We signed a new contract with a legacy planning company. (Hopefully third time’s a charm.) Our first legacy planner was an individual who works pretty much all by himself, with the aid of an analytics firm behind him. The second legacy planner was also an individual, but with a three-person office staff and . Our second We spent about an hour with two representatives from the company (M____, the planner himself, and J____, his understudy) plus B_____, our structures-and-estate-planning attorney.

A somewhat strange experience. M____ and J____ kept wanting to talk about their company and why we should view them as competent and “the right choice.” Which was fine. But I wasn’t worried about whether they are competent, and I wasn’t looking at alternatives or competitors. My main question had to do with whether and why we should hire anyone at all. So I asked them straight up: “Why should we hire you to guide us after our previous two semi-failed attempts at legacy planning? What unique value will you bring that B____, our attorney, and L____, our CPA, are not able to give us?”

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I got a call this evening from someone I haven’t heard from in years. Totally out of the blue. We used to work in the same non-profit agency 17 years ago. He had been doing research on starting a family foundation and ran across our family’s foundation in a list of local entities.

“I know the Holzmanns!” he exclaimed. And called me up.

“I’m wondering if you might be able to provide some help . . . some advice . . . about starting and operating one of these foundations . . . ,” he said. He had no idea I’ve been working on StrategicInheritance.com.

I said I thought I just might be able to help. And so we spoke.

As I noted last month, I’ve been thinking of starting or sponsoring a mastermind group myself–or encouraging Generous Giving to sponsor such groups. In fact, the local Generous Giving rep has contacted me to talk about the subject. Hopefully we’ll get together soon.

But my friend’s call this evening just reinforced to me how valuable such groups could be.

This idea has been bubbling in my brain. I finally did something about it and wrote to a contact at Generous Giving.

Dear ______:

My wife and I attended the spring Generous Giving conference in Colorado Springs. When we heard the testimony of Al & Kathy Caperna the very first night, I couldn’t believe what a breath of fresh air that seemed: at last we had found people with a similar heart for the world, a similar sense of purpose and mission, and the kind of life experiences (owning a company, for example) that more-or-less matched our own. Of course we’re very different. But there are these key commonalities that mean so much to us and, we find, are so rare.

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B____ [our estate planning attorney], L____ [our CPA], and I met this morning for our annual corporate meetings and strategy session. We discussed our legacy plans at this time. Both B____ and L____ were far more comfortable with the idea of us gifting our company to a DAF [a Donor Advised Fund] than changing it into a 501(c)(3) corporation.

They had a few key questions, one of which we were able to answer through resources they had at hand. Two key questions remain, however. (I’m sure a few more will come up. But these were the big ones that existed at the end of our meeting this morning.)

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I’m supposed to meet with our attorney and CPA tomorrow morning for our annual corporate meetings. While we’re talking about all of our structures anyway, I figured we should talk about our next steps in terms of legacy planning. What should we do, for example, with the 501(c)(3) proposal or alternatives (like the Christian Foundation of the Triangle LLC Wrapper concept)?

Last week I contacted the attorney at National Christian Foundation who has been assigned as our primary contact and asked her if she might help me prepare for tomorrow’s meeting by giving me insights into the kind of idea she has (or NCF has) that might replace J____’s 501(c)(3) proposal.

I just received her reply. Sounds interesting!

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Five questions, in order, will give you a broad-stroke-overview understanding of the legacy planning process. A few additional questions help clarify.

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Do North American evangelical Christians really believe in heaven? Not if you look at their behavior, says one speaker. Here’s his evidence.

I’m at the The Seed Company’s President’s Forum. Great stuff coming out.

One of the speakers spoke provocatively: “Based on their giving patterns, American evangelicals do not believe they are going to heaven.”

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In business you’re told to find a niche and fill it: define clearly what you’re all about, and focus on that one thing. I believe it should be similar when it comes to charity.

I met today with a guy who has given several million dollars to a number of charitable causes over the past 25 years or so. He told me his story. Maybe one day I’ll share it here.

But in the midst of all the other fascinating things he told me, one thing stuck out above all else: he knows his charitable niche.

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