Influence

Summer topics worth watching

Summer 2023

Proposed legislation known as the Charitable Act appears to be gaining momentum. The bill calls for making available a “below the line” deduction to taxpayers who do not itemize on their tax return. This proposed deduction is slated to reach up to one-third of the standard deduction (around $4,500 for an individual filer and around $9,000 for married joint filers). In addition to providing an overall boost to charitable giving, the intent is that enabling all taxpayers to benefit from the charitable deduction might help reverse the decline in recent years in the number of households giving to charity each year.

Bridging the gaps in multi-generational family philanthropy

Summer 2023

Differing views within families are nothing new; differing views about nearly anything and everything is centuries old. For generations and generations, common topics of disagreement have included popular culture, politics, religion, and parenting, just to name a few.

Gifts of cash or stock: Is it a toss up?

Summer 2023

As your philanthropic clients can likely attest, the going has been rough for many of the nonprofit organizations they support. Turbulent economic conditions, concerns about inflation and challenges in the banking sector are just a few of the factors that are causing donors to be more financially conservative and perhaps begin to evaluate whether to keep their charitable giving at the levels of years past.

Explore Ways to Give in Uncertain Times

October 2022

For those who are charitably inclined, a challenging economic climate might actually serve as an inspiration to become more intentional about giving priorities. What’s more, not all donors plan to reduce their philanthropy in the face of financial headwinds.

Here are three messages worth sharing with your clients as bear market conditions hang on into the fourth quarter.

Be a Resource on Inherited IRAs

October 2022

Don’t be surprised if your clients are walking into your office in a state of bewilderment over something they’ve read recently about the IRS’s distribution rules for inherited IRAs.

Until the law changed a few years ago, a client who was named as the beneficiary of a parent’s IRA, for example, could count on a relatively straightforward and tax-smart method of withdrawals called the “stretch IRA.”

Make Lemonade from (Higher Interest Rate) Lemons

October 2022

When interest rates are high, your clients may want to look closely at annuity vehicles that leave a remainder gift to charity, such as a charitable remainder annuity trust or a charitable gift annuity.

Harvesting a Family Legacy

August 2022 – Farms, tax planning, & funding a family legacy

With 2,802 parcels of vineyards and 65,000 acres of farm and ranch lands, its likely you have a client who owns an acre or two, representing millions of dollars of family wealth.

Farmland and vineyards, like many other hard-to-value assets, tend to carry plenty of emotional attachments. These properties can be hard to deal with in an estate plan because of the challenges of multiple owners and the complexity of the estate tax as it’s applied to farm-related assets. However, there are some excellent philanthropic options for your clients who own farmland or vineyards.

Summer legislative updates and looking ahead to sunsets

August 2022 – Reconciliation legislation is back in play, the proposed legislation is far less sweeping than earlier versions. Notably, the proposal includes $80 billion in budget increases for the Internal Revenue Service to help pay for enforcement efforts to collect taxes. Taxpayers and their advisors can likely expect greater scrutiny from the IRS on complex or aggressive transactions in the years ahead if this legislation passes.

QCDs: Good news and important reminders 

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.

NIMCRUTs: a tool for giving and income timing

June, 2022 – Clients who own closely-held businesses, real estate or even cryptocurrency may be good candidates for a particular type of charitable remainder trust known as a NIMCRUT, which is short for “Net Income with Makeup Charitable Remainder Unitrust.”

Private Foundations, RMDs and DAFs

June, 2022 – Families who conduct their philanthropy using both a private foundation and a Donor Advised Fund will want to plan carefully if a particular item in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget package becomes law.

Bequests: the fastest growing part of the Foundation

April 2022 – If you’re an estate planning attorney, you may already know that the Foundation serves as a watchdog for generous people who pass away and want to leave a legacy benefiting the Valley.  But you might not know this: by June, half of our total assets will have originated via bequest.   

Donor Advised Funds: new rules on the horizon?

April 2022 – You’ve probably noticed that Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) have been featured more prominently over the last few weeks in financial and wealth management publications. That’s in part because the Accelerating Charitable Efforts Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives on February 3, 2022.

Privately-held business interests: a source for giving

April 2022 – The number of businesses in the United States totals more than 27 million, but only a tiny fraction of those are publicly traded. In Napa Valley’s viticulture economy, LLCs are nearly as common as award-winning cabernets – and we’ve helped a growing roster of donors make tax-smart contributions of such assets in recent years.