Patrick Henry once said, "I have but one lamp by which my feet are lighted, and that is the lamp of experience." After years of working in the area of wealth transfer, business succession, estate planning and related areas, my view of my client's view of philosophy changed. Why? Experience! You'll like what you are about to read: How to actually make money while giving it away. An important task for tax advisors (particularly those doing estate planning) is to make sure they have a clear understanding of each client's goals. So, one of the questions yours truly (or my staff) would ask each client was (and still is), "Do you have charitable intent?" Most clients answered, "No" and that was that. For those that said, "Yes," we had a large arsenal of tax-advantaged charitable strategies that would enrich not only charity, but substantially enrich our clients too. Every client always made an economic-aftertax-profit.
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