Thursday, February 21, 2013

12 things to do in 2013- Who Will Be In Charge If…..


12 Things to do in 2013- #2
Laurie Valentine

Who Will Be In Charge If…..

…you had a stroke, began to show advanced signs of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, or were in an accident that left you mentally incapacitated? If you have not done any prior planning, the answer may be a court-appointed guardian.

Incapacity planning---planning by which you decide who would be in charge in any of those circumstances and execute documents to empower the person(s) of your choice to be able to take charge is an important part of estate planning. Not doing incapacity planning is poor stewardship because guardianship is costly both from a financial and emotional perspective.

Durable powers of attorney, living will directives, health care surrogate designations and revocable living trusts are documents that should be considered when you are putting in place your “incapacity plan”. Using them allows you to empower someone to make decisions for you and manage your finances, as well as expressing wishes regarding decisions you would want made for you if you cannot speak for yourself.

Be a good steward---plan for incapacity now.

For more information, please call us at (502) 489-3533 or toll free in KY at 1-(866) 489-3533

The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.



Tuesday, February 19, 2013

An Under Tapped Tool for Churches

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

Earlier this month the results of a survey conducted by LifeWay Research among pastors of Southern Baptist churches throughout the USA were published. The purpose of the survey was to gauge the awareness and preparedness of churches to the issues surrounding estate stewardship.

Let me share a few of the findings for your awareness and for any needed action you and/or your church might need to take in light of the findings. Only 16 percent of churches received any kind of estate gift in the year preceding the survey; that meant 84 percent did not. Churches that reported receiving at least one estate gift received an average of $22,507. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy the average estate gift to all charities was $70,000.

72 percent of pastors believed every Christian should include the church and other ministries in their estate plans, but 86 percent of them confessed they had not provided their congregations with seminars or even basic information on estate planning during the last year. The survey results also revealed the majority of pastors were more comfortable and more inclined to preach on the importance of giving from one’s income than one’s estate.

The KBF has the conviction that for Kentucky Baptist churches to be successful in reaching Kentucky and the world for Christ, Kentucky Baptist churches must be equipped to cultivate and secure estate gifts from their members. And, the KBF was established in 1945 “by the churches, for the churches to help the churches reach Kentucky and the world for Christ.”

If your church has not yet called upon the KBF to assist it in putting in place a plan of education and awareness, casting a vision about the vital importance and use of estate gifts and facilitating the receipt and administration of such gifts, please do not hesitate any longer and take advantage of this under tapped tool. Laurie Valentine and I are awaiting your call and the opportunity to assist. 

For more information, please call us at (502) 489-3533 or toll free in KY at 1-(866) 489-3533

The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Charitable IRA Rollover— Reinstated

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

The recently enacted American Taxpayer Relief Act (“ATRA”) reinstated the IRA Charitable Rollover giving opportunity through the end of 2013.

Generally, IRA owners must report distributions out of their IRA as income, whether they receive the IRA funds or direct them to someone else. And, while an IRA distribution to charity is a charitable contribution for income tax deduction purposes (if you itemize); the increase in reportable income and restrictions on the amount of charitable gifts that may be deducted in a given year may not result in a “wash” for tax purposes.

The Charitable IRA Rollover provisions are an exception to the general rule. They permit a person who is 70 ½ or older to make tax-free outright gifts in any amount up to a total of $100,000 during 2013 from a traditional or Roth IRA to qualified charities. Your church and our KBC and SBC agencies and institutions are “qualified charities”. Private foundations and donor advised funds are not.

The distributions must be made directly from your IRA to the qualified charitable organization. A distribution to the IRA owner/donor, followed by a gift to charity, does not receive the special treatment provided by ATRA.

A Charitable IRA Rollover distribution is not included in the income of an age 70 ½ or older IRA owner, but it does count as part of their required minimum distribution. And, while it is a gift to charity, it is not a deductible charitable contribution for income tax purposes.

For those age 70 ½ with IRA assets, make sure you take a look out this “window of opportunity” before it closes on December 31, 2013.

For more information, please call us at (502) 489-3533 or toll free in KY at 1-(866) 489-3533

The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Communicating With You


By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO


Every charitable organization, the KBF included, faces three major challenges: (1) the communication challenge; (2) the cultivation challenge; and (3) the competition challenge.

The cultivation challenge for us is to have the opportunity to encourage, educate and enable every adult Kentucky Baptist to have a Christian estate plan. An effective way to do that is to receive an invitation from a church or an adult group in the church to conduct one of our Christian estate stewardship education seminars. We have nothing to sell, and we do not twist anybody’s arm to do anything; it’s purely an educational experience.

With more than 1.5M charitable organizations seeking to tap into the greatest generational wealth transfer in history, the competition among these organizations, including churches and church-related organizations, has become fierce, thus the competition challenge. Our greatest concern is charitably minded individuals will become confused about which organizations to support, and as a result will become desensitized in their giving. We remind them as Christians in the matter of financial stewardship our first loyalty is to Christ through our churches and other Great Commission service ministries.

The communication challenge is our greatest challenge. Since information and news is received in so many different ways today, it is a challenge for us to disseminate effectively the information we want to share via all of the different media methods people are using. The cost of communicating is also part of the challenge. As a religious organization we must maximize the stewardship of the limited financial resources available to us.

As we look to future we would like to communicate with you via email. And we pledge never to share your email address with anyone else. We shall appreciate you providing us your email address either by email response to me at barry.allen@kybaptist.org or by telephone at 502.489.3533, or toll free Kentucky only at 866.489.3533.

Also, please “Like” us on Facebook if you are a Facebook user – and – share our page with others any time you find it useful.

The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.