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 content aims to provide general information about estate planning and charitable giving. We hope it’s helpful and informative. Suggestions for monthly content topics are welcome. We’d love to hear from you.

Building a Lasting Legacy

In estate planning, we often start the discussion with technical details about the efficient transfer of wealth and tax minimization. But, the best place to start planning your estate is to consider what legacy you will leave behind.

1. For families with grown children, the successful upbringing of children reflects your hard work and ideals. In these families, the transfer of wealth may be a technical matter since a legacy has already been created, nurtured, and transferred.
2. In other families, a legacy may be tied to an asset, such as a family farm that has passed through multiple generations of family ownership. This type of legacy requires careful planning to ensure that future ownership will be secured.
3. A third type of legacy is philanthropy. Because you believed in a cause, you contributed time and energy throughout your life. If you have children, you may have developed philanthropical ideals in them. Upon your death, your philanthropy will end, but there are opportunities to create family philanthropy when you are no longer able to catalyze the efforts. For example, if you have children, you can work with the DeKalb County Community Foundation to explore naming them as successor advisors on your Donor Advised Fund to carry on your philanthropic priorities beyond your lifetime. If you don’t have children, your Donor Advised Fund can roll into your Designated Fund or Community Impact Fund following your death.

Changing demographics are increasing the Community Foundation’s role in many estate plans. For example, not having children is becoming more common, both among millennials and older people. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 20% of U.S. adults age 50 and older hadn’t had children. In addition, children of affluent parents tend to move away, which means that many parents embrace the notion that working with the Foundation can help children maintain ties to their childhood community even across generations.

Indeed, many couples who don’t have children and couples who do have children feel a strong sense of peace of mind knowing that the Community Foundation will be involved with their charitable legacy long after their lifetimes, whether through advising children and grandchildren or administering charitable bequests for maximum community impact. The Foundation always has its finger on the pulse of our region’s greatest needs and the nonprofits that are meeting those needs at any given point in time, whether right now or decades in the future.

Please reach out to the team at the DeKalb County Community Foundation to learn more about how they can help you leave a legacy across generations, whether or not you have children. They’re here to help!

– 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) comprises of local professionals providing estate planning services, including attorneys, trust officers, CPAs, wealth advisors, and insurance agents. 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 notify estate planning professionals on topics relevant to the intersection of estate planning and philanthropy.

Matthew L. Brown