August is national Make a Will Month, and the publicity surrounding this designation may prompt your clients to ask you about whether their affairs are in good order. Of course, making sure a client has established an estate plan and executed corresponding legal documents is a priority for any attorney, accountant, or financial advisor who practices in the field of estate planning, tax, or wealt…

Given that there are more than 2 million farms in the United States, most advisors have at least one client who owns farm property. Although the number of farms has been dropping slowly but steadily since 2000, still, millions of dollars of wealth are tied up in farms as agricultural land continues to be valuable.  Farmland, like many other hard-to-value assets, tends to carry with it a lot of em…

If you’re a business owner, at some point you may begin thinking about an exit strategy. Before you start putting out feelers to potential acquirers, you may wish to explore the benefits of contributing an ownership interest in your business to a donor-advised fund or other type of fund at the FM Area Foundation.  If you’ve owned your business for several years–or decades–you could be sitting on …

At first glance, philanthropy and positive psychology appear to have very little in common. Philanthropy is a term generally associated with giving money to charities, doing good in the community, and creating social value. Positive psychology usually conjures up images of an academic approach to emotional strengths and virtues that enable people to thrive. But there is indeed a connection. Afte…

For clients who rely on fixed-income assets, such as bonds, as well as wages, to cover their living expenses, the inflation pinch indeed may mean fewer dollars available for charitable giving. Still, for clients who own property, stocks, and other assets that tend to go up in value in an inflationary environment, now may be a good time to take advantage of tax-savvy giving of highly-appreciated as…

Qualified Charitable Distributions, or “QCDs,” have been in the news a lot lately, especially in light of proposed SECURE Act 2.0 legislation that passed the House of Representatives in March and is now pending in the Senate. Through a QCD, starting at age 70½, your client can instruct the administrator of an IRA to direct up to $100,000 per year to a qualified charity. This helps your client’s t…

Especially over the last few years as social consciousness has increased, many of your clients have no doubt become more interested in how they can make a difference through their philanthropic activities, whether those activities include giving to favorite charities, volunteering, serving on boards of directors, purchasing products that support a cause, and respecting a sustainable environment. …

Last year’s heavily-debated versions of the Build Back Better Act called for tax increases that potentially could have impacted charitable giving. But, as 2022 gets into full swing, legislation that’s eventually passed may bear little resemblance to early iterations. In particular, debate over the cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes (“SALT”) has illuminated a parallel debate over whe…

“The greatest wealth transfer in modern history has begun,” according to a mid-2021 report in the Wall Street Journal. And, with tax reform’s big bite into estate values off the table, at least for now, many of your older clients may be thinking seriously about their legacies.   And these legacies will be significant. As of March 31, 2021, according to data collected by the Federal Reserve, Amer…

You are no doubt familiar with the many benefits of giving hard-to-value assets to a charity–and especially to a client’s donor-advised fund at the FM Area Foundation. Because the FM Area Foundation is a public charity, your client is eligible for the maximum allowable tax deduction for their contributions. This is because a client typically can deduct the fair market value of the asset given to t…