ABOUT THIS EPISODE
We were listening to a local radio station‘s public service announcements about the concept of charitable planning. The radio station only had 30-60 seconds to explain what they were talking about. We have much longer in our podcasts, and no fixed time limit. So we decided to go through some of the charitable planning choices the radio station seemed to be alluding to.
Of course you can make direct charitable gifts of cash during your life. It’s a good idea, and it allows you to support your favorite charities. It can also leave you with a warm glow of satisfaction.
But the radio announcement talked about making various kinds of gifts that would take effect only at your death. Some of those, as the announcement suggested, can even produce lifetime financial benefits for you. What might they have been hinting about?
In this discussion, we touch on charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, and some of the other, creative ways you can satisfy both your charitable preferences and your desire to maximize the effect of your gifts.
Another easy and obvious way to engage in charitable planning is to name your favorite charity in your will or trust. We can also help you with that –whether your favorite charity is that helpful radio station or a completely different organization. Oh, wait — you can even do all this in a way that lets you change your charity of choice later!
