7 Legacy Planning Questions To Ask Your Clients
Although National Make-A-Will Month isn’t until August, it’s always a good time to discuss estate planning with your clients. High-net-worth individuals can always benefit from reviewing their existing estate plans or creating new ones, to help ensure their wishes are carried out. By leveraging this heightened awareness, you can help your clients tie up loose ends and achieve a sense of peace of mind.
When engaging with your clients on estate planning, including charitable giving in the conversation is crucial. High-profile legacy plans often capture media attention, but your clients may not realize they too can leave a lasting impact on their favorite charitable causes. By exploring what legacy charitable giving entails, how it works, and what your clients hope to achieve, you can help them formalize their plans with the necessary legal and financial documentation.
Having discussions about incorporating charitable giving strategies and estate planning is essential to many of your clients. It’s a vital aspect of financial planning that should be discussed alongside traditional provisions for family and loved ones. By integrating this topic into your routine practice, you can empower your clients to create a legacy while ensuring their wishes are carried out.
Estate planning interview checklist: 7 key questions to ask your clients:
Q: What does leaving a legacy gift to a charity you care about mean to you?
By asking this question, you’re encouraging your clients to think about the impact they want to make on their favorite charitable causes. A legacy gift, or post-life gift, is a thoughtful way to continue supporting important causes even after they’re gone.
Q: What types of assets do you have that could be used to make a legacy gift?
This question helps your clients understand the options for charitable gift types that they might use to make a legacy gift. Like the gifts to charity that your clients are already making during their lifetimes, cash, stock (especially highly-appreciated stock), real estate, life insurance, and an IRA beneficiary designation, are examples of assets that can be the subject of a legacy gift. Donating appreciated stock or real estate can be especially tax-effective.
A legacy gift can be expressed in a client’s estate planning documents as a dollar amount, a percentage of the whole, or a legacy gift of the assets themselves.
Q: How do you think a legacy gift will benefit your family members and the causes you care about?
By highlighting the benefits of legacy giving, you can help your clients understand how it can bring them peace of mind and achieve their philanthropic goals. A legacy gift can provide tax benefits* beyond the estate tax charitable deduction, and help ensure their loved ones are taken care of for generations.
Read more about charitable tax strategies and how they can benefit your loved ones
Q: What is the status of your estate planning documents?
Legacy gifts are typically spelled out in detail in a client’s will or trust documents. This is especially important because after the client is gone, too much is otherwise potentially subject to hearsay or conflict. To attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors, this is common sense. But do not overestimate your clients’ understanding of estate plans and how they work. A surprising 2 out of 3 Americans have no estate planning documents!
Q: What do you think might be holding you back from making a legacy gift?
This question acknowledges that estate planning can be an uncomfortable topic, but by framing it in terms of charitable giving, you can help your clients feel more positive about the process. Most clients think charitable giving, though, is a much more pleasant topic than discussing the end of their own lives. That’s why legacy giving is a topic that can help break the ice and pave the way for the broader, essential conversation about overall estate planning. Legacy giving programs can be a powerful way to make a lasting impact and create a legacy that will last for generations.
Q: Are there any specific considerations or concerns you have about making a legacy gift or the planning process?
This question shows that you’re aware of the complexities involved in making a legacy gift. By highlighting the importance of flexibility and being able to revoke or alter the gift if needed, you can help your clients feel more confident in their decisions.
Q: Can you tell me more about what you’re looking for in a legacy giving plan? Do you have any specific charities in mind?
By asking this question, you’re showing your clients that you’re invested in their success and willing to help them navigate the process. By listening to their answers, you can better understand their goals and provide personalized guidance.
A useful technique is for a client to establish a donor advised fund at Greater Houston Community Foundation that spells out the client’s wishes for charitable distributions upon death to specific organizations. The client’s estate planning documents can, in turn, name the fund as the beneficiary of charitable bequests. The client can adjust the terms of the fund at any time during the client’s lifetime to reflect evolving charitable priorities.
Continue reading: What is a donor advised fund?
Got legacy planning questions? The Foundation has answers.
As you work with your clients to create an impactful legacy, it’s essential to have a trusted partner by your side. That’s where Greater Houston Community Foundation comes in. As a premier philanthropic organization in Houston, we have the expertise and resources to help you and your clients achieve their charitable goals.
By partnering with us, you can tap into our knowledge of the community, our experience in creating customized giving plans, and our ability to create meaningful impact. We’re committed to helping you and your clients make a difference in the lives of those around us. Contact Kevin Pickett today at 713-333-2210 or reach out directly to discover how our expertise can seamlessly integrate your clients’ charitable giving goals into their estate planning strategies.
More Helpful Articles by Greater Houston Community Foundation:
- How to Donate Business Interests Strategically
- How Does the Charitable Giving Tax Deduction Work?
- What Is the Great Wealth Transfer?
- Supporting Education: A Guide to Scholarships for Donors
- How Does a Donor Advised Fund Work?
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