FYI: I will link episode as soon as it becomes available, early Saturday morning.)
Regards,
Ted
November 22, 2017
Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,
It’s been three decades since the last game changing tax reform legislation was passed. Washington is in the midst of another major tax overhaul effort now, with huge implications for many of us. In this week’s EXTRA feature on our website we tackle the possible ramifications and actions to consider taking before year-end with EY tax expert Elda Di Re, a Private Client Services Leader. As you will discover, there are many conversations occurring with clients, especially those in high tax states.
Since it is the beginning of the holiday season and of public television’s winter fund-raising drives, WEALTHTRACK is revisiting our recent program about an investment that many American households make with dedication and passion every year, charitable gifts.
As a people, Americans are known for their generosity and charitable works. They were characteristics noted by French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville during his travels in America between 1831 and 1832. He described them in his instant best seller, Democracy in America, his analysis of the nature of the new republic and its citizens:
“Americans group together to hold fetes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries to the antipodes. They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method. Finally, if they wish to highlight a truth or develop an opinion by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association."
Americans were more generous than ever last year, donating $390 billion to their favorite causes and associations. As usual individuals contributed the bulk of it, nearly $300 billion or three quarters of the total. They increased their donations by nearly 4%, the largest single contributor to the overall growth in giving.
Religious organizations continued to be the major beneficiaries, getting 32% of the total charity pot. Education was half that, at 15% and for only the 6th time in 40 years all nine major philanthropy subsectors realized giving increases. For the second year in a row charities involved in environmental and animal causes experienced the fastest growth in donations, up 7.2% to more than $11 billion.
Where to give can be a daunting decision. There are 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the U.S. A million of those are public charities and nearly 400 thousand are other types of tax-exempt organizations - associations such as Chambers of Commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues.
How do you decide where to give? How do you know the charities you support are effective and trustworthy? How do you maximize your charitable deductions?
That’s where this week’s WEALTHTRACK guests can help!
We’ll be joined again by Elda Di Re, a Private Client Services Leader in EY’s National Tax Department, with a focus on servicing the personal tax and financial planning needs of ultra-high net worth individuals. Among her many specialties is charitable planning.
The other guest is Pamela Norley, the President of Fidelity Charitable, the oldest and largest national donor-advised fund in the country. It is second only to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in grant making. Established in 1991 by investment giant Fidelity, Fidelity Charitable is a completely independent public charity whose mission is to make charitable giving “simple, effective and accessible”. Since its launch it has helped its more than 130,000 donor-advised accounts- it calls them giving accounts - support more than 235,000 different charities with more than $22 billion in grants.
We’ll discuss what’s driving the record-breaking amounts of philanthropic giving and Di Re and Norley will share their advice on how we can maximize our own charitable efforts.
The interview with Di Re about the current status of tax reform and what EY is advising clients is available to our PREMIUM viewers right now and will be accessible to everyone else by Friday.
If you want to take WEALTHTRACK with you on your commute or travels, you can now find the WEALTHTRACK podcast on TuneIn, Stitcher, and SoundCloud, as well as iTunes. Find out more on the WEALTHTRACK Podcast page.
We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We are so thankful to all of you for watching, and being part of the WEALTHTRACK family.
Have a wonderful weekend and make the week ahead a profitable and a productive one.
Best Regards,
Consuelo
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