Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Stewardship Truths #2

A 12 part series discussing stewardship.

By: Barry G. Allen


Shift your priorities to let God, not money or anything else, be first in your life, so God can work in your life.

Matthew 6:33 “…seek first the kingly rule of God in your life….” 

This is the most intimidating passage in the Bible to me, because there is this sense if we do not seek Him first, we do not seek Him at all.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.”

Mark 10:17-22, records Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler, who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life? Jesus prescribed the solution to his materialism, which was to go and to sell all of his possessions and give them to the poor, and then have treasure in heaven. The young man chose to remain in his misery and to reject Jesus’ solution, and I wonder how many of us here this morning are doing the same thing?

2 Corinthians 8:1 – 9, records the unbelievable generosity of the Macedonian christians, who gave out of their poverty, in fact, they begged to give – but the Apostle Paul pointed out in verse 5 “and they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord…”

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Provide Support for Designated Time Period

By: Laurie Valentine-COO & Trust Counsel

Is your church in a capital campaign? Or, would you like to fund your annual giving for missions, childcare ministries or other charitable causes for the next few years in a new and creative way?

If you answered “yes” to either question and you want to coordinate your charitable giving with a tax-saving way to transfer assets to your family, a charitable lead annuity trust is a giving vehicle to consider.

A charitable lead annuity trust (“CLAT”) is a giving plan that provides a fixed income stream to one or more charitable causes for a designated period of years. At the end of the trust term the trust remainder can either be returned to you (this is a “grantor lead trust”) or be distributed to your children and/or other family members (a “non-grantor lead trust”).

While a gift to a “non-grantor” CLAT does not entitle you to a charitable income tax deduction, it does provide a way to pass assets to your children or others at reduced gift and estate tax cost. Gift tax savings come from the fact the tax value of the future gift to your family is the present value of the remainder interest in the trust, not the full value of what you place in the trust. With careful coordination of the fixed amount being paid to the charitable beneficiaries and the trust term you can reduce the present value of the remainder gift to family significantly. Estate tax savings result from the removal of the asset, any subsequent appreciation and the future income it generates from your estate.

Example: Sam and Betty Smith set up a 5-year 8% CLAT funded with $50,000 of stock. The $4,000 per year income stream (8% x $50,000 gifted to the trust) will be distributed to the Smiths’ church to fund their capital campaign pledge. Over the 5-year term their church will receive a total of $20,000. Assuming the trust assets earn an average annual return of 6.7%, there will be almost $44,000 left to pass to their children at the end of the 5 years and, if the gift tax value of the future gift to their children is only $31,150, $12,850 of that value passes tax-free to the children.

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 18, 2014

Young Couples, Stop Procrastinating!

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

The services of the KBF are not just for older adults. They are available to adults of all ages and circumstances. Unfortunately we find so many young couples, and especially those with minor children, have not executed any estate and incapacity planning documents. Oftentimes they simply have not considered the extreme risks to which they are exposing themselves and their minor children.

Among the young couples who have called upon the KBF for assistance was a couple with two minor children. Furthermore, they owned some real estate in Kentucky and in another state. They did not have any estate planning documents.

The husband had saved a bookmark he had received at the Christian Estate Planning Basics seminar Laurie Valentine, our trust counsel, and I had conducted in their church some time ago. The KBF’s toll free telephone number was on the bookmark. He contacted me, and I arranged a private consultation session for him and his wife with Laurie. There was no cost to them for this service because it is subsidized by the collective giving of Kentucky Baptist churches through the Cooperative Program. Laurie was able to answer their questions, make suggestions helpful in accomplishing their objectives, identify the estate and incapacity planning documents they needed and refer them to an estate planning attorney to represent them and produce the legal documents for them.

This couple’s testimony was “Laurie is very good at listening and making suggestions about what is needed and makes it easier to get an estate planning attorney to prepare the needed documents to carry out the plan. It was a pleasant, painless experience, and we highly recommend young and older adults to stop procrastinating in their planning and let the Foundation assist them. We now have peace of mind knowing a plan is in place to care for our children should we die or become incapacitated before they are adults.”

If you are a young adult, single or married, and have not executed a will and other important documents, please call Laurie toll free for assistance. If you are a parent, grandparent or friend of a single young adult or couple without these legal documents, encourage them to procrastinate no longer, and call Laurie.

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 13, 2014

Twelve Steps For Christian Estate Planning- Step 2

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

A Christian estate plan is one you develop by determining how God wants you to: (1) provide for your family and other “dependents” at your death and (2) have your finances managed and decisions made for you if you became incapacitated and no longer able to do those things for yourself.

Step #2 Make a Written Plan. Christian estate planning is about stewardship---making decisions and putting in place documents that most effectively and efficiently accomplish God’s plans for your possessions.

When it comes to planning for passing assets at death, good estate stewardship requires that you put in place a written plan---a Will or Will and Revocable Living Trust. If you have not made a Will, state law determines how your individually-owned assets will pass at your death. The state’s “Will” may direct distribution of your assets in a way that doesn’t meet your family’s needs or to persons with whom you would not want to share your estate. And, all distributions under the state’s plan will be outright to the designated beneficiaries---no matter their age and/or capacity to manage what is coming to them. Also, using the state’s “Will”, rather than writing your own, may result in more cost to administer and pass your assets at your death; thereby leaving less for your family.

Planning for possible future incapacity requires giving those you want to act for you written authorization to do that. Powers of Attorney and Health Care Advanced Directives are the “written plans” you can use to accomplish that part of your planning.

Next Month-Step #3 Coordinate Your Plan. 
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 4, 2014

Time, Talents and Treasures

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

The remarkable story of the KBF comes to life not in its impressive financial statements, but through the men and women who trusted the KBF and committed to it for administration all or a portion of the resources God entrusted to them for the benefit of their families and the Kingdom causes near and dear to their hearts. It’s a story of Christian stewardship that linked these men and women together with the KBF in a sacred trust.

Among those men and women is a couple with two adult children who wanted to use appreciated assets to honor the Lord with a legacy gift for the benefit of their church as well as assist their adult children in financing the cost of their graduate studies.

With the assistance of our trust counsel, Laurie Valentine, this couple established an endowment fund with the KBF that will provide perpetual financial support in perpetuity for their church. In addition, they established a short-term charitable remainder trust with the KBF as trustee that provided financial assistance to their two children to complete their graduate studies, and following their graduation, the remainder of the trust assets was added to the endowment fund they established for the church.

As a way to maximize the timing of the tax advantages of donating appreciated assets, this couple utilizes a donor advised fund with the KBF from which they make distributions periodically to the charitable causes that are near and dear to their hearts.

Here’s how they described their involvement with the KBF staff: “we were raised in Christian families that taught us the stewardship of time, talents and treasures was what God expected. When God blessed us with a financial benefit, we turned to the KBF because we were aware of its faith-based mission, its staff, which was competent, open, honest and with a proven reputation. They presented us with ways to provide for our children’s education, to help our church in a perpetual way and to benefit other charitable organizations. We have been able to generate larger than expected gifts because of the tax benefits derived from the gift ideas suggested by the KBF staff, who were knowledgeable professionals and able to explain clearly the different giving options.”

Please give us the privilege of assisting you in stewarding out of the “treasures” the Lord has entrusted to you.

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.