Tuesday, June 30, 2015

What’s The Plan?

By: Richard Carnes- President & CEO

The most likely reason people fail to plan their finances, especially the preparation of an estate plan may fall into the category of “life just gets in the way.” For some it’s “I’m too busy,” for others it’s the uncomfortable idea of planning to die, and for another group their reason may be “no one can know the future,” so why plan if things are just going to change.

The reality is, if we develop a plan, for our family vacation, a party at our home, a career change, and yes, stewardship plans for our family and our finances, these events will all go more smoothly and our lives may be less stressful.

The Kentucky Baptist Foundation strives to fulfill its Christian service mandate to individuals through a variety of educational efforts. One of the ways this is done is through the presentation of educational seminars within your local church. Examples of the seminars are as follows:

Estate Planning Mistakes and Solutions – Discover what the ten biggest estate planning mistakes are and how to avoid them to assure your make the most of what you have.

Who Will Be In Charge If …? – Explores incapacity planning tools – powers of attorney, health care advanced directives, Living Trusts and what happens if no prior planning has been done.

Legacy Giving Ideas – Ways to give that benefit the giver as well as the charity – gifts of appreciated assets; gifts of life insurance and retirement assets; and life income gifts.

Ask A Lawyer – The Foundation’s attorney, Laurie Valentine, is ready to answer your estate planning, incapacity planning, long-term care planning and charitable gift planning questions and … there’s no “meter” running.

Ways To Make Gifts To Your Church – Estate stewardship giving ideas to encourage church members to take stewardship to a deeper level – what to give, how to give, and why we should give.

These topics and more are available as no-cost stewardship education seminars that can be conducted at your church. The Kentucky Baptist Foundation’s trust counsel, Laurie Valentine and I will welcome your invitation. 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, June 18, 2015

Real Estate Gifts

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

Do you own a vacation home or other real estate you no longer want to use or manage? And, have you have been thinking about making a legacy gift to your church or other charitable cause? If your answer to both questions is “yes” consider using that real estate to accomplish your legacy giving objectives.

An outright charitable gift of real estate that has appreciated in value can provide double benefits----an immediate income tax deduction equal to the current market value of the property and avoidance of the capital gains tax you would owe if you sold the property.

If the property’s value has depreciated, a sale of it by you followed by a gift of all or a portion of the sale proceeds to charity may provide both a charitable contribution tax deduction and a capital loss deduction on your income tax return.

If you are not comfortable with giving up the full value of the real estate, a bargain sale to charity may be the answer. With a bargain sale you agree to sell the real estate to the charity for less than its current market value. The transaction is part charitable gift (the difference between the market value and the sale price) and part sale (the difference between the sale price and your cost basis in the property). You recognize capital gains on the sale portion of the transaction, but only for the difference between your cost basis in the property and the actual sale price. A charitable deduction is allowed for the value of the gift portion of the transaction.

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, June 16, 2015

Beginning The Journey

By: Richard Carnes- President & CEO

It is with great excitement and a tremendous sense of responsibility I begin my journey with the Kentucky Baptist Foundation. First I want to express humble gratitude to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for entrusting this Kingdom work assignment to me. I ask for your prayers that I will daily commit my energies to His work with all persons He brings into my path as I travel the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sharing the message of the Foundation and its legacy giving services.

Second, I wish to express appreciation to the Foundation’s search committee and its chairman Willis Henson, the Foundation’s Board of Directors and its chairman Charles Barnes, for their vote of confidence in offering me the opportunity to serve alongside them in leading the legacy stewardship ministry of the Foundation. The professionalism and thoroughness of their search process is a model that all organizations, both nonprofit and corporate businesses would be well served to emulate.

Also, I am honored to serve with an incredibly talented and committed group of Foundation staff, Janet McIntosh, Barbara Spencer, Katrina Umphrey and Laurie Valentine. Each of these ladies is dedicated to helping individual Kentucky Baptists who are seeking to live out their stewardship obedience to Jesus Christ through their legacy gift decisions.

I want to express my sincere thanks to all the current Kentucky Baptist Foundation clients, including individuals, churches, Baptist institutions and the KBC Mission Board that have entrusted the Foundation with the management and administration of funds to benefit the wide array of ministries being conducted by Southern Baptists across Kentucky, the United States and around the world.

As so ably stated many times by Dr. Barry Allen, the former president of the Foundation, “we look forward to extending to you the services of Kentucky Baptist Foundation, to facilitate the stewardship of that which the Lord has entrusted to you to use for His purposes.” What a great way to begin the “Journey”!

Richard Carnes is the president of the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, P O Box 436389, Louisville, KY 40253; toll-free (866) 489-3533; KyBaptistFoundation.org

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

12 Creative Giving Ideas for 2015- #6

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

Do you own a vacation home or other real estate you no longer want to use or manage? And, have you have been thinking about making a legacy gift to your church or other charitable cause? If your answer to both questions is “yes” consider using that real estate to accomplish your legacy giving objectives.

An outright gift of real estate that has appreciated in value can provide double benefits----an immediate income tax deduction equal to the current market value of the property and avoidance of the capital gains tax you would owe if you sold the property.

If the property’s value has depreciated, a sale of it followed by a gift of all or a portion of the sale proceeds may provide both a charitable contribution tax deduction and a capital loss deduction on your income tax return.

If you are not comfortable with giving up the full value of the real estate, a bargain sale to charity may be the answer. With a bargain sale you agree to sell the real estate to the charity for less than its current market value. The transaction is part charitable gift (the difference between the market value and the sale price) for which you may take an income tax deduction and part sale for which you realize capital gains only for the difference between your cost basis in the property and the actual sale price.

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, June 2, 2015

New Mission For New Era

By: Charles Barnes, Chair
Board of Directors


At the request of the Kentucky Baptist Foundation Board of Directors, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, at its 2013 convention, approved changing Kentucky Baptist Foundation’s purposes as defined in its Articles of Incorporation. The three main purposes now are as follows:

1) To serve as the development agency for cooperating affiliated KBC churches, but not limited to, promoting legacy gifts to and administering funds for such churches.

2) To promote legacy gifts for the benefit of the Cooperative Program.

3) To further develop religious, benevolent, charitable, educational, and missionary activities by serving, administering funds of, and promoting any institution, agency, association, or enterprise fostered by or having official sanction of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

The Foundation’s new president, Richard Carnes, assumed his leadership role on June 1, 2015. He will begin a new era of ministry focusing on the local church and the Cooperative Program. These two causes are vital to the future growth of Kingdom work among Baptists and around the world. The church is the foundation on which the KBC builds all its ministry. The Cooperative Program is the key source of support for this ministry and cannot be “taken for granted.”

In order to be effective, Richard will need the support and cooperation of all KBC church pastors. There are two major things that you can do. One, spend some time with Richard and learn how the Kentucky Baptist Foundation can best service your church. The opportunities will differ among churches. Together you can determine the most effective approach. Second, begin to identify members whose commitment to stewardship would benefit by knowing how the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, at no cost, could help them realize their Christian stewardship commitment through legacy giving in a good estate plan, and to introduce them to Richard or Laurie Valentine, KBF’s Trust Counsel (502.489.3533 or 866.489.3533, toll-free KY only).

On behalf of our Board of Directors, I want to thank all Kentucky Baptists who allow the Kentucky Baptist Foundation to serve them and further advance all of our Kingdom works. Pastors, please join with us in partnership in this new era of service.