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.) Read the rest of this entry »

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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! Read the rest of this entry »

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

What is the right size inheritance to give to your children?

I was first confronted with this question many years ago by an article in which the author asked if it made any sense to fund a child who has decided to rebel against everything you have ever stood for. –Should you give them an equal inheritance to that which you give your other children who are more deeply committed to the causes and values that you espouse?

It wasn’t that I had such a child, nor that I even had any wealth to pass to our children. But it got me thinking.

More recently, especially as our estate’s value has grown, I’ve been confronted by other questions. For example: Should the kids inherit everything you can give them? Read the rest of this entry »

I was doing some research on the web and ran across “just one more” “complete estate plan” site:

This “complete” estate plan is definitely better than no plan at all. And if your are unwilling to take the time to sort through your deepest desires, purpose, vision, values, mission in life: having something like these documents ought to be better than having nothing. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m astonished. It wasn’t even an hour after J____ confirmed the termination of our relationship when I suddenly felt new clarity to ask C____, the attorney he had recommended, to resume her research project or, in some ways, to start all over on a new project.

I wrote to C____,

As my wife and I have continued our researches into the feasibility of shifting our corporation into 501(c)(3) status, several things have become clear to us. Among them:

• The order in which we want to proceed with our broad-based legacy planning process.

And,

• Some of the questions we need to ask–including questions we need to ask of you.

In terms of order: we have realized that we want to continue research into the idea of shifting to a 501(c)(3) at the same time that we pursue other options.

As for the questions we believe we want and need to ask of you–for which we are happy to pay you the fees we agreed to: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, J____ agreed to “let us go” and refund a portion of the funds we had prepaid for services not yet rendered. At the same time, he required us to sign a letter of termination that included the following clauses:

1. You agree to notify all people who were the recipients of your email to me dated 4/15/2008 that because of contents of that email, we have mutually agreed to terminate our working relationship.

   [--Yep. All my fault.]

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, man! I’m becoming more and more upset about the way we’ve been–and are being–treated by J____.

Yesterday, when he told me he was willing to reconsider whether he was, indeed, committed to terminating our relationship, he asked me not to discuss with any other advisors any of the details of his plan . . . until he returns next Monday from his trip out of town.

When I told him that I had already passed the plan along to the National Christian Foundation, he was incensed. How dare I?

Today I went back over our original “Membership Agreement” with his organization. The second paragraph says, Read the rest of this entry »