As one of our core financial partners, I recommend a service that you may not have access to – and one that may be especially relevant in the next few weeks.
As you are no doubt aware, it appears inevitable that certain “tax cuts” (such as the capital gains tax) will expire at the end of this year. There may be great benefits that you and your family – and the charities you support – could experience if you make certain financial decisions BEFORE the end of this year.
If you are interested in learning even more, you need to make a phone call by December 15 (see my final paragraph) to complete your decision making by December 31.
Some of those decisions may involve charitable gifts that not only bless the charities of your choice, but also help you lower your taxes (and some may even supply you with an on-going income stream)!
Until now, Heartbeat has not had a way to help our donors with such decision making. Just this year we have developed a relationship with The Stewardship Foundation, headed by two gentlemen that I have known for several years – men who are strong Christian husbands and fathers who are 100% pro-life. (One of them formerly even worked for a state-wide pro-life organization.)
This Foundation has already helped one of Heartbeat’s donors who wanted to make a gift of a ring to a pro-life organization. Charities, like Heartbeat, are familiar with donations by cash, check, or credit card, but often do not know how to help a donor who wants to give personal property or give in a more “creative way”! Thanks to The Stewardship Foundation, I have learned about MANY ways of giving that I had no idea about!
If you work with The Stewardship Foundation, you could benefit ANY charity you love – your parish or church, your local pregnancy center, a school, a community organization, including Heartbeat! But what charities you decide to benefit is totally up to you!
The Foundation can help with a variety of ways of giving (and can work with your present attorney or financial advisor if you want), such as:
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- Bequest — a gift of property or cash to an organization under a will
- Donor Advised Fund — An easy-to-establish, low cost vehicle for charitable giving; you set up the fund with your gift, then advise how that money will be distributed to charities
- Charitable Remainder Trust — an irrevocable transfer of assets to a trust that pays you income during your lifetime or pays to your beneficiaries at the time of your death
- Gift Annuity Trust — a charitable donation that reduces taxation and provides you a lifetime income stream
- Charitable Lead Trust — a trust set up to provide yearly payments to your designated charity
- Endowments — your gift creates an invested fund owned by a charity, and earnings are used to support general or specific needs of the charity’s mission
Here is one amazing story, included on the Foundation’s website, of a donor who was helped by the Foundation. This donor chose to create a “charitable gift annuity” which is a simple contractual arrangement between the donor and The Stewardship Foundation. The gift annuity pays a guaranteed fixed sum each year for the life of one or more beneficiaries.
Mary Lou Fisher is an 82-year-old widow who over the years turned $150,000 into over $1.5 million in the stock market.
During the economic downturn of 2008, Mary Lou suffered along with other investors and saw her portfolio lose over 30% of its value.
Now concerned about her health, and knowing that she will soon have heavy cash outlays for health care and assisted living, she would like to sell the stock and put the proceeds in cash and debt instruments.
Her accountant told Mary Lou that if she sold the stock and paid $127,500 in capital gains, her net worth would be about $872,500 and earn only about 4% per year. She would likely pay $12,215 in incomes taxes on an income of $34,900, leaving just $22,685 for spendable income. This worries her.
If, however, Mary Lou chose to gift a charity $1,000,000, she could earn over 7%, or about $74,000 per year from a charitable gift annuity. This news brings the peace of mind she needs to counterbalance her health worries, and the opportunity to make a significant charitable gift lifts her spirits.
Mary Lou now feels that her life has taken on a new sense of purpose. She sees her wealth as more than personal security — she sees it as meaningful.
The Stewardship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) investment ministry, describes itself this way: “an ecumenical, Christian-based foundation that works with all faiths that promote respect for human life from conception to natural death, honors traditional families that encourage the full development of men, women, and children who are created in God’s image; and that safeguard religious freedom as a means to embrace our Creator God, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we understand them.”