Greetings from the Community Foundation for Monterey County!

Every day, our team appreciates the opportunity to work with attorneys, accountants, financial advisors and other professionals who are helping clients achieve their charitable goals. In this issue, we’re covering the following topics:

• Following every tax season, many advisors share that they wish they’d been aware of the many asset types that make great gifts to a fund at the CFMC. We’re happy to provide a list of the wide range of property that your clients can deploy to meet both their tax and charitable goals.

• Help your clients get ahead in their estate planning by leaning into the flexibility and benefits of a fund at the CFMC, including their ability to leave permanent legacies to support the community for generations to come.

Thank you for the opportunity to work together! We appreciate so many of you reaching out with questions and insights from your practice, as well as referrals of your clients for which we – and the community – are so grateful.

Christine

Christine Dawson

Senior Vice President Philanthropic Services (831) 375-9712 x126

When your client is getting ready to make a contribution to a fund at the CFMC or other nonprofit, remind them not to automatically reach for the checkbook! Here are other (more tax-savvy) options to consider.

Marketable Securities

A gift of long-term appreciated stock to a donor advised or other fund at the CFMC is always one of the best ways to support favorite charitable causes because capital gains tax can be avoided. Gifts of publicly-traded stock, for example, are easy to transfer to a fund. The CFMC team can provide you and your clients with transfer instructions to make the process simple.

Closely-held Business Interests

Our team is happy to work with you and your client to explore how they might give shares of a closely-held business to a fund at the Community Foundation. Not only will transfers be eligible for a charitable deduction during the year of transfer (and at fair market value if the shares are held for more than one year), but these gifts could also potentially reduce income tax burdens triggered upon a future sale of the business. Be sure to talk with our team well before any potential sale to maximize all tax benefits.

QCDs from IRAs

The IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) is a very smart way to support charitable causes. If your client is over the age of 70 ½, the client can direct up to $105,000 (in 2024) from an IRA to a number of funds at the CFMC: field-of-interest, designated, unrestricted, scholarship, meet changing community needs through the Fund for Monterey County or support multiple nonprofits with one gift through the MC Gives! campaign. If your client is subject to the rules for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), QCDs count toward those RMDs. That means your client avoids income tax on the funds distributed to charity.

Real Estate

Your client’s fund at the CFMC can receive a tax-deductible gift of real estate, such as farmland or commercial property, in a variety of ways. An outright gift is always an option; lifetime gifts of real estate held by the client for more than one year are deductible for income tax purposes at 100% of the fair market value of the property on the date of the gift, which also avoids capital gains tax and reduces the value of your client’s taxable estate. Other ways to give real estate include a bargain sale or a transfer to a charitable remainder trust which produces lifetime income for your client and their family.

Life Insurance

Don’t overlook life insurance as an effective charitable giving tool, whether by naming a client’s fund at the CFMC as the beneficiary, or, in the case of whole life policies, naming the fund as beneficiary and transferring the policy itself. If your client transfers a policy, the client may be able to make annual, tax-deductible contributions to the Community Foundation to cover the premiums.

Other “Alternative” Assets

The CFMC is happy to work with you and your clients to explore options for giving other non-cash assets to funds at the community foundation, including:

• Oil and Gas Interests
• Negotiable Instruments
• Cryptocurrency
• Artwork
• Collectibles

We look forward to working with you to explore all the options!

Getting a jump on a future “to do” list is always such a good feeling. Our team can help you with your clients’ long-term charitable giving plans by putting in place the structures to receive bequests decades from now.

Consider a case where you’re finalizing an estate plan for a client who would like to leave bequests to multiple charitable organizations, but the identity of those specific organizations may be a moving target over the years because of the client’s evolving level of engagement with various charities as a donor, volunteer or board member. In other words, this client likely will want to make small changes to the estate plan’s provisions for charitable giving but leave everything else as is. For example, a client’s trust could be drafted to provide that 10% of the remaining estate be divided equally among five charities, which of course could be listed in the trust document. But what if, a few years from now, the client wants to add another charity to that list? Even a small change like this would require an amendment, which can be time-consuming for both attorney and client.

Instead, the client’s trust document could name a fund at the Community Foundation as the beneficiary of 10% of the remaining estate. Then, the client can work with the CFMC to draft a Memorandum of Charitable Intent (MOCI) that lists the charities that will share the 10%. When the client wants to add new charities or switch out charities from the list, the client can reach out to us and execute simple documentation of the client’s updated intent for their future fund. This free process is fast and simple, and it allows clients to ensure that their bequests are in line with ever-changing needs in the community.

Please reach out to us to learn how MOCI’s and other planning tools can help your clients achieve their charitable goals both during their lifetimes and beyond.

We have many useful resources on our website for engaging with your clients on topics of charitable giving, including a planned giving center and memorandum of charitable intent (MOCI).

The team at CFMC is pleased to be a resource and sounding board. We understand the charitable side of the equation and are happy to help you find the best solutions to meet your clients’ needs. Please contact Cecilia Romero, Director of Gift Planning, at or (831) 754-5880 x124 if we can be of assistance.

This useful guide covers many ways donors can give during their lifetime or through their estate including:

• Donor Advised Funds (DAFs)
• Gifts of Real Estate or Appreciated Stock
• Charitable Remainder Trusts & Charitable Gift Annuities
• IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)

View or download a copy or contact contact us for additional copies for your clients.

This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting or financial planning advice.

To inspire philanthropy and be a catalyst for strengthening communities

throughout Monterey County