
Our ministry includes helping you think about stewardship of your giving – something different from the Law-laden “stewardship of wealth” we hear so much about. We assume that the Lord has and will lay on your heart how to love him and love your neighbor – the Holy Spirit without our aid pouring the love of Christ into your heart – including how to allocate income and wealth among your consumption, your savings and retirement, your heirs, and your giving. After you decide how much to allocate to giving, we help you plan how, when, and what to give – from your estate during life and after death – using the tools, solutions, and ideas identified here, and others, in order to convert the most tax dollars to Kingdom giving. As just one example, bringing your planned giving forward from retirement years or date of death, when taxable income and the charitable deduction are small or non-existent, to taxable-income earning years can greatly reduce tax to produce increased giving.
We do not provide legal advice, and we do not offer even suggestions about estate planning (and no charity should offer – or claim to offer – estate planning). Rather, we suggest tools and strategies for you to consider with your legal counsel in order to help you realize your CHARITABLE goals for your estate.
Peace
A plan for charitable giving of a portion of your estate helps you do all you reasonably can to convert tax to add to the Kingdom giving you have determined cheerfully in your heart.
Provision
You have spent and will spend much of your life planning and exercising God-given abilities and using God-given resources to build wealth. That work itself and the wealth it produces are his gifts to you. It makes sense to spend time also to plan how to maximize the amount of that wealth you can give to make disciples and to produce thanksgiving to God for his gracious and miraculous work in you.
Protection
At the same time, it makes sense to plan how to increase your giving through tax savings while preserving the portion of your estate the Lord has led you to set aside for your own provision and gifts to your heirs.
Our president and our senior director of complex gifts have spent much of their careers helping givers plan their gifts to maximize tax savings for greater giving. Our president served formerly as general counsel to one of the country’s largest foundations, a leader in complex-asset giving, where he supervised the research, development, and implementation of all tax-efficient giving strategies.
To discuss your estate and possible tax-efficient gift strategies, please contact our president, Tim Townsend (eastern U.S.), or our senior director of complex gifts, Greg Mattox (western U.S.).
additional complex services
We make a variety of donations possible.
Charitable
Remainder Trust
When you give to a PCAF Charitable Remainder Trust, you take a deduction for the gift now, the trust pays you (or beneficiaries you name) an income stream for life or a period of years, and the trust pays the remainder to your PCAF donor-advised fund for ultimate distribution to your favorite charities. Advantages include increased income that is more secure and diversified, deferral of capital gains tax on the sale of any funding asset, and an immediate accelerated charitable deduction for a future gift.
Charitable Lead Trust
A PCAF Charitable Lead Trust operates in reverse to a Charitable Remainder Trust. It pays the income stream to your PCAF donor-advised fund for ultimate distribution to your favorite charities, and pays the remainder to your heirs or other beneficiaries (or with certain kinds of CLTs, to you). Advantages may include reduced or eliminated estate and gift taxes, and increased value of charitable deductions moved to years when taxable income and marginal tax rates are higher.
Non-Cash Gifts
Appreciated private non-cash assets for giving include family and other privately-held businesses and investment funds in the form of S corporation, LLC, or limited partnership, stock options, real estate, and even cryptocurrency. Giving such assets produces the largest deductions, consisting of exclusion from capital gains (the equivalent of a deduction) plus an actual charitable deduction.