Charitable giving can provide crucial immediate tax benefits, but it can also be a powerful tool in estate planning. Hosts Thomas Kopelman and Dave Haughton discuss the various tools available for charitable giving, including donor-advised funds (DAFs), Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts. They emphasize how to use tools like these to optimize charitable giving for tax efficiency.

They also discuss why it can be important to include children in charitable decisions and how to minimize the tax burden on heirs through strategic planning that maximizes charitable contributions.

In this episode, hosts Thomas Kopelman, Anne Rhodes, and David Haughton explore how recent election results could shape estate tax planning through 2025 and beyond. They emphasize the importance of flexibility in navigating uncertainty in tax laws and political environments. The discussion includes the potential sunset of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, why advisors must stay informed and adaptable and how to approach flexible planning for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

This week, Adam Nash, CEO and co-founder of Daffy, joins host Thomas Kopelmen for a special charity-focused episode of The Practical Planner. Giving to charities isn’t just about supporting causes you care about, it can provide immediate and long-term tax deductions.

Adam and Thomas discuss how donor-advised funds (DAFs) work, how they allow you to better support your favorite charities and the financial and tax benefits of having one place. They touch on the role of automation in making charitable contributions easier, how to find the right charities to support and how to leverage the tax benefits of giving back.

It’s important to take the time to decide how to leave your assets to your children, or other minors in your life. That’s the takeaway message from hosts Thomas Kopelman and Dave Haughton in this week’s Practical Planner episode, where they focus on the reasons for structuring how children receive assets but the considerations that go into it, such as their long-term motivation and well-being.

They dig into the reasons why leaving it outright may not be best, and why choosing a trust can be a valuable tool to plan for children’s financial future. The explore different options for structuring trusts, such as naming a trustee to manage distributions or staggering distributions based on age or yearly terms.

Reddit thread Thomas mentions at 8:55: https://www.reddit.com/r/Asmongold/comments/1ehx7ug/a_redditor_spent_their_inheritance_on_intel_this/

Estate planning isn’t just about what happens after you die. It’s also about knowing how to best pass on your wealth during your lifetime, especially your children.

In this episode, hosts Thomas Kopelman and Dave Haughton discuss different ways to play for your children’s future. The explore various types of accounts, including UTMA accounts and 529 plans, detailing the pros and cons of each. They also discuss gifting, including how to help with large expenses like student loans and housing, and when to utilize trusts.

If you’ve wondered if your client needs a Credit Shelter Trust, this episode details their value in estate planning. Hosts Anne Rhodes, Thomas Kopelman and David Haughton discuss why Credit Shelter Trusts are designed for estate tax planning, specifically to preserve the estate tax exemption for spouses. They go into the different ways Credit Shelter Trusts can be structured and the potential downsides of using one. They also touch on Survivor’s Trusts and why flexibility in estate planning is so important.

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Dasarte Yarnway is well known throughout the wealth management community as the Founder of Yarnway Wealth Management and Head of Community at Altruist. In this episode, he joins co-hosts Thomas Kopelman and Dave Haughton to discuss his approach to holistic financial planning and why estate planning is the backbone of any financial plan.

He shares his RIITE (Retirement, Investment, Insurance, Taxes, Estate Plan) planning process with clients and how he educates his clients on why these are the critical pieces of a financial plan He also details how he coaches his own clients into knowing what they should be looking for in their financial plan and estate plans to empower them and deepen the client-advisor relationship.

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Gifting can be a great strategy to transfer wealth but the tax implications and exemptions are often misunderstood. Tax-free strategies for gifting to family or loved ones may actually be broader than most think. Hosts Thomas Kopelman and David Haughton discuss both the ways someone can gift as well as strategies for minimizing potential taxes on those gifts.

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Host Thomas Kopelman is joined by Dave Haughton, Senior Corporate Counsel at wealth.com, who’s stepping for Anne Rhodes as ongoing co-host temporarily, to discuss what happens after someone creates their estate planning documents. Dave details the three key steps to know, especially for advisors guiding their clients, including the critical piece of needing physical documents and getting them notarized—and why online notarization may not be the best solution.

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Anne and Thomas are joined again by Chris Nason, partner at McDermott, Will and Emery LLP, to discuss the intracacies of how trusts operate, focusing on SLATs an Marital Trusts. Chris dives deep into SLATs, how they work, the benefits of having one and when having one may make sense.

They also debunk a conversation that has been taking social media by storm about a certain trust structure that can help you avoid all taxes, and discuss why it's unlikely to work despite it going viral.

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