Today’s donors are looking to their professional advisors for financial planning advice and tax strategies. As you consider solutions that will provide the most benefit for your clients, remember charitable giving through the Hamilton Community Foundation can play an important part in your clients’ financial plans.
For nearly 70 years, the Hamilton Community Foundation's expert resources have teamed with professional advisors to help their clients achieve their goals and support the causes they care about. By partnering with us you can build relationships, increase your understanding of community needs, and strengthen and improve our community through philanthropy.
Local Professional Advisors also receive invitations to Hamilton Community Foundation events offering networking and education.
8 March 2023
No one has to tell you about the sense of dread that can arise when asking some clients to pull together their receipts and documents. It’s never too early to start thinking about how to avoid that dread next year.
When it comes to charitable giving, your clients may find that organizing their giving through one or more funds at the Hamilton Community Foundation will make their lives easier. A client can take advantage of this feature by making a single, tax-deductible contribution each year to HCF, to be added to their donor advised, field of interest or other type of fund.
An especially tax-savvy technique is for the client to make this contribution using highly-appreciated stock. After the stock has been transferred to the Community Foundation, the proceeds from the foundation’s sale of the stock
The subject of gathering up tax receipts for charitable donations is often a prompt for clients to get organized with the rest of their financial lives, too. At the very least, the subject of charitable giving can pave the way for a discussion about the basics of estate planning. Many clients are simply not aware of the meaning and importance of critical elements, such as:
1. The difference between a will and a living trust and how charitable wishes fit into these documents.
2. Why it’s critical to be intentional about how each and every asset is titled so that the assets actually pass as intended.
3. The dangers of hurriedly filling out life insurance and retirement plan beneficiary designations and why these documents are absolutely critical components of a financial, estate and charitable plan.
4. Reasons for having both a “living will” and durable power of attorney, both of which have a major impact in the event of incapacity.
5. A reminder to make sure someone in the family knows where to find a list of logins and passwords.
Charitable planning is one of many steps in your work with clients, but it can be a catalyst for helping clients understand why they need that comprehensive estate and financial plan you’ve been encouraging them to complete. The Hamilton Community Foundation team is at the ready to help with the charitable components of your service to clients.
Call Katie Braswell at 5163.805.0220 to discuss ways in which HCF can be your partner in establishing your clients’ charitable portfolio.
Founded in 1951, The Hamilton Community Foundation (HCF) has the largest collective impact on the quality of life in Hamilton, Ohio. By professionally managing more than 1,000 individual, family and corporate funds, as well as nonprofit agency endowments, the Foundation awards more than $5 million in grants and scholarships annually. HCF works to address new and emerging issues of community concern, while remaining focused on health and social issues, education and community revitalization. As the largest community foundation in Butler County, HCF is a public charity with $140 million in assets.
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1 March 2023
Most attorneys, accounts and financial advisors are well aware of donor advised funds and the reasons behind their popularity. Especially when a donor advised fund is established at the Hamilton Community Foundation, this vehicle is an excellent way for your clients to organize their charitable giving and get even more connected to the causes about which they care.
Enter the QCD
Your clients can give nearly every type of asset to a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. A notable exception, though, is the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). The QCD allows a taxpayer 70 ½ or older to make a direct transfer of up to $100,000 annually from an IRA to a qualifying charity. A donor advised fund is not considered to be a qualifying charity.
Although donor advised funds cannot accept QCDs, the Community Foundation offers other types of funds that can accept QCDs. For example, designated funds and field of interest funds held at HCF are ideal recipients of QCD transfers. These fund types are often overlooked but many times provide the exact right opportunity for a donor to give where their heart is.
What is a field of interest fund?
A field of interest fund is defined as a fund held by a community foundation that is used for a specific charitable purpose, such as education or health research. Perhaps your client is passionate about rare disease solutions, feeding the food insecure or preserving works of art, for example. Your client selects the name of the fund and then HCF distributes the grants from the field of interest fund in a way that is aligned with your client’s values and charitable wishes outlined in the fund agreement.
What is a designated fund?
Designated funds are restricted funds in which the fund beneficiaries are specified by the grantors. These are a good choice for a client who knows they want to support a particular charity or charities for multiple years. The client names the fund and HCF fulfills the distributions. Made over time, these funds can help the charity’s or charities’ cash flow planning. Again, distributions are aligned with the client’s wishes set forth in the original fund agreement.
Call Katie Braswell at 5163.805.0220 to discuss ways in which HCF can be your partner in establishing your clients’ charitable portfolio.
Founded in 1951, The Hamilton Community Foundation (HCF) has the largest collective impact on the quality of life in Hamilton, Ohio. By professionally managing more than 1,000 individual, family and corporate funds, as well as nonprofit agency endowments, the Foundation awards more than $5 million in grants and scholarships annually. HCF works to address new and emerging issues of community concern, while remaining focused on health and social issues, education and community revitalization. As the largest community foundation in Butler County, HCF is a public charity with $140 million in assets.
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