By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper
MIAMI | Sometimes, you just need good advice. Especially when you’re the one advising others on complicated matters related to wills, trusts and estates.
To help those professionals — and ultimately the people they advise — the archdiocesan Development Corporation and its Planned Giving Advisory Council will host a “Legacy Planning Summit: Strategies for Professionals,” on Tuesday, May 2, from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at St. Thomas University.
Presented by MBAF, a local group of certified public accountants and advisors, this is the first such “legacy planning” event hosted by the archdiocese. The keynote speaker will be Samuel A. Donaldson of Georgia State University’s College of Law.
The seminar is aimed at attorneys, certified public accountants, investment consultants, financial advisors, wealth managers, insurance agents, certified financial planners and fundraising executives — and not just Catholic ones.
“Planned giving is more than just wills,” explained Karey Bosack Greenstein, senior director of planned giving for the archdiocese and executive director of the Catholic Community Foundation.
Although most of the gifts the archdiocese receives do come in the form of bequests, she said, “there’s a lot of different vehicles” for giving, such as IRAs, life insurance policies, trusts and annuities.
Many Catholics are not aware of all those possibilities, but neither are potential donors and financial professionals who are not Catholic.
“People who aren’t Catholic may think the Catholic Church is just a place of worship. And it’s so much more. We do so many wonderful things things in our community,” said Bosack Greenstein.
She cited services to the disabled, child care facilities and homeless shelters, medical care for the uninsured and legal help for immigrants. That’s in addition to schools, parishes and groups, such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, that help the poor. Someone who is not Catholic but interested in leaving a bequest to a particular cause might ask for suggestions from a financial professional.
The members of the Planned Giving Advisory Council suggested the seminar as a way of raising awareness throughout the professional community, Catholic and non-Catholic, about the Archdiocese of Miami “and all its good works,” Bosack Greenstein said.
She is hoping for a turnout of between 100 and 150 professionals representing the various disciplines involved in financial and estate planning. And she hopes to make it an annual event.
“It’s rare that you have a cross-discipline event, so it’s nice from a networking aspect to have this,” she said. She noted that the information conveyed will not be “super, super basic. It’s intermediate.”
The Planned Giving Advisory Council consists of 14 local Catholics, all professionals in various planned giving disciplines. It was created three years ago to help Bosack Greenstein create planned giving materials for parishes and present them to priests and parishioners. Bosack Greenstein and her boss, Katie Blanco, president of the archdiocesan Development Corporation, also serve on the council.
“The parishes were coming to us, saying we want help. Can you help educate our parishioners about estate planning and end-of-life planning?” Bosack Greenstein said.
Council members review all the materials prepared by the archdiocese for accuracy and clarity. They also make sure that parishes are giving out the right information to parishioners, and referring them to competent professionals.
“If the (pastors) want to adopt a planned giving program, I’ve created one and I can guide them through it for free,” Bosack Greenstein said. “In a way, we’re like a fundraising consulting firm that (parishes) can hire for free. The more you educate, the more vibrant your parish is, the more likely than not people will leave a planned giving gift to the parish or school.”
The Catholic Community Foundation is one of those vehicles for giving to the archdiocese. It currently has about 140 participants and a portfolio worth around $190 million. Parishes, schools, ministries and entities park their endowments there and are free to withdraw a percentage of the interest or dividend income for current operations.
“It’s a true endowment,” Bosack Greenstein said. “The principal can never be invaded, so that money is there forever.”
Of course, planned giving is not like a capital campaign whose results are evident in a few years. It might take decades to see whether these efforts at “getting the word out” are successful, not just among Catholics but among financial professionals.
But that’s her job, she said. “We plant the seed, and it’s kind of amazing what happens down the road.”
