Welcome to the EPAC Corner! We are pleased to bring you this content from the Estate Planning Advisory Committee (EPAC) of the DeKalb County Community Foundation. If you have any questions about the information below or the EPAC group, please contact Community Foundation Executive Director Dan Templin at 815-748-5383 or dan@dekalbccf.org. 

The EPAC Corner celebrates one year this month! The content aims to provide general information about estate planning and charitable giving. We hope it’s helpful and informative. Please know that we welcome suggestions for monthly content topics. We’d love to hear from you.

It’s (always) a great time to review your estate plan and legacy gifts

For the month of August, we want to remind you that it is National Make-A-Will Month. Even if your estate planning documents are already in place, this is still a good time to review your will, trust, and beneficiary designations to ensure they capture your financial and family situation and intentions.

1. It’s hard not to be inspired by the incredible stories of generosity that no one saw coming. Every year, many nonprofit organizations receive estate gifts that they had not expected. Stories about these donors are heartwarming! In our community, we honor those donors who have made estate gifts through our Dinontas Society, and we have chronicled the stories of these donors.
2. Remember, your Fund at the Community Foundation can be an ideal recipient of estate gifts through a will or trust or through a beneficiary designation on a qualified retirement plan or life insurance policy. Bequests of qualified retirement plans, such as your IRA, can be extremely tax-efficient. This is because charitable organizations such as the Foundation are tax-exempt. This means the dollars flowing directly to a Fund at the Foundation from a retirement plan after your death will not be reduced by income tax. This also means the assets will not be subject to estate tax.
3. The Community Foundation makes it easy for attorneys to draft bequest terms in legal documents, including beneficiary designations of retirement plans and life insurance policies. Please contact the Foundation for the exact language to ensure alignment with your intentions.
4. Keep in mind that even after you have executed estate planning documents or beneficiary designations, in many cases, you can update the terms of the Fund at the Community Foundation designated to receive the bequest upon your death. This makes charitable giving easy and flexible!

– Matthew L. Brown, local attorney and member of the DeKalb County Estate Planning Advisory Committee

Established in 2020, the DeKalb County Estate Planning Advisory Committee (EPAC) is comprised of local professionals providing estate planning services, including attorneys, trust officers, CPAs, wealth advisors, and insurance sgents. The purpose of the EPAC is to raise awareness and understanding of the Community Foundation as a resource for professional advisors and their clients, assist with efforts to deliver effective estate planning education to the general public, and to notify estate planning professionals on topics relevant to the intersection of estate planning and philanthropy.

Matthew L. Brown