Remember the Crystal Cathedral

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO 

Even if you never have visited the site of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, you likely have an image of that ministry and its facilities. The 13-story majestic Tower of Hope, which was dedicated to God’s glory in 1968, now stands idle along with the thousands of dirty glass panes in the cathedral itself. This ministry is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. It is likely thousands of other churches and ministries will be in bankruptcy within the next decade or two.

There are numerous factors that will contribute to this, but among the most significant is the passing away of the older contributors who have been and continue to be the sustaining members of evangelical churches and ministries around the world.

 
Those who are coming behind them, children and grandchildren, have not demonstrated anything like the level of commitment to share and to support their churches and ministries. Some futurists have projected a 70 percent decline in giving over the next decade or two if giving trends do not change dramatically. One writer has described it as “a silent tsunami that has already broken—unnoticed and miles off the coast.” Regretfully, most churches and ministries are unprepared.

Did you know people over age 75 give four times as much of their income as 25 to 44 year olds, according to “The State of Church Giving Through 2009?” Each younger generation gives significantly less of its income to ministry. 

Although older members account for only 19 percent of the membership of churches in the USA, they give 46 percent of the donations, according to a Barna Survey. Can your church sustain a 46 percent drop in donations?

These older, more generous core members are the ones whose funerals are being held every day across this country. Collectively they will be passing 41 trillion dollars of wealth to their children, grandchildren, other heirs—and to the government in taxes. It is highly unlikely your church is receiving even a tithe of this largest generational transfer of wealth in history? Why? Because pastors and other church and denominational leaders are not allocating the resources necessary to educate, encourage and enable these faithful members to consider their church and other ministries in their estate plans.

The Kentucky Baptist Foundation exists for that very purpose. Please give us the privilege of assisting you and your church, and other ministries.

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.

Giving That Benefits Family & Charity

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel


Legacy giving not only offers a variety of ways to provide valuable support to charitable causes important to you, it can also help you solve personal financial challenges.

One such giving plan is a charitable remainder annuity trust (“CRAT”). A CRAT is an irrevocable trust that pays a fixed, never-changing income stream to the giver and/or others for life or a term of years and the remainder to one or more charities.

Your lifetime gift of cash, securities or real estate to a CRAT entitles you to a charitable income tax deduction equal to the present value of the charity’s remainder interest. And, a CRAT can provide beneficial ways to solve a variety of financial challenges such as:

Help with College Expenses: Your grandson will be heading to college in the fall and you want to provide him with funds for tuition and other expenses. A gift of $50,000 to a 10% five-year CRAT will provide your grandson $5,000 per year for 5 years (a total of $25,000) and entitle you to a charitable income tax deduction of $25,900. If the trust assets earn an average annual total return of 7.0% over the five year trust term there will be almost $42,000 left to distribute to the charitable causes you name in the trust agreement.

Financial Assistance to a Sibling: You have been providing $210 per month ($2,500 per year) to your 80-year-old brother for the past few years. While at age 78 you currently have no health problems, you want to make sure that support would continue for your brother no matter what your future circumstances. A gift of $50,000 to a two-life 5.0% CRAT allows you to set up a plan that would pay your brother $2,500 per year for the rest of his life and then that same amount would be paid to you for the rest of your life. Your gift to the CRAT entitles you to a charitable income tax deduction of approximately $21,750. And, this giving plan will provide a significant future gift to the charitable remainder beneficiaries.

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.

P P P P P Givers

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO 

I am one of those fortunate individuals whose parents began teaching me and holding me accountable at an early age about the importance and the role of financial stewardship in my relationship to Christ and to other human beings.

My late father’s favorite scripture was Malachi 3:10: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse … Test me … says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” He more than tithed out of his income and the profits from his business. My late mother tithed out of the allowance my father provided her to run the household. So, all of my life I have been a proportionate giver with the tithe as the floor, not the ceiling, of my giving. I like what the late R. G. Lee said to those who claimed tithing was an Old, not a New, Testament requirement. He said: “to give less under grace than we give under law is a disgrace.”

I was taught also to be a priority giver, which means to give “first” regardless of the proportion, then save and spend. Too many Christians spend first, and too often there’s nothing left to give or to save. The Apostle Paul advises in 1 Corinthians 16:2 to set aside on the “first day of the week” a proportionate sum to give.

To be a progressing giver was another part of my parents’ teaching. That meant to be ever growing the proportion of my giving. The example of Zaccheus in Luke 19:8, who gave one-half of his possessions, is not out of the question for many.

And, I was taught to be a pleasurable giver, not reluctantly or under compulsion, “…for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).

Finally, I have been taught to be a perpetual giver, leaving a lasting legacy beyond my lifetime to advance Christ’s kingdom (Proverbs 3:9; Hebrews 11:4).

Over the years I have proven both the reasons and the promises the Lord has made to His people about giving; I urge you to do the same thing. Let us know how we can help.

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.

12 Things To Do In 2013-Is Your Estate Distribution Plan "Coordinated"?

12 Things to do in 2013- #7 -Laurie Valentine

Of the 40% of Americans who actually have a written plan for how they want their assets to pass at their death, only 30% of those plans are up-to-date. And, I would suspect, some of the “up-to-date” plans are no longer completely “coordinated”.

A “coordinated” estate plan is one that coordinates the provisions in your “written plan” for who is to inherit what when you die (your Will or Will and Revocable Living Trust) with how your assets are titled and who are named as beneficiaries of life insurance policies, IRA’s and other contractual death benefits.

Here’s an example of what can happen if you don’t have a “coordinated” plan: Your Will sets up a trust fund for your son to be held until he is 26 and your IRA beneficiary designation directs your son’s share of the IRA be added to the trust created under your Will. However, the beneficiary designation for your life insurance policy names your son as the outright beneficiary. At your death, assuming your son is under age 26, your probate assets and your IRA will be held in the trust for your son, but the life insurance will be paid outright to him. If your intention was for your son to not have complete ownership and control of anything he inherits from you until he is 26, your “uncoordinated” plan defeats your objective.

To assure you have (and keep) a “coordinated” estate plan, check asset titling and all beneficiary designations when you make a Will or Revocable Living Trust or make changes to those documents.

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.

Stubborn and Stuck

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

Charitable giving from all sources in America in 2012, the latest records available from “Giving USA” was $316 billion. That represented a 3.5 percent increase over 2011. Giving by individuals was $229 billion, a 3.9 percent increase, and represented 72 percent of all giving. As usual, religious organizations received the largest proportion of giving at 32 percent. Educational organizations received the next largest proportion at 13 percent. The $229 billion given by individuals was the second highest in history. The $233 billion given in 2007 was the all-time high.

What is really astounding and disappointing is we Americans are giving about the same proportion of our disposable incomes as we were 40 years ago. In fact, we are giving less proportionately. In 1972 the proportion was 2.2 percent; in 2012 it was 1.9 percent. Despite the significant growth in disposable personal income over the past 40 years and the growth in the intensity of appeals for funds from the ever growing number of charitable causes, we have been stubborn and decided not to give a larger share of our incomes. Instead, on average we continue to be stuck at about 2 percent and continue to give ourselves and our families top priority in the use of more than 98 percent.

I was struck by what one charitable giving consultant observed about this 2 percent phenomenon. He stated he was convinced the key factor in driving increased giving for most people was to teach them “when” to give. He cited two reasons. First, the habit of most is to give out of what is left after all the bills are paid instead of giving first before the bills are paid. Second, in the Christian tradition those who have been taught to give the “first fruits” tend to give more proportionately than those who are simple told to give because it’s their Christian duty.

The solution for being stubborn and stuck in our charitable giving is related directly to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. And the Holy Scriptures are filled with truths about giving. I strongly urge you to be more intentional in your study and application of those truths, including the advice of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:2 to set aside on the first day of the week a proportionate sum to give.

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.

12 Things To Do in 2013- Estate Planning For Supporting Children and Charity

12 Things to do in 2013- #6 -Barry Allen

Estate planning option for supporting children and charity

Some parents may prefer to provide an income distribution versus an outright distribution from their estates to their heirs. In some cases, the savings generation parents may be concerned their spending generation children will "go through" the parents' life time savings too quickly. An option to consider to protect what took a lifetime to accumulate but provide for children and the charities near and dear to their hearts is a Charitable Remainder Trust.
For information contact Laurie Valentine or me.

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.

Inheritance: What Kind Are You Bequeathing?

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

The matter of inheritance is exceedingly important and a crucial concern in the dynamics of family life today. Parents consider at length what kind of inheritance they want to pass on to their children. And, children, in turn, when they attain a certain age, ponder what they are going to inherit from their parents. The familiar and favorite parable of the wise father and the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24) is the finest example I know of the kind of inheritance I would like to give as a parent and receive as a son.

To clarify what this parable teaches us two common misconceptions must be addressed and set aside. The first is an inheritance is something parents leave their children after they have died. However, if you think about it, this is far too limited a concept because parents begin bequeathing an inheritance to their children the moment the child is born in the sense of passing on certain life experiences and values that surely will shape that child’s existence. So, the request of the prodigal was not as brash as it first appeared. Like any young adult leaving home he gathered up whatever inheritance had been shared with him and began transacting with life out of that legacy. As parents it is imperative we not wait until the end of life to consider what kind of inheritance we want to leave.

The second misconception is an inheritance consists only of money or physical property, which also is a far too restricted view, because an inheritance stands for all parents transfer to their children in terms of opportunities, values and a whole vision of life. This is not to imply the economic side is unimportant, because it is very important. But it is not everything, and a child is poor indeed whose parents do not realize this and seek to bequeath only a monetary estate. A child needs more from parents than money bequeathed at death, and this is why the father of the prodigal is so worthy of our attention. And, what makes it doubly important is this father is a reflection of our Father in Heaven.

So, remember, it’s more important what you leave in them that what you leave to them. “Instill your values…before you give them your valuables.” 

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.