Attorneys

Attorneys


Charitable giving can be an important part of an estate plan, and Schwab Charitable has significant experience working with estate planning attorneys like you to help you to provide your clients with a tax-smart way to support charities today, reduce estate taxes and build a lasting charitable legacy. Unlike most planned giving alternatives, a donor-advised fund has no set-up costs, low ongoing expenses and no additional taxes assessed on income earned by the account. For some clients, the account is an attractive alternative to a private foundation. For others, it can serve as a strategic complement to an existing foundation, trust, or supporting organization.
Key advantages include:
Simple & Efficient
  • Separate end of year tax decisions from charitable giving decisions
  • Submit and view grant recommendations online at any time-no reason to write checks, make copies or save individual receipts from multiple organizations for tax preparation
  • Unlike most other planned giving vehicles, no additional filing requirements are required from the individual account.
Tax-Smart
  • Receive immediate tax deduction for contributions to offset taxable income
  • Avoid capital gains taxes on the contribution of appreciated assets held for more than one year1
  • Remove contributed assets from your taxable estate
  • As compared with private foundations, higher deductibility limits, more favorable treatment for real estate contributions and no excise taxes on investment income.
Customized & Private
  • Create a special name for the account (e.g., "The Roberts Family Fund", "The Jean Smith Fund for the Arts"), and have grants issued on customized letterhead at no additional cost
  • Decide whether to recommend each grant anonymously or with acknowledgment.
  • Unlike private foundations, personal information, charitable recipients, costs and investments are kept private and are not attributed to individual accounts in publicly available IRS returns
Flexible
  • Ease of online grant recommendations, when and where you want
  • Small grant minimums
  • Unlike private foundations, no required minimum distribution requirement2
Establishes
Legacy
  • Encourage and establish a tradition of charitable giving in your family
  • Involve members of your family in recommending grants
  • Name successors to the account to ensure a legacy of charitable giving for future generations
(1) Contributions of securities held for one year or longer are fully deductible at fair market value (FMV); securities held for less than one year have the same AGI limits as cash contributions (50%), but the valuation is based on the lesser of the cost basis or FMV. Contributions that exceed AGI limitations may be carried forward and deducted for five years. A donor's ability to claim itemized deductions may be subject to further limitations depending upon the donor's specific tax situation and donors should consult their tax advisors.
(2) The minimum for opening a donor-advised account is $5,000 and the minimum for a grant is $50.
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