Donor-advised funds
DAFs are the workhorse vehicle for most clients. Front-load deductions, give over time, and avoid the administrative burden of a private foundation.
Charitable giving strategies handled across donor-advised funds, charitable trusts, QCDs from IRAs, and the structure that actually fits your tax situation and your intent.
DAFs are the workhorse vehicle for most clients. Front-load deductions, give over time, and avoid the administrative burden of a private foundation.
Donating long-held appreciated stock instead of cash eliminates the capital gain and produces a deduction at fair market value. Significantly better tax math.
Once you're 70 1/2, Qualified Charitable Distributions move money directly from your IRA to a qualified charity, satisfying RMDs without the income hit.
Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT) and Charitable Lead Trusts (CLT) for the right situations, coordinated with your estate attorney.
We meet on a real cadence, usually quarterly. The plan flexes as your life and the tax code change. Most relationships span decades.
Offices in Boca Raton and Plantation, plus licensed in all 50 states. Existing clients keep us when they move.
The first job is figuring out the intent. Is the giving driven by tax exposure (a high-income year you want to offset), legacy (what gets left to causes you care about), ongoing values (consistent annual giving to organizations you support), or some combination? The right vehicle depends on the answer.
For most clients the answer is a donor-advised fund, possibly paired with QCDs in the IRA years. For some clients with highly appreciated assets or specific legacy goals, charitable trusts are the right structure. For a small group with private-foundation-level scale, that conversation goes a different direction.
Coordination matters. Charitable trusts are estate-attorney work; we coordinate, we don't draft. Donor-advised funds are typically set up through major sponsors (Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, etc.) where we've full visibility into the contributions and grants. Either way, we make sure the tax planning, the estate plan, and the actual giving line up.
Charitable strategy connects to several other areas of planning:
Charitable giving timing is one of the biggest year-end tax planning levers.
See tax planning →Charitable bequests, beneficiary designations, and trust structures fit inside the broader estate plan.
See estate planning →Charitable trusts are a specific category of trust we coordinate with your attorney.
See trust planning →Charitable strategy is most active in these moments:
"The donor-advised fund we set up the year I sold the business saved us a real amount in taxes and let's give to causes we care about over the next decade. Worth the planning fee many times over."
"Beth set up our QCDs once we hit the right age. Our charitable giving was already happening; the QCD just made it tax-free against the RMD. Should have done it earlier."
"We were considering a private foundation. Beth talked us through why a DAF would do almost everything we wanted with a fraction of the administrative load. We're glad we listened."
Posts our wealth advisors have put together on this topic.
A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable account you contribute to in a given tax year, taking the deduction immediately, and then grant out to qualified charities over time. The major DAF sponsors (Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, others) handle administration. DAFs work especially well for front-loading multiple years of giving into a single high-income year.
Almost always appreciated stock if you've held it more than a year. Donating long-held appreciated securities avoids the capital gain tax you would owe if you sold it, and you still get a fair-market-value deduction. Donating cash takes a perfectly good tax-efficient asset out of the picture.
A Qualified Charitable Distribution is a direct transfer from your IRA to a qualified charity. Available once you're 70 1/2, up to $105,000 per year (2024 limit, indexed annually). The distribution counts toward your required minimum distribution but isn't included in taxable income. For charitably inclined retirees, it's often the single most efficient way to give.
Probably not. Private foundations make sense for very large estates (typically tens of millions and above) where the family wants formal governance, employment for family members, and structured grant-making over generations. For most clients a donor-advised fund accomplishes the same charitable goals with much less administrative burden.
A CRT is an irrevocable trust that pays you (or someone you name) an income stream for life or for a term of years, with the remainder going to a charity at the end. You get an immediate partial charitable deduction, the trust can sell appreciated assets without immediate capital gains tax, and you get income for the term. Setup requires an estate attorney; we coordinate the planning and the funding.
The first meeting is a conversation, not a sales pitch. We'll talk about where you are, what you're working through, and whether Intercoastal is the right fit. In person in Boca Raton or Plantation, or by video from anywhere.