Transform your generosity into lasting impact. Strategic charitable planning maximizes your giving power while providing meaningful tax benefits for you and your family.
What Is Charitable Planning
Charitable planning goes beyond writing checks. It's about structuring your giving to maximize impact, both for the causes you care about and for your family's financial well-being. The right strategy can significantly increase the amount you're able to give while reducing your tax burden.
Whether you want to support your church, fund medical research, endow scholarships, or create a family foundation, there are sophisticated tools designed to make your generosity go further. Your attorney helps you understand these options and implement the ones that align with your values and goals.
Charitable planning also integrates with your broader estate plan. The same assets, trusts, and strategies that protect your family can simultaneously advance your philanthropic mission, creating a cohesive plan that reflects everything that matters to you.
Why It Matters
Strategic charitable planning can increase the amount you're able to give while potentially providing greater tax benefits than simple cash donations.
Whether through a named fund, private foundation, or endowed gift, charitable planning allows your values and generosity to continue beyond your lifetime.
Philanthropic planning can bring families together around shared values, teaching children and grandchildren about giving and community responsibility.
The right charitable giving strategy can reduce income taxes, capital gains taxes, and estate taxes, letting you support causes you care about while keeping more wealth in your family.
Structured giving vehicles allow you to support many organizations over time, adapting your giving as causes and priorities evolve.
Charitable planning works best when coordinated with your overall estate plan, ensuring your family and charitable goals work together harmoniously.
Giving Strategies
From simple donor-advised funds to sophisticated charitable trusts, your attorney helps you select and implement the giving strategies that match your philanthropic vision and financial situation.
A CRUT pays you a fixed percentage of the trust's value each year, recalculated annually. This means your income can grow as the trust assets appreciate, ideal for long-term growth. CRUTs are particularly powerful for highly appreciated assets like cryptocurrency, real estate, or concentrated stock positions, allowing you to diversify without triggering immediate capital gains.
A CRAT pays you a fixed dollar amount each year, providing predictable income regardless of how the trust performs. This structure appeals to those who prioritize income stability over growth potential. CRATs offer the same tax benefits as CRUTs but with a more conservative income approach.
The inverse of a CRT, a charitable lead trust pays income to charity for a specified period, after which the remaining assets transfer to your heirs, often with significantly reduced gift or estate taxes. CLTs are powerful tools for transferring wealth to the next generation while supporting charitable causes during your lifetime.
Donor-advised funds offer a flexible, tax-efficient way to manage your charitable giving. You contribute assets to the fund, receive an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants to charities over time. It's like having your own charitable foundation without the administrative complexity.
For those with significant philanthropic commitments, a private foundation provides maximum control over charitable giving. Your attorney guides you through formation, governance structure, compliance requirements, and ongoing administration. Foundations can fund scholarships, support specific causes, and create lasting family legacies.
Planned giving encompasses various techniques to include charitable giving in your estate plan. This includes charitable bequests in your will, naming charities as beneficiaries of retirement accounts or life insurance, and structuring gifts to maximize both impact and tax benefits.
A charitable gift annuity allows you to make a gift to charity in exchange for fixed payments for life. You receive a partial charitable deduction, a guaranteed income stream, and the satisfaction of supporting your favorite organization. Gift annuities are particularly attractive in low-interest-rate environments.
Virtual-First Model
Charitable planning often involves coordinating with financial advisors, accountants, and wealth managers. The virtual-first model makes this collaboration seamless. Everyone can participate in discussions without scheduling conflicts or travel.
Video consultations allow you to meet with your attorney from home or office. Other advisors can easily be included in planning discussions.
Secure document sharing through the client portal keeps everyone aligned on charitable plans, tax projections, and implementation steps.
Prefer in-person? Client centers are also maintained for those who prefer face-to-face meetings. The virtual-first model gives you options, not limitations.
MyRelevant Client Portal
Trust documents, grant records, and tax letters organized and accessible anytime.
Coordinate with your attorney on giving decisions and compliance questions.
Stay on top of required distributions, tax filings, and reporting deadlines.
Meet with your attorney to discuss giving strategies and plan adjustments.
Receive reminders for annual planning reviews as tax laws and circumstances change.
Bank-level encryption protects sensitive financial and charitable information.
The Process
Charitable planning requires coordination between your values, your finances, and the legal structures that make giving most effective. The process ensures nothing is overlooked.
The process begins by understanding your philanthropic vision, causes you care about, family dynamics, and financial situation. This conversation helps identify the charitable giving strategies that align with your values and goals.
45-60 minutes
Working with your financial advisors, your attorney analyzes the tax implications and financial impact of various charitable giving strategies. Different scenarios are modeled to help you understand the trade-offs and benefits of each approach.
1-2 weeks
Based on the analysis, your attorney designs a charitable giving plan that maximizes your impact while optimizing tax benefits. Each component is explained clearly, ensuring you understand how the pieces work together.
3-5 business days
The necessary legal documents are drafted, including trust agreements, foundation bylaws, gift agreements, or estate plan amendments. Each document is customized to your specific situation and charitable objectives.
1-2 weeks
The team coordinates with your financial institutions, charities, and advisors to implement your charitable plan. For trusts and foundations, assistance is provided with funding, registration, and initial compliance requirements.
2-4 weeks
Charitable giving is an ongoing journey. Continuing guidance is provided on grant-making, compliance, and adapting your plan as tax laws and personal circumstances change.
Ongoing
Common Questions
A CRUT is an irrevocable trust that pays you a fixed percentage (typically 5-7%) of the trust's value each year, with the value recalculated annually. Unlike a CRAT that pays a fixed dollar amount, your CRUT income can grow if the trust assets appreciate. At the end of the trust term (either your lifetime or a set number of years), the remaining assets pass to your chosen charity. You receive an immediate partial charitable deduction when you fund the trust.
A Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT) can be an effective strategy for cryptocurrency holders with significant gains. When you transfer appreciated crypto into a CRUT, the trust can sell it without triggering immediate capital gains tax to you. You may receive a stream of income from the diversified proceeds, potentially get an upfront charitable deduction, and the remainder eventually benefits your chosen charity. Depending on your situation, this approach may help defer capital gains while providing income, but outcomes vary based on individual circumstances. Consulting with both your attorney and tax advisor is recommended to understand how this strategy might apply to you.
A Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT) pays you a fixed percentage of the trust's value, recalculated annually, so income can grow or shrink with the market. A Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust (CRAT) pays a fixed dollar amount each year regardless of performance. CRUTs are better for growth-oriented investors and inflation protection. CRATs suit those who prioritize predictable, stable income. Both offer the same core tax benefits: capital gains deferral and a charitable deduction.
Charitable giving offers multiple tax benefits. Direct donations to qualified charities are deductible up to certain limits based on your adjusted gross income. Donating appreciated assets (stocks, real estate, crypto) allows you to avoid capital gains taxes while claiming the full fair market value as a deduction. Charitable trusts can defer or reduce estate and gift taxes. The specific benefits depend on the type of gift, the charity, and your tax situation.
Donor-advised funds are simpler and less expensive to establish and maintain, making them ideal for those who want flexibility without administrative burden. Private foundations offer more control, allow family involvement, and can engage in activities DAFs cannot (like direct scholarships). Generally, if you're giving less than $1-2 million, a DAF makes more sense. For larger, multi-generational philanthropic commitments, a foundation may be worth the additional complexity.
CRUTs are most powerful for highly appreciated assets where you'd face significant capital gains upon sale. This includes: cryptocurrency with large gains, concentrated stock positions, appreciated real estate, closely-held business interests, and private company stock. By transferring these assets to a CRUT, the trust can sell and diversify without triggering your capital gains, a major advantage over selling the assets yourself first.
Yes. Assets left to qualified charities at death are fully deductible from your taxable estate. Charitable lead trusts can significantly reduce or eliminate gift and estate taxes on wealth transferred to heirs. Strategic charitable giving during your lifetime reduces the size of your taxable estate. For high-net-worth individuals, charitable planning is often an essential component of overall estate tax strategy.
Different vehicles offer different flexibility. Donor-advised funds are highly flexible, allowing you to recommend grants to different charities at any time. Private foundations can generally change their focus. Outright bequests in your will can be modified anytime before death. Irrevocable charitable trusts are more fixed, though some allow changes to charitable beneficiaries. Plans are designed to balance current intentions with appropriate flexibility.
Private foundations commonly involve multiple generations in board positions and grant-making decisions. Some donor-advised funds allow successor advisors. Attorneys also help families create giving circles, establish family giving traditions, and structure charitable involvement that teaches values across generations. Many clients find philanthropic engagement strengthens family bonds and instills important values in younger generations.
Almost any asset can be donated: cash, publicly traded securities, closely held business interests, real estate, art and collectibles, cryptocurrency, life insurance policies, and retirement account assets. Different assets offer different advantages. Appreciated securities often provide the best tax benefit. Complex assets like real estate or business interests require careful planning. Your attorney helps identify the most tax-efficient assets to give.
The focus is on the legal and tax aspects of giving rather than charity selection, but clients can be connected with philanthropic advisors who specialize in evaluating charitable organizations. It is recommended to confirm organizations are qualified 501(c)(3) charities, review their financial statements and impact reports, and consider whether they align with your values and desired outcomes.
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