Pros and Cons of a Charitable Trust
Charitable trusts are so powerful, we sometimes call them “give it twice” trusts. But while they mean a huge gift to charity and a tax-efficient income stream to loved ones (or you!), they’re not without some caveats.
4 Tips for Storing and Sharing Your Digital Assets
As legacy planners, we get a lot of questions about how to store important documents, photos, and other digital assets for the long haul…and how to securely share them with […]
Including Pets in Your Legacy Plan
If you have a pet, I’m sure you’ve made plans for their care at some point. Maybe you were taking a vacation or had a busy workday and just wanted to ensure they were properly taken care of. Most of us don’t bat an eyelash at these forward-thinking plans for our furry friends, but we often forget about ensuring their long-term care in case something happens to us.
7 Charitable Giving Tools (And Who Should Consider Them)
Our focus is on legacy planning…but we’re always helping donors identify the most effective ways to give charitably–starting now! There are CRUTs and CRATs and DAFs and ILITs and QCDs, and while we’ve just scratched the surface of the many charitable giving tools out there, all the acronyms can seem like alphabet soup. If you’re just wanting an overview, here’s a crash course on the most common giving vehicles…and when they might be a good fit.
7 Questions to Ask a Nonprofit Before Making a Major Gift
Before clients make their charitable intentions official, we encourage them to do a little research on and ask a few questions about the organizations they want to remember with a bequest or other planned gift.
6 Non-Cash Giving Strategies
We often share that 91 percent of an average American’s estate is made up of non-cash assets like real estate, retirement funds, stocks, securities, or business- or farm-related goods. It’s […]
3 Foundational Questions to Ask Before You Start a Legacy Plan
“Uffdah: it’s a common refrain in our house,” says Apex CEO Christy Boysen. She can rattle off, in detail, the family traditions that are non-negotiable on her calendar: lefse-making and […]
Things to Know Before Setting Up a Trust
What is a trust, and how does it work with a legacy plan? Where does a will fit in? These are all powerful documents, and it’s important to understand how […]
Plan (and Fund) Your Own Funeral As a Gift to Your Family
When you make key decisions about how you want to be remembered, you’ll make it the celebration you want while eliminating a significant burden for your family.
Our Team’s Favorite Family Heirlooms–and Some Tips for Preserving Yours!
No matter their culture, location, or financial situation, every family has heirlooms of some kind. As part of our signature legacy planning program, we encourage clients to think about the pieces of artwork, jewelry, cars, tools, or other items they own that have stories and that they might want to make specific provisions for in their legacy plan. Here are a few ideas–inspired by some of our clients–for documenting and gifting those heirlooms: